Help! Purple Tang has ich

If I am remembering correctly it is a 150. I have a 220 with many tangs and they are quite healthy, good weights and my system is ich free. Nothing goes in my tank without at least a 6 week QT, even inverts and coral. Do yourself a favor, pull your fish, treat them for ich, leave your tank fallow for 10 weeks and don't return them to the tank until they remain spot free. Tons of stickies on how to treat them.

If you aren't going to treat all the fish it is a waste of time to treat one. Ich is a parasite. Think of it like this. You are living in a house with leaches (also a parasite) you become ill because of the leaches. I take you to the hospital where they treat you and get you healthy. I then take you home and put you back in a house full of leaches. Cruel right. Just a matter of time before you get sick again.

Some people talk about living with ich in their system. That is fine for them, it is not ok for my fish. In my opinion if you are going to keep a fish that is super susceptible to ich like a tang, you should have an ich free system.

I have 40 fish. If I saw ich on one I would be pulling them all for treatment even though I would have to tear my tank apart.
 
Lsufiregal said:
If I am remembering correctly it is a 150. I have a 220 with many tangs and they are quite healthy, good weights and my system is ich free. Nothing goes in my tank without at least a 6 week QT, even inverts and coral. Do yourself a favor, pull your fish, treat them for ich, leave your tank fallow for 10 weeks and don't return them to the tank until they remain spot free. Tons of stickies on how to treat them.

If you aren't going to treat all the fish it is a waste of time to treat one. Ich is a parasite. Think of it like this. You are living in a house with leaches (also a parasite) you become ill because of the leaches. I take you to the hospital where they treat you and get you healthy. I then take you home and put you back in a house full of leaches. Cruel right. Just a matter of time before you get sick again.

Some people talk about living with ich in their system. That is fine for them, it is not ok for my fish. In my opinion if you are going to keep a fish that is super susceptible to ich like a tang, you should have an ich free system.

I have 40 fish. If I saw ich on one I would be pulling them all for treatment even though I would have to tear my tank apart.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Lsufiregal...

This was my main point in asking what size the tank was. If it was a manageable size, snatch the fish out, QT, and let the tank run fallow. I was hoping the tank was big enough that when he was done, he could put the fish back in an appropriately sized tank if he didn't already have one. If he pulls the purple tang out an treats it alone, then placed it back into the already affected tank, it'd get stressed from being cramped (if the tank were too small) and the added aggression of being the newcomer, and end up with ich all over again. (Also to be noted, even if the tank were a 400 gallon tank, once infected with ich, it will remain infected until it sits fallow. This will mean the tang will be subjected to it again even if placed in a 400 gallon tank.)

Either way, snatch those fish out, and treat them all in a separate QT. Then QT everything from now on before it enters your tank.

I'll let the tang police comment on the tank size. I haven't been around long enough to be inducted. LOL...
 
Hi there.
I always thought a Forums Was to help people so why is it there is always someone out there that just likes *****ing About other people's advice . we've all done things that work for us but don't work for others the guy that ask for advice They need to choose which ones He thinks will work for him Instead of when you read back on all These Posts It looks like the guy to ask for help has been forgotten and the other posts is just arguing between Themselves.
 
Mr tap water said:
Hi there.
I always thought a Forums Was to help people so why is it there is always someone out there that just likes *****ing About other people's advice . we've all done things that work for us but don't work for others the guy that ask for advice They need to choose which ones He thinks will work for him Instead of when you read back on all These Posts It looks like the guy to ask for help has been forgotten and the other posts is just arguing between Themselves.
Click to expand...

I wasn't saying anyone was wrong or that having ich in your system is some kind of reefing sin. I just meant I don't want to run my system that way.

I only stated that I would pull my fish even if it meant tearing apart my tank bc it is easy to spout off what someone should do if you aren't willing to do it too. Just wanted him to know I would be treating and running fallow if it was me.
 
CedzAquAddictio said:
Thanks for the info Lsufiregal...

