Black spots on Yellow Tang

mikersx02

New member
Afternoon guys-

I am noticing tiny little black dots appearing on the yellow tang. The rest of the fish dont have it.

I looked online and it looks like "black spot disease" or black ick.

I went to the store and got some garlic additive, any other recommendations?
 
Yes, it is black Ich by the sounds of it (a pic would confirm), but treat like regular Ich; QT fish and treat with copper and leave main tank fallow for 6-8 weeks if you can. Do NOT treat your main tank with ANY chemicals, always use the QT for that. I know it stinks, but Ich feeds off of fish and as long as there are fish in the tank then you'll have Ich. It usually doesn't come out until the fish is stressed, but it can show once it gets bad.
 
i started to get a QT tank put together tonight- Bought new heater- got a 10 gallon from my dad that he wasnt using and a mini penquin filter from him. Filter impeller isnt working for some reason- couldnt fix it. I have to go to the store tomorrow to get a new one.
 
Sounds good. Remember, no LR, Dead Rock or anything porous in the tank and use low lighting as well. the fish will be fine. Keep us posted as to how things are going and good luck.
 
im on dr foster and smith right now ordering a steralizer and submersible heaters. I have jagar eheim heaters that I bought tonight- but they arent fully submersible.

I cleaned out that old 10 gallon- I found a mummified fish of some kind in the pile of salt in the bottom of that tank. Apparently dad turned it off one day and let the water evaporate out of it. Pretty sick.

Fish is still doing ok- Hopefully he will make it another day or two so i can get him out of there. I may have to buy the emperor 100 filter locally- thats the only thing I need to get the hospital/qt tank up and running.

whats your opinion on the visitherm stealth heaters vs the jagar heaters. I have all jagar right now that i bought tonight for this project, but i think i may return them and order the stealths.
 
I have 4 visitherms (2 as a backup) and they work great. I've got no complaints about them whatsoever.

As far as Ich treatment, if you're looking for a chemical, you can use Sea Chem or any other copper based medicine. Remember, you can also go the Hyposalinity route too and that has worked for many people as well. Try not to use copper and Hypo, because the PH will drop quickly and the fish may die.
 
thanks for that tip. Im going to try out some copper based ich treatment that I picked up today.

Another tale from the LFS:
"Yes you can use this ich stuff in your tank- it wont hurt the snails or hermits. "

me- "but what about the copper rule-- 'never use copper in your main tank with inverts' "

LFS- "this is tri-clea copper- it wont hurt the snails or hermits"

I think i will side with my own judgement on that one- save that medicine for the QT.

Heaters, steralizers, power heads, nitrex box, filter and other goodies inbound on overnight express.
 
Water quality stats- just did the test

amonia- 0
nitrite- 0 - 0.05 (in between- closer to 0)
Nitrate- 7
ph- 8.2

temp has been increased from 77 to 80 degrees. You want to increase the temp on the main tank during outbreaks right?
 
You could, but if there are no other fish in there, I wouldn't worry too much about the temp. Just keep it the same as always. There are some that say if the tank is fallow of fish AND inverts, then you can raise the temp to 90-93 and 'burn out' and disease, but I don't know if that works or not.

Good advice from LFS huh? LOL it amazes my how much people just want to sell you something. I would not put anything in your main tank unless the bottle says it's reef and invert safe and then I would only do it if several forums have posted good things about it. I used Kick Ich in my main tank and didn't see any results in the 2 weeks that I used it. But I have used Chemi-Clean for a Cyano problem that I am having and I have noticed after 3 treatments that the water is crystal clear and my cyano isn't growing as fast. So some work and some dont I guess, but good judgement anywho on that LFS.

Your water levels seem ok, Nitrate is a little high, but not aweful.

If you wanted to, you could get some cleaner shrimp (skunk shrimp) and throw them in the main tank. They will eat any parasites and other nasties in the water that may infect the fish. You can suppliment their feeding with Krill twice a week and cyclopeeze every other day.
 
i just got the hospital tank up and running. I sucked 10 gallons out of the main tank and got the new penguin 100 filter up and running with a heater. I put a thermometer and the amonia alert thing in the hospital tank.

Temp is at 80 or 81 the QT tank. I tore down my aquascape and caught him as quick as possible. He was pretty quick. I dumped him in the tank and put 10 drops of the "organi-cure" ick treatment.

I moved his seaweed clip (spinach included... he loves that stuff) and droped about 6 pellets of food in there.

The tank is under the main fish tank and its very low light conditions in there. Is that ok? He has already turned to his night colors- his breathing has slowed down and he doesnt seem to be stressing the hospital tank. Will he be ok for the next few weeks with that little light?

What ELSE could I possibly do to help him be more comfortable in there?

Thanks for the help guys- I really appreciate it.

It also looks like the majority of his spots fell off already.
 
Be sure to keep the water quality as high up there as you can. Minimal feedings and the low lighting won't hurt him.

Just remember that anything you put in the QT tank CAN'T go back in the main tank b/c it will be infected with copper (if using a copper based medicine). For this reason, I try to have 2 of everything, one for QT land and 1 for my main tank.

You can try putting some big pieces of PVC piping in there from Lowes or Home Depot, but just enough to give him a place to hide and feel comfortable.
 
will do- should I expect him not to eat much in the QT tank? How long should I keep him down there?

Also- my turbo twister steralizer should be on my front porch tomorrow. Should I hook this up in-line with my eheim ecco canister? Is that flow too fast?

I guess once I steralize the tank- I could toss the tang back in if he doesnt have any more spots on him.
 
6-8 weeks in QT land is recommended. This will rid the main tank of any parasites IF the tank is fallow during that time. He will be fine in QT land so long as you monitor the levels closely and do proper WC's. As far as eating goes, he may not eat at first, but his appetite should come back within a week or so after he adjusts to the new tank.
 
him eating concerns me because he is a newby to my tank- had him for only 1 week. He was starved when I got him- but was plumping up SOME while swimming in my tank eating spinach and other stuff.

Is amonia the first thing to go sour in that qt tank?
 
Also- black ick seems to be a disease of the yellow tangs or tangs in general.

Is it even possible to fit all of my fish in a 10 gal?

3 damsels
2 percs
1 lawnmower blenny
1 fishers angel
1 yellow tang

or would I be better off removing just the fish (yellow tang) that is capable of getting this disease and putting that steralizer on that tank and hoping for the best?
 
If you can afford to, get a QT tank that would house all those fish and leave your tank fallow for 6-8 weeks. If not, just keep a good eye on your other fish and the first sign of the disease, pull them out.

You can still feed your tang the spinach, just don't let it stay in the tank b/c food that breaks down in the tank will create high levels.
 
my goodies came from drssmithfoster today.

I also had some anti fungal and anti bacterial stuff ordered as well.

The tang wont need any of this will he? Just dose with copper every 2 days after the water change?


I have a percula clown that has a little damage on one of his fins and it has a little cotton puff on the end of it. Hes had it for the past month- hasnt grown any- and hasnt went away any-

He will go in QT after the tang is done.
 
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