Marine ich or velvet?! In reef tank

[Saletscher]

I have a 46 gallon tank and about a month ago I bought a hippo tang to eat some hair algae I had in the tank. For the past couple of days I've noticed he's covered in what looks like white spots (image attached) and I'm not sure if it's marine ich or marine velvet. How do I treat either one in a reef tank? I've tried to catch the hippo to out in a qt tank but I can't get him at all! What do I do?!

 

[Saletscher]

Here's another picture

 

[dweber618]

Ich. Most likely the stress of being in a 46 gallon tank brought it on. There is no reef safe treatment of ich. You can feed well and keep him stressed as little as possible in hopes he can fight it off. However you should rehomre the fish, or take it back to the lfs you got it from, with the disclaimer it was in a tank with ich. You could try and remove it to treat it outside the tank, but you'd have to remove all of your fish from the tank for that to be effective. There are a few methods to treat ich outside of the tank, hyposalinity, tank transfer, and copper. If you remove all the fish to treat ich your display should be fallow for 72+ days.

 

[dweber618]

There are some stickies at the top of the fish disease and treatment forum that should help you decide how to move forward. In the future, liveaquaria.com is a great resource when deciding on new fish purchases. You will see they have a recommendation of 180+ gallons for a hippo tang. There are other choices for algae eaters that are much more suitable for your tank size (lawnmower blenny maybe). Or ask for tips on here and you will get good suggestions as well.

 

[Saletscher]

Guess I won't be getting another tang then. Thank you so much for your help!

 

[dweber618]

You bet. I have 100 gallon tank and won't ever buy another tang. I got a small kole tang... Even after attempting to QT, he still got ich in my display tank and died. No more tangs for me. Not worth the risk of having such easily stressed fish that are termed "ich magnets" by some.

Good luck moving forward!