My yellow tang has black ich on it. About 1 month ago, he started to get a little HLLE and after doing some research I found an article on RC saying that carbon used too much or not changed enough can put out dust which can cause this on tangs. So, I removed the carbon, started to add Selcon to all his food and he started to get better and about a week ago, I noticed the black specks. THey look like black grains of salt. I added Prazipro 3 days ago using the directed amount. I did a 30% water change last night and I added the same directed amount of Prazipro. There doesn't appear to be any change to the amount on his body. I can't get him out due to the live rock and I have a lot of sps. All parimeters are good. Salinity 1.024, Ammonia 0, trates and trites are 0. Mag 1300, DKH 9, Calcium 480, tested with Elos test kits. PH probe on my Reef keeper lite says 8.13. I dose magnesium and strontium every 3 days. I use Kalk in my top off water. Please help. By the way he is eating great and I only have a tank raised Ocellaris Clown in there and he shows no visible sign of infection. I feed 3 times a day with different types of food which are soaked in Selcon and garlic extract and they are: Mysis shrimp, Fish and reef #2 fozen, green algae strips, a mixture brine shrimp/blue algae, and New life spectrum pellets. My sps looks so so, the polyps aren't out fully but they are doing okay. I have a derasa clam that is fully open so they don't look like the PP is affecting them. I stopped skimming per instructions. I do have the filter sock still on the system and I switch it to a new one every 3 days anyway. Sorry for the long email.
Help!!! Black Ich on Yellow Tang
- Thread starter bdroddy
- Start date
Black ick can not be treated by prazi. Im guessing he is in quarantine and not still in ur main tank? If he isn't in quarantine move him into one. You have two choices to curing this.
You can 1) do fresh water formalin dips every day or every other day. With this you will have to get the fresh water to the right Ph and add formalin right before you dip him. Keep him in the bath for 5 minutes if you can but if he starts to lay down or struggle get him out. If he can go for more than 5 minutes thats great! I would also suggest cleaning out your tank everytime you dip him because some of the black ick might have fallen off. When I cured my powder brown tang from this I did a scrub down of the tank with vinegar to kill any excess bacteria.
Your second option is to do hypo. I havn't done this but i heard it works.
This can be a pain to get rid of and I hope he turn out good and healthy.
-Matt
You can 1) do fresh water formalin dips every day or every other day. With this you will have to get the fresh water to the right Ph and add formalin right before you dip him. Keep him in the bath for 5 minutes if you can but if he starts to lay down or struggle get him out. If he can go for more than 5 minutes thats great! I would also suggest cleaning out your tank everytime you dip him because some of the black ick might have fallen off. When I cured my powder brown tang from this I did a scrub down of the tank with vinegar to kill any excess bacteria.
Your second option is to do hypo. I havn't done this but i heard it works.
This can be a pain to get rid of and I hope he turn out good and healthy.
-Matt
Matt, thanks for the quick reply, but I don't have a way to get him out unless I tear up the tank. I used Prazipro because it treats Turbellarians which is what I believe black is.
I plan on treating my DT for another 5 days, do another 30% water change. Retreat and let it run for another 7 days. After that, if they don't look like it has been treated, then I'll tear down the tank to treat him in a qt. What i've read is that you really have to keep fish out of the tank for at least a couple months for the Turbellarians to die off. I was hoping that treating with Prazipro in the DT will kill them off for good.
I plan on treating my DT for another 5 days, do another 30% water change. Retreat and let it run for another 7 days. After that, if they don't look like it has been treated, then I'll tear down the tank to treat him in a qt. What i've read is that you really have to keep fish out of the tank for at least a couple months for the Turbellarians to die off. I was hoping that treating with Prazipro in the DT will kill them off for good.
Okay, after being p'issed off for a few days now, I decided to go get a 20 gallon tank from my lfs and I am going to set up the qt in the morning. I've already had a biowheel soaking in the refugium for well over a month so it ought to be seeded with bacteria. Tomorrow, while my son is asleep, I am going to tear down all the rock and try to get him out of their. I am going to get a big bowl and put my derasa clam in that while all that substrate is clouding the water. Wish me luck.