This was my main point in asking what size the tank was. If it was a manageable size, snatch the fish out, QT, and let the tank run fallow. I was hoping the tank was big enough that when he was done, he could put the fish back in an appropriately sized tank if he didn't already have one. If he pulls the purple tang out an treats it alone, then placed it back into the already affected tank, it'd get stressed from being cramped (if the tank were too small) and the added aggression of being the newcomer, and end up with ich all over again. (Also to be noted, even if the tank were a 400 gallon tank, once infected with ich, it will remain infected until it sits fallow. This will mean the tang will be subjected to it again even if placed in a 400 gallon tank.)

Either way, snatch those fish out, and treat them all in a separate QT. Then QT everything from now on before it enters your tank.

I'll let the tang police comment on the tank size. I haven't been around long enough to be inducted. LOL...
Click to expand...

Yeah I figured. It is hard to give advice if you don't know what size their dt is. If you have a 700g tank pulling all the fish is not as easy as a 150. Lol
 
Lsufiregal said:
I wasn't saying anyone was wrong or that having ich in your system is some kind of reefing sin. I just meant I don't want to run my system that way.

I only stated that I would pull my fish even if it meant tearing apart my tank bc it is easy to spout off what someone should do if you aren't willing to do it too. Just wanted him to know I would be treating and running fallow if it was me.
Click to expand...


I thought the same when I read the post. After re-reading the thread, I don't think he was talking about our posts. We gave our point of view in regards to how to address the OP's issue in a neutral, informative manner.

mikecc67548 said:
I've heard that if no other ich is introduced into the system, the ich will die out on it's own after 11 months. Link to outside site
Click to expand...

Interesting read... I'm definitely going to have to read that one a couple more times...


Lsufiregal said:
Yeah I figured. It is hard to give advice if you don't know what size their dt is. If you have a 700g tank pulling all the fish is not as easy as a 150. Lol
Click to expand...

Exactly... If careful QT practices are followed, you can hopefully avoid pulling the rock since your tank should be disease free. But since the OP now has ich, the size of the tank is very relevant since he may end up having to pull the rock. Just scoping out the size of the pending task...
 
Mr tap water said:
Hi there.
I always thought a Forums Was to help people so why is it there is always someone out there that just likes *****ing About other people's advice . we've all done things that work for us but don't work for others the guy that ask for advice They need to choose which ones He thinks will work for him Instead of when you read back on all These Posts It looks like the guy to ask for help has been forgotten and the other posts is just arguing between Themselves.
Click to expand...

This forum is here to help people. Perpetuating misinformation is not helping anyone. Garlic, water changes, and UV are NOT cures. They might help curb symptoms, but ich is still going to be present, and it is a very real problem. To the OP, read through the stickies and choose a course of action. If you want to have tangs you need to QT. If you want to be in this hobby long-term, you need to QT. Period. The OP hasn't been forgotten, he's just not responding.

Lsufiregal said:
Yeah I figured. It is hard to give advice if you don't know what size their dt is. If you have a 700g tank pulling all the fish is not as easy as a 150. Lol
Click to expand...

If you have a 700g tank, you are likely quarantining everything before adding it to the DT anyway. There is simply too much life and $$$ in livestock at stake in a tank that size for someone to make an exception or disagree with quarantine.

For the record, those of us who believe in curing ich and quarantining all new additions are in this frame of mind because we made these mistakes once too! We have gone through the whole learning process of feeding garlic, doing water changes, losing fish, running fallow periods, quarantining and treating, etc. We are offering our end result advice to help others not make the same mistakes we did. Be smart, learn from the mistakes of others, and move on.
 
mikecc67548 said:
I've heard that if no other ich is introduced into the system, the ich will die out on it's own after 11 months. Link to outside site
Click to expand...

This is not the case. A parasite does not die out after a set period of time unless it has no host. If there are fish in the tank, ich has its host and can continue its life cycle until it is eliminated or there are no more host species. Our tanks are more than capable of sustaining a population of C. irritans, which is why it's not good to keep around and "live" with.
 
