ich on blue tang
- Thread starter zgma
- Start date
TCC
New member
You could quarantine the fish and try meds. If you can't get him out of the display, assuming that's where he is, there are varying opinions on the effectiveness, but you might try mixing garlic (either the extract you get at the fish store, or finely minced) in with the food. I don't know that it will "cure" ick, but may help your guy fight it off.
I have a small blue that's been fighting it off as well. I think the garlic may be helping. A cleaner shrimp in the tank may help as well. (or so I've heard) I'm no expert and you'll probably get better replies than mine, but these are a couple things you may want to consider.
I have a small blue that's been fighting it off as well. I think the garlic may be helping. A cleaner shrimp in the tank may help as well. (or so I've heard) I'm no expert and you'll probably get better replies than mine, but these are a couple things you may want to consider.
MelodyCorals
In Memoriam
No expert here either, but I have had the same type of problem and the cleaner shrimp solution worked the best for me.
-- Josh
-- Josh
JahReefster
Premium Member
Blue (hippo) tangs are notorious for this sort of thing. I keep a couple of cleaner shrimp in my tank and they keep my tang in good shape. Of course, you have to take all the other steps to keep a tank healthy too.
If you have a spare 10 or 20 gallon laying out, set up a quarantine tank and treat with hyposalinity. Keep salinity at 1.009 using a refractometer and I would not use copper; tangs dont' handle copper very well. After 3 weeks, begin raising the salinity back up to 1.023 or whatever you run over the course of the next week. And like it's been mentioned, high protein foods with garlic can't hurt at all. This probably the safest bet in terms getting rid of ich.
TCC
New member
zgma:
Again, no expert, but you don't really "dose" it per say in the tank if that's what you mean. I have a bottle of "Extreme Garlic Extract" from Marine Depot. I put a full dropper of it mixed in the food I am going to feed.
I have also used a garlic press on a single clove of garlic and mixed that with the allotment of food when feeding as well.
I hope that help! Let me know how you do.
A quick update on my blue tang ....
Most of ich are off now -- only a few of them are left. I do a single garlic clove mix every other time when I feed them. I also setup my UV, 16 watt, on this tank. I think they are working together to get the ich off.
Thanks for your suggestions.
-John.
Most of ich are off now -- only a few of them are left. I do a single garlic clove mix every other time when I feed them. I also setup my UV, 16 watt, on this tank. I think they are working together to get the ich off.
Thanks for your suggestions.
-John.
