Marine Ick?

T

trunks1622

New member
I'm hoping someone can tell me what's going on with my tank, specifically, with my powder blue tang. A couple of months ago, my tank went into a mini crash while I was away for the weeked. I lost quite a few corals, all my inverts but no fish died. At the same time, I noticed my powder blue tang having white spots all over his body and fin. So I thought it was ick. I did alot of water changes over the next couple of weeks after the incident and my tank seems to have been stablized. It looked like the white spots had disappeared from the powder blue tang but for the last 3 weeks now, I've noticed that the white spots are only appearing at night time. Every morning I check on my tank before I leave and I don't see the white spots at all. Also, it doesn't look like any of my other tangs or fish are getting infected by it. I'm not really sure what to think of it other than stress perhaps? All the fish, including the powder blue tang, are eating. I've seen no difference on their eating habits.

my tank inhabitants:
powder blue tang
hippo tang
yellow tang
sailfin tang
bangai cardinal
six line wrasse
pair of clown fish
yellow head sleeper goby
pink spotted goby


All in my 50g but soon will be in 150g in a couple of weeks.
 
Let me say up front I do not have any tangs of my own as my tank is not large enough...but research would say that your tank is well overstocked. Your tang is likely getting over-stressed during the daytime from dealing with the cramped quarters and the other fish and his slime coat is becoming susceptible to the parasites...then over night he relaxes and the parasite falls off to breed into more which attach by the next evening.
I would move into that 150g as soon as possible or find a better home for those tangs before they all get sick.
IMO anyway...
 
Yeah, I know my tank is overstocked. I just a few things I need to do for my 150g and they are all going to be transferred there. 2 weeks max and they should all be in my 150g. its already been cycled and been running for about 2 months now. I just haven't added anything until I have all my equipment for it.
 
shortening your light period might help lower the stress a little in your fish till you can get them moved...
 
If you are setting up a new tank for them, transfer whatever you are going to over to the new tank adn take this rare opportunityt o QT these fish adn treat them for the Ich.

In the time it takes you to treat them, leave the new tank fallow (no fish) for at least 6 weeks, 8 would be better.

Once done, you will have killed the ich off and can move forward with piece of mind.

Tons of threads in this forum describing exactly what to do.
 
Makenna said:
If you are setting up a new tank for them, transfer whatever you are going to over to the new tank adn take this rare opportunityt o QT these fish adn treat them for the Ich.

In the time it takes you to treat them, leave the new tank fallow (no fish) for at least 6 weeks, 8 would be better.

Once done, you will have killed the ich off and can move forward with piece of mind.

Tons of threads in this forum describing exactly what to do.
Click to expand...

The tank has already been cycled. It has been running for about 8 weeks already with one chromis in the tank. I have also transferred some of my live rocks to the 150g to seed it. What I could do is transfer most of my live rocks(leave enough for filtration), corals and leave the fishes in my 50g and treat it for ick.
 
You will find it difficult to treat the tank with copper (the normal choice) with the LR and LS in yrou tank. It will absorb much of hte copper. You could put a large sponge filter in there and a HOB filter with the wheel on it, let those get seeded with bacteria, then treat the tank.

As long as the chromis is in the big tank you will likely continue to have the parasite in teh tank. Remove ALL fish in the 150gal. Let it run with no fish while you QT/treat the others in the 50g tank.
 
Makenna said:
You will find it difficult to treat the tank with copper (the normal choice) with the LR and LS in yrou tank. It will absorb much of hte copper. You could put a large sponge filter in there and a HOB filter with the wheel on it, let those get seeded with bacteria, then treat the tank.

As long as the chromis is in the big tank you will likely continue to have the parasite in teh tank. Remove ALL fish in the 150gal. Let it run with no fish while you QT/treat the others in the 50g tank.
Click to expand...

i can try that. I'll have to get another quarantine tank as I'm thinking I will connect this 50g to my 150g someday. I dont' want any traces of that copper in this 50g just in case i do hook it up together. Thanks for the advice.
 
Just an update:

It looks like my powder blue tang no longer has the white spots on him. I'm not really sure what happened but I have been using the biopellets and it lowered my nitrate and phosphate and its looking good everyday. I wonder if I should still quarantine the fish before I transfer them to my 150g. Any thoughts?
 
Review(google) the life cycle of Ich. The cysts (white spots) have dropped off and you will likely see them reappear in teh next week or so.

I woudl still QT.
 
Just an FYI even in the 150 you are way over-stocked. All of those tangs in 50 is just ludicrous. The amount of stress you are causing them is going to make it beyond difficult to properly house, treat and keep them healthy.
 
while I am NOT the tang police, I agree with the above statements. especially on the powder blue. you have too many tangs for that space. in the 150, you are pushing it unless they are all tiny specimens. all that said, I have done a TON of research on Marine ICH or Crypto when I introduced it into my DT on accident. it has several stages and while unstressed fish dont seem to show symptoms, it is still around, and can infect a stressed fish. the tangs are more prone to this. If I were you, knowing what I know now, I would do the following:

1. setup 2 QT tanks (get you a 2nd tank and use your old 50 to treat, just make sure you remove all rock and substrate.
2. split the 4 of them up into pairs and then include with each pair some of the rest of the fish.
3. treat them with either copper for the perscribed dosage, or with Hyposalinity for a period of 5 weeks.

You have a GOLDEN oppurtunity to treat the fish and not risk introducing the parasite into you tank. take it and treat them right.

I am not one to push my ideas on anyone. Please do your research on the Crytp parasite and know exactly what you are dealing with. Ive been keeping reefs for over 10 years.
 
Pickupman66 said:
while I am NOT the tang police, I agree with the above statements. especially on the powder blue. you have too many tangs for that space. in the 150, you are pushing it unless they are all tiny specimens. all that said, I have done a TON of research on Marine ICH or Crypto when I introduced it into my DT on accident. it has several stages and while unstressed fish dont seem to show symptoms, it is still around, and can infect a stressed fish. the tangs are more prone to this. If I were you, knowing what I know now, I would do the following:

1. setup 2 QT tanks (get you a 2nd tank and use your old 50 to treat, just make sure you remove all rock and substrate.
2. split the 4 of them up into pairs and then include with each pair some of the rest of the fish.
3. treat them with either copper for the perscribed dosage, or with Hyposalinity for a period of 5 weeks.

You have a GOLDEN oppurtunity to treat the fish and not risk introducing the parasite into you tank. take it and treat them right.

I am not one to push my ideas on anyone. Please do your research on the Crytp parasite and know exactly what you are dealing with. Ive been keeping reefs for over 10 years.
Click to expand...

Currently researching more about the marine ick. thank you for your suggestion. If the budget allows, I will get another tank to use for QT. Otherwise, I may have to sell some and keep a couple.
 
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