Help!!! My tangs got white dots all over.

jadendo

New member
Help!!! Please help. My tank is 60 gallon 2 weeks old with 3 tang fishes and some corals. I cleaned my tank yesterday and today i noticed that my fishes are rubbing their bodies against the sand bed.

What can i do to help them getting rid if their qhite spots. Will i harm the corals? I just did 5 gallon water change tonight.

Thanks
 
Your tank is 2 weeks old and you have 3 tangs?

Do you have live rock? Live sand? or just fish and corals? Have you tested for nitrates, nitrites, ammonia and PH?

The best advise I can give is for you to return the fish to the store or if you have a friend with a mature tank to keep the fish until your tank is mature enough to keep fish.

Most opinions offered here will say that you need a mature tank and even bigger than you have to keep tangs. Even if you used live sand and good live rock to put your tank together, there is still a chance it will cycle.

If this post is sincere, I would recommend you do more research on this hobby before selecting fish to keep.
 
Help!!! Please help. My tank is 60 gallon 2 weeks old with 3 tang fishes and some corals. I cleaned my tank yesterday and today i noticed that my fishes are rubbing their bodies against the sand bed.

What can i do to help them getting rid if their qhite spots. Will i harm the corals? I just did 5 gallon water change tonight.

Thanks
You have been badly advised (or you havent looked into the hobby enough).

The tank is more than likely cycling, your nitrates, nitrites and ammonia are enough to kill all your fish and coral within2-3 weeks. as pavelow said, return them to the shop, or to a mature tank untill your tank has cycled, or at the miniumum check your water parameters.:beer:
 
Oh Boy....

If a fish store knew your tank was only 2 weeks old and they sold you all that......I would steer clear of that store.

A saltwater tank needs to mature a little before you even think of adding anything alive. As stated above, I would return all the livestock to the store and let the tank run for a couple months.
 
The tank got live sand and live rock. I bought the Seachem Stabilizer to help the tank cycled faster. I checked no Nitrites/Nitrates, just a bit of Amonia, which I got this Seachem neutralizer. I am mad at myself and mostly my wife now for forcing me to buy all these stuff to put in the tank. She just got no patience. No wonder all of my xenia are dying! As for short term remedy, I increased the flow and raise the temperature to 80F. I feed them a bit to fight back with the diseases. I changed 5 gallon of water last night hoping things will get better. Thanks for your advice.
 
Probably won't matter much.

If your tank EVER shows ammonia, that is a bad sign. Once a tank is cycled, you should never see any ammonia.

Here is how you get a new tank going. 1st, you do the initial cycle. That means you should be able to see the ammonia rise and then fall, see the nitrites rise and then fall. They should then both go to zero. Then you can add a fish. Adding a fish will cause another cycle, though smaller than the first, while the bacteria poulation grows to catch up with the new bio-demand. So, don't add another fish for 4-6 weeks. Then, when ammonia, nitrites are zero again, the fish is free from disease, eating well, then you can add another fish. Guess what, another mini cycle occurs, so you need to wait it out again. Repeat as necessary. Remember, when going from 1 fish to two fish, you double the bioload. When going from 2 fish to three fish, you increase the bioload 50%. etc.

Tangs are very active fish, create a lot of bioload, need a lot of space, and are very prone to getting ich. Not a beginner fish by any means. Also, probably should have 1 max in your sized tank.
 
By the way, try to keep your fish eating, and hopefully they will beat the ich. You could treat them with cupramine but that would need to be done in a separate tank or you will kill your inverts and contaminate your tank.
 
Also, by the way, taking short-cuts in this hobby will usually turn out bad. Also, rushing things also usually turns out bad. Have patience, build your tank slowly, and you will be much happier in the end. Also, do not overstock your tank, saltwater fish need far more space than freshwater. I have a 240 gallon tank and currently have 9 fish in it.
 
Jadendo,

I have a feeling you won't be in the hobby for very long. Most people that start the way you have eventually kill everything in their tank and quit.

Please do yourself, more importantly your fish, a favor and research before doing anything else.