Rea17 said:
This forum is here to help people. Perpetuating misinformation is not helping anyone. Garlic, water changes, and UV are NOT cures. They might help curb symptoms, but ich is still going to be present, and it is a very real problem. To the OP, read through the stickies and choose a course of action. If you want to have tangs you need to QT. If you want to be in this hobby long-term, you need to QT. Period. The OP hasn't been forgotten, he's just not responding.



If you have a 700g tank, you are likely quarantining everything before adding it to the DT anyway. There is simply too much life and $$$ in livestock at stake in a tank that size for someone to make an exception or disagree with quarantine.

For the record, those of us who believe in curing ich and quarantining all new additions are in this frame of mind because we made these mistakes once too! We have gone through the whole learning process of feeding garlic, doing water changes, losing fish, running fallow periods, quarantining and treating, etc. We are offering our end result advice to help others not make the same mistakes we did. Be smart, learn from the mistakes of others, and move on.
Click to expand...

Couldn't have said it better myself. I am only running a 225g DT, and everything gets a QT (with medication if needed) before entering my DT. I've read lately that I may need to QT longer than 30 days, but as mentioned, it is a learning lesson. If you QT everything, you have no need to worry about introducing newly QT'ed fish to your tank.

As mentioned: We are offering to answer the OP's question with our best knowledge and experience. I've lost fish in QT. It happens. The good thing is that the illness that the fish I've lost didn't infect my other livestock or DT. In addition to risking your DT and it's inhabitants, there is a good chance that if you put a sick fish in your DT, it'll die anyway. Better for that to happen in QT than DT.
 
Another thing to keep in mind is that our tanks are a closed environment. Once it is infected, a fish has no escape as it will in the ocean (not that swimming away is a cure, but it will have a better chance if it isn't held hostage with the parasite). In our tanks, a fish simply can't swim away from an infected area. The whole tank is infected, so the fish is trapped with the parasite...
 
CedzAquAddictio said:
Another thing to keep in mind is that our tanks are a closed environment. Once it is infected, a fish has no escape as it will in the ocean (not that swimming away is a cure, but it will have a better chance if it isn't held hostage with the parasite). In our tanks, a fish simply can't swim away from an infected area. The whole tank is infected, so the fish is trapped with the parasite...
Click to expand...

You're idea is there, but needs a little work. :)

Our tanks are stocked many times more densely than the ocean is. The parasites don't have to swim far at all when it comes time to find a host for the life cycle to continue. In the ocean, since it is not as populated, the number of daughter cells that survive to find a host are very few. Due to this it is extremely uncommon to see infected fish, and very rare for a fish to die from the parasite. The ocean has the dilution factor working with it.
 
ambition said:
you're idea is there, but needs a little work. :)

our tanks are stocked many times more densely than the ocean is. The parasites don't have to swim far at all when it comes time to find a host for the life cycle to continue. In the ocean, since it is not as populated, the number of daughter cells that survive to find a host are very few. Due to this it is extremely uncommon to see infected fish, and very rare for a fish to die from the parasite. The ocean has the dilution factor working with it.
Click to expand...

+1000
 
Ambition said:
You're idea is there, but needs a little work. :)

Our tanks are stocked many times more densely than the ocean is. The parasites don't have to swim far at all when it comes time to find a host for the life cycle to continue. In the ocean, since it is not as populated, the number of daughter cells that survive to find a host are very few. Due to this it is extremely uncommon to see infected fish, and very rare for a fish to die from the parasite. The ocean has the dilution factor working with it.
Click to expand...

I can agree with that. Very well said...
 
mikecc67548 said:
I've heard that if no other ich is introduced into the system, the ich will die out on it's own after 11 months. Link to outside site
Click to expand...

This has been around a while. There is no author listed for this info ; so I consider it no more than individual experience & opinion. Just like posts on our forum. There is lots of scientific literature, with sources and authors listed, that has been published. I have never seen this opinion written by a known author. I would never change my approach to anything as serious as crypto based on nothing more than this. We have a well-published author on our site and I have never heard him make any claim on the "11 months". This piece wouldn't be such a secret if it were fact, but it does surface once in a while.
 
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