I am going to start skimming and carbon dosing the tank to get it back into good condition for my corals, and I just won't put the Tang back in their for a month. Hopefully by then, without a host the turbellarians will die off.
I am going to start skimming and carbon dosing the tank to get it back into good condition for my corals, and I just won't put the Tang back in their for a month. Hopefully by then, without a host the turbellarians will die off.
Well, I'm a freaking IDIOT and I want to say the other F word but I am sure RC would delete my account. I finally fished the tang and the clown out. I put them in a FW bath with formalin. Got busy putting the LR back in, I was only doing it for 5 minutes went back to look and both were belly up. I made sure to match the ph with my tank but I checked the PH after the formalin and the PH was sky high. I am so P-issed off, i just killed both my f-ing fish. I put them both in my qt hoping that they would come back to life, but wishful thinking. HAPPY F-ing Father's Day, I'm surprised my son hasn't been killled by his f-ing dad yet.
lhm nole
New member
The last comment is disturbing you need help.. Its just a fish and formalin is toxic and needs heavy aeration... Take a step back and relax tomorrow is a new day.
Not disturbing, just stating that I take care of things close to me better than this. Lesson learned, i just feel really bad that is was based on the lives of my fish.
cougaran
New member
I'm not a 100% positive on dealing with black ich, but a double whammy of a freshwater dip and formalin dip could be very stressfull!!!!! FW dips are suppose to be no more than 3 to 4 minutes. A proper formalin dip according to medication can be up to 50 minutes. When I do formalin dips I use 2 gal of tank water in a bucket, an airstone and measure the drops with a dedicated eyedropper.
Im sorry to hear about the loss. That really sucks. You should of stayed and watched them while they were in the fresh water formalin dip because of what happened exactly. It really sucks that you lost ur fish but don't let this bring you down. There is always next time and always room for mistakes. You can't save every fish. Loss is just a part of this hobby. Better luck next time man.
how did you get the FW ph up btw? i learned that if you use something like baking soda you have to let it mix for a few minutes (10-15) after you visually see it being completely dissolved. Also for a small 1-2 gallon bath, bring RO/DI water up in ph with baking soda only requires a pinch of it.
yeh, stay positive! let the tank go fishless for 6-8 weeks. In the meantime though you could properly QT some fish so they will be ready in 8 weeks. Make sure to feed a bit of ammonia to ur DT so u don't loose ur biofilter completely during these weeks.
Formalin and FW dip isn't super stressful from what i've read and what i've experienced. Obviously every fish is different so i'm sure people might have had bad experiences. My understanding of using both was that the formalin does a quick job of getting rid of the slime coat that certain parasites might be protected by even in a FW bath. It is a very effective immediate relief for large parasitic infestations IME.
yeh, stay positive! let the tank go fishless for 6-8 weeks. In the meantime though you could properly QT some fish so they will be ready in 8 weeks. Make sure to feed a bit of ammonia to ur DT so u don't loose ur biofilter completely during these weeks.
Formalin and FW dip isn't super stressful from what i've read and what i've experienced. Obviously every fish is different so i'm sure people might have had bad experiences. My understanding of using both was that the formalin does a quick job of getting rid of the slime coat that certain parasites might be protected by even in a FW bath. It is a very effective immediate relief for large parasitic infestations IME.
I used a ph buffer to increase the ph and I measured it about 30 minutes afterwards and all was well. What I gathered is that the formalin will actually raise the ph as well so I probably didn't need the buffer. I've been adding microvert every other day to keep feeding my corals and I hope I don't loose my bio setup.
One more thing, I have been dosing the tank with the Prazipro. Well I turned on my carbon reactor and my skimmer a couple days ago. THere are a lot of microbubbles going into my tank. The skimmer is skimming clear water, no tea substance. I'm hoping the skimmer is going through a break in period.
One more thing, I have been dosing the tank with the Prazipro. Well I turned on my carbon reactor and my skimmer a couple days ago. THere are a lot of microbubbles going into my tank. The skimmer is skimming clear water, no tea substance. I'm hoping the skimmer is going through a break in period.
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