Unless your wife is doing the research herself, you need to be making the decisions about your tank. Not her. Reefcentral is a great place to look for information and we are all willing to help you out, but when we see situations like this, I think I can speak for many, if not all of us, when I say that we are at the very least disappointed. This is not responsible reef keeping.
 
I guess I should offer some advice as well to try and fix the situation.

Nobody is going to take ich infested fish and introduce them into their tank. Your best bet is to take them back to the store you bought them from and have them try to nurse them back to health. I think that would be the most responsible thing to do in order to try and save the fish.
 
Thanks guys for the advices. I have to admit that I wasn't reposnsible to allow things to go this way. My fishes are eating a lot still and being very active. I was too busy pimping out the tank with all kind of equipments and forgot the most important things about the hobby: the fishes and corals.

I am sorry and promise to take it slow from here. I might give away the fishes and start it out slowly again.
 
If the fish are eating that is a good sign. I would leave things along and keep an eye on amonnia. If you see any amonnia I would add a product called Prime. Its made by Seachem and detoxifies amonnia and nitrite. This will help get you past the cycle without harming the fish. I would also pick up a bottle of bacteria in a bottle.
 
Don't beat yourself over it, it sounds like you understand what needs to be done. Learn from it and grow, that's all anybody can ever ask of you.

Let's get that water stable, cycling, and ready for fish over the next month or so. Test kits will tell you when your tank is ready. Ammonia must be at Zero, Nitrite at Zero, Nitrates as low as possible.

Good luck to you Jadendo.

Thanks guys for the advices. I have to admit that I wasn't reposnsible to allow things to go this way. My fishes are eating a lot still and being very active. I was too busy pimping out the tank with all kind of equipments and forgot the most important things about the hobby: the fishes and corals.

I am sorry and promise to take it slow from here. I might give away the fishes and start it out slowly again.
 
I tested the water tonight.
Temp:78.4
Salinity:1.025
pH 8.0-8.3
Amonia:0
Nitrite/nitrate:0
Calcium: 380. So i added some more.
Kh: high
Phosphate:0.5-1. So i added a bag of seachem phosguard.

Corals are doing ok. Only fishes have white dots. I think it is because i rearranged the rocks 2 days ago and stirred up a lot of stuff.

I also used Seachem Prime and Stabilizer.
I am hoping they will get better.
Pray for me.

All the corals are doing
 
I tested the water tonight.
Calcium: 380. So i added some more.
Kh: high
Phosphate:0.5-1. So i added a bag of seachem phosguard.

All of the ich stuff and bad starting out problems aside......

Stop adding any kind of supplements to your tank at this point in time. Phosgaurd would be ok, but large water changes are your best friend at this point. They will provide ALL of your supplementation needs for now and well into the future. Oh, and Kh: high is not a reliable measure of alkalinity.

Do yourself a huge favor and read A LOT!!! Not just here on RC (sometimes the advice can be dubious), but even Saltwater Aquariums for Dummies is a good reference.
 
Ok i checked on the fishes last night at 3 am. The Powder Brown Tang had more white dots. This morning at 10 am miracle happened. All the white dots are gone! Wow!!! I am super happy. My Saifin Tang and Sweetlip still have white dots on the fins but not on the bodies any more. I must have done something right last night.

After a recollection, yesterday i added 1 gallon of new water, calcium, prime, stabilizer, phosguard.
I think the phosguard is the key here. Im convinced.
I also raised temp and flow.
I will either diy or buy the phosban today.
 
Ok i checked on the fishes last night at 3 am. The Powder Brown Tang had more white dots. This morning at 10 am miracle happened. All the white dots are gone! Wow!!! I am super happy. My Saifin Tang and Sweetlip still have white dots on the fins but not on the bodies any more. I must have done something right last night.

After a recollection, yesterday i added 1 gallon of new water, calcium, prime, stabilizer, phosguard.
I think the phosguard is the key here. Im convinced. I also raised temp and flow.
I will either diy or buy the phosban today.

Don't be convinced...the phosguard did nothing. The ick is not gone. You have 3 tangs and a sweetlips? What's the 3rd tang? You have a powder brown and a sailfin...

No matter what is going on right now, you should really remove the fish and qt them, then find them bigger homes. The sweetlips is going to grow into a monster!
 
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