blue hippo tangsick

[newreef06]

I have a small blue hippo tang. He has white spots on him. I was told it was ick. My LFS said to feed it garlic. I have hes been eating really good. His eyes are not cloudy. Also hes no gasping for air. Should I leave him in the tank. Or set up a hospital tank. I dont want my other fish getting ick. Please let me know

 

[ThePhytoMan]

How large is your tank?

 

[Grins]

Currently dealing with ich and read much about it. Lots of differing opinions out there but after sorting information available I chose to let my tank go fallow and are treating ALL my fish in a hospital tank with Coppersafe. I caught it very early I believe and although the tang never showed any symptons other than the white spots on his pectoral fins at first, the cysts did get worst not long after going into the hospital tank. He is luckily doing better and has continued to eat well but I'm learning patience with this hobby and will keep the tank fallow for 4 + more weeks.

 

[scarter]

IME if the tank is stable and the fish are feeding well, most fish can fight off a bout of ich with no intervention. it is slightly different then fresh water.

 

[chris31]

feed the fish garlic i never herd of that but in my opinion i would tank him out and set up a hospital tank

 

[Grins]

Chris, one of my LFS guys tried to sell me a UV Sterilizer to run 24/7 and to feed garlic as the cure. When I asked about the UV Sterilizer removing good bacteria as well he said that wasn't true. Thats when I said thanks and went the Coppersafe route instead.

 

[Lotus99]

Whatever you do, definitely don't put a copper treatment in your display tank, it will kill your rock.

This is a really nice article on ich and how to treat it: http://www.plantgeek.net/plant-150.htm

 

[uscharalph]

My 2 cleaner shrimp help me battle diseases.

 

[chris31]

yea dont put copper in your tank like lotus said that will give you more problems then you already have but my feeling is if there is a little problem and you can avoid it turing into a bigger problem then do it because anything that can go wrong will go wrong. what ever you decide to do i hope everything works out for you

 

[tdchicago]

stick with the garlic, good nutrition and feeding will get rid of the ich. Worked for me, and less stress than trying to move him.

Garlic at every feeding, wait a week, see if he is better.

 

[Dubbin1]

There was a study that showed that garlic was not proven in fighting ich (I'll look for the article). The best way to treat it is with hypo and letting the tank sit fallow for 6 weeks or so. Copper can be hard on the fish.

 

[Andrew]

Here's the link to the Reef Keeping garlic article:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/sp/index.php

 

[kevin2000]

Heres a link to the ich sticky posts on the disease forum

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=282934

The problem with ich is that each individual ich can generate 100's more within a 30 day period. Your goal is to remove all ich .. that means on the fish, within the water column and within the substrate, lr, tank walls etc.

If one fish has ich .. then that tanks is infected and you now need to treat all fish .. whether they are showing signs of ich or not. You should setup a QT and treat with either hypo salinity or copper. The only effective method for treating the tank itself is to leave it without fish for about 5 weeks (ich require fish to perpetuate their life cycle).

None of the many "reef safe" medications are consistently effective in treating ich ... many would argue they are a waste of money. Further cleaner wrasses, cleaner shrimp, garlic and even std UV devices are not considered effective at eradicating ich.

In the future ... qt all fish before introducing them to your show tank .. qting one fish is a no brainer .. having to catch/ qt/ treat all of your fish and leave your ST fallow for 5 weeks is a PIA.

 

[Tony44]

I had a blue tang, and a kole tang that had ich. I took them out of the DT, put them in QT, and over the course of 2 weeks, dropped the salinity to 1.009. The ich went away, but now the fish had this black thing all over them, I think it was a fungus of some sort. The Kole tang ended up dieing. At this point, the blue tang looked horrible, was barely swimming and looked like she was about to die. At this time, I heard of a freshwater dip, I did this for 4-5 days, right after the dip she looked horrible, but 10 minutes later she looked like her old self, the FW seemed to be helping alot.

Over the next few days, I raised to salinity back up the normal amount, and treated the tank with copper. A few days went by, and she looked better than she did the day I bought her.

This is my experience, and in my experience hyposalinity did not do much at all for me, FW dips and copper, both worked extremely well for me.

 

[GoingPostal]

Tony44, it's my understanding for hypo to work you lower the salinity very quickly to not allow the ich to adjust, like a couple days, not weeks. All the garlic, freshwater dips stuff may help slightly but are not going to kill the ich, only hypo or copper will do that.

 

[Tony44]

Well thanks for telling me that, I dont remember for sure who it was, but I think the LFS (surprise surprise) told me to do it over about 10-14 days.

I know that the hypo, or copper is the only thing that will completely kill the ich, but the FW dip definitely helped. My bluetang was on the verge of dying, right when I gave her a dip, she seemed worse, and stressed out 5 minutes afterwards, but 10 minutes later she was doing great, and got better by the day. Also, I didnt mention this before, but I do soak my food in garlic, many say it doesnt do much, but I do it everyday, and none of my fish have gotten ich since I have been doing that, my fish include three tangs.

 

[wooden_reefer]

Re: blue hippo tangsick

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10287259#post10287259 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by newreef06
I have a small blue hippo tang. He has white spots on him. I was told it was ick. My LFS said to feed it garlic. I have hes been eating really good. His eyes are not cloudy. Also hes no gasping for air. Should I leave him in the tank. Or set up a hospital tank. I dont want my other fish getting ick. Please let me know

Your other fish are likely already sick with ich. Ich is systemic.

 

[wooden_reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10288859#post10288859 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Grins
Chris, one of my LFS guys tried to sell me a UV Sterilizer to run 24/7 and to feed garlic as the cure. When I asked about the UV Sterilizer removing good bacteria as well he said that wasn't true. Thats when I said thanks and went the Coppersafe route instead.

UV at the usual size is not useful against ich.

At any one time almost all the good bacteria are not waterborne so UV does not harm them. A minute number of them are waterborne and this accounts for their use as seeds in cultivating biological filter.

 

[wooden_reefer]

What do you use for biological filter medium?

If you can partition a portion of cycled biological filter medium, you can use a portion for fish quarantine. Use hypo in the QT to start. Gradual decrease in salinity of course.

 

[wooden_reefer]

sorry wrong thread