Blue/Hipo Tangs

[MikeL152123]

I have owned 2 hipo tangs and failed to keep both of them. They both started of alright, hiding most of the time, but eventualy things took a turn for the worst and i lost them both to ich. Does anyone have any advice to keeping these fish healthy and happy? I would like to buy a couple more and give it another try.

 

[yoboyjdizz]

What size tank? What other fish do you have? How is your water quality and how long has it been up and running? After that be able to give you more info on what might be going wrong.

 

[MikeL152123]

I have a 55 gallon tank, plan on upgrading to 180 by xmas. Yellow tang, lawnmower gobby, 4stripe damsel, and a Purcupine Puffer (I did not have hime when i had my hipos) I havent had my water tested recently but i know my pH is good and my fish are colorful, very active and eating normaly.

 

[yoboyjdizz]

I would test your water and what is good? An exact ph would be helpfull.. It could be stress from the Yellow tang espically in a 55g.. That tank is too small for a hippo tang. The smaller the tank the more aggresive the Yellow tang will be to new fish introduce. You may not see it but when your away thats when it could be happining.. Depending how big your 4stripe damsels could be it as well they get aggresive as the age as well. I would wait until your have the 180 up and running until your try again. Hippos are some what delicate to beging with. Very skidish fish.

 

[MikeL152123]

Alright, thanx for your advice.

 

[yoboyjdizz]

No problem i just wish i found RC when i first started out tons of info and great people how i learned so much and from all the mistakes i did during my first year...

 

[dougie]

make sure your water quality is high, and maybe try UV to help prevent ich. i wouldnt be adding more tangs until your 180g is setup.

 

[wds21921]

I still dont' know why but Hippos and Powder Blues are notorius for being susceptible to or having ich.

It's been common for many many years.

 

[flameangel88]

I started keeping tangs in June and I can say Naso and Hippo are susceptible to ich. Yel Tang is agressive and doesn't hesitate to use its scalpel against other tang.

The YT and Hippo came down with ich (the Hippo was more noticable) and I started using Stop Parasite (claims to be reef-safe) on Monday and both tangs looks pretty good right and I just finished the required 5 days dosing. It also claim this can be used as maintenance by dosing twice per week to prevent ich. So far all the inverts, shrooms, polyp rocks are doing well. If it stays that way I may try the maintanence route when I upgrade to 220g next year and I'll definately add more tangs.

Another thing I've read is to soak their food in Selcon and Vita-chem and feed a lot of nori. That's what I been doing this week and I'm going through 1 large sheet of nori every other day and their belly is poping out.

 

[boostd2valve]

I would at least try to soak there food in garlic, also ive heard about the UV light..Im working on getting one of those real soon so i will let you know what happens..My powder blue and hippo, seem to get it, then it goes away..they always eat like pigs though and seem very active..

 

[thor32766]

make sure feed them zoe to!

 

[edwing206]

cleaner shrimp man

 

[bosborn1]

I have a YT and a hippo in my reef. The YT wouldn't dream of attacking the hippo as its almost twice its size. The YT seems to be happy fighting with my orange shoulder tang all day. I have never had a problem with my hippo. I one nearly killed it in a rock slide. After that it came down with ich but very quickly it. IME the hippo is a very hardy fish.

Scott

 

[bureau13]

Ich is in your tank, or on the fish when you bring them in (and if they were on your fish, then they're now in your tank unless you've kept it fishless for six weeks or so). These fish may be susceptible to ich problems, but ich is a parasite, the fish can't get it if its not there.

You know where this is going right?

New fish need to go in quarantine where they need to be treated preventatively. Since you've already apparently introduced it into your display tank, you need to get the fish out of there and into quarantine (where you can treat them) and leave the display fishless for six weeks.

I'm a convert from the no-quarantine gamblers club myself. I imported a nasty case of marine velvet, and lost most of my fish. Now, I preach quarantine tanks like everyone else who has had a major problem and been forced to learn this lesson the hard way.

jds