Powder Blue Tang Has Ich

[lazluvtoo]

All of a sudden, my blue tang is covered with ich! It has manifested all over his body and head almost overnight. Can this ich spread to my other fishes? Also, is a hospital tank the only solution to treat him? If so, for how long? The last time I hospital-tanked a fish and then re-introduced him to the general population, they harrassed him to his death. Trying to avoid this if at all possible.

I have travel plans in about four weeks. Will he be well by then?

Best and easiest way to treat the little guy?

TIA...
Cindy

 

[flasher1]

Powder Blue Tangs are actually quite aggressive and I dont think you would have a hard time reintroducing it into your tank. The ich can spread to your other fish and most likely will if you dont qt it.

You can try a freshwater dip, but no guarantees. Formalin will also work, but is not reef safe.

 

[vette68]

The only thing that will work is to quarrantine all your fish and treat them with your favorite method, either copper or hyposalinity. Either way, you can't re-introduce ANY of your fish to your main tank for at least 4 weeks, preferably 6, to let any ich in the tank go through it's lifecycle. I'm currently in the middle of this exact course of action with my 180 reef. It was not fun removing almost all of the rock to catch the fish, but when my reef is ich free in 4 more weeks, it will have been worth the effort. Powder blues are particularly succeptible to ich (I've personally lost 2 to ich), so treat him immediately before he becomes overwhelmed and is too stressed when moved to QT. If you treat only the PB tang, you'll be wasting your time, because the ich will still be in the tank when you re-initroduce him. Ich needs about 4 weeks to completely run through it's lifecycle, so after that point, and once the fish is treated and free, it'll be OK to reintroduce them. And this is assuming you have a tank that can't be treated directlty with copper or hypo.

 

[tmz]

I agree with the above post. I would note ,however, that while a fishless tank for six weeks is very likely to be free of cryptocaryon irritans(ich) some cysts unfortunately can remain vialble for as much as 72 days.

 

[vette68]

That's not what I wanted to hear. I'm in the middle of treating my reef now, with all my fish getting a Cupramine bath while the main tank just settles. I did this about 2 years ago and was successful. I think that althouogh they CAN live up to 72 days, most don't. My tank was ich free for 2 years until I introduced new fish that carried the parasite in with them... I was planning on leaving the tank bare for 6 weeks, maybe I'll wait another week or 2...

 

[tmz]

You are probably right about most dying. Just sharing information.

A bath or quick dip in cupramine may not do much. If a fish is heavily infested a formalin bath of about 50 minutes or a fresh water dip of 3 to four minutes can relieve it of some parasites on the skin and some secondary infections. None will get the embedded parasites.
If you don't introduce new strains ,the strain in your tank will persist through 34 life cycles or for about 11 months before it expires.So be cautrious when introductng new fish for about a year. Some of the strain you have may persist as cysts or in the fish you have, unseen perhaps in the gills,if they develop a partial immunity. Wish there was an easier way. In my experienc the miracle cures do more harm than good.

 

[vette68]

I didn't mean to imply that my fish were just getting a cupramine dip. They are all in a 45 gallon hospital tank and getting treated that way. I will leave the cupramine at full strength for about 3 weeks, then I'll slowly lower it (by not putting any copper in the makeup water) and leave the fish in the hospital tank for at least 6 weeks. And with what you're saying, I may leave them in for 7 or 8 weeks to give the most cysts the chance to die and not find a host. But we'll have to see how impatient I get and if I can wait a full 2 months...

But, the root of my problem was that I introduced a unicorn tang into my tank after giving him a 45 minute formalin dip. As you said, this killed any losely hanging parasites, but did nothing to kill the embedded ones. I knew I should have used a quarrantine, but figured I'd give the formalin a try. Big mistake.

Anyhow, not trying to hijack this thread. As you can see, there is a lot of ways to treat ich, but about the only one that has any chance of working in a reef is to treat the fish in a hospital tank and let the fish-less reef settle for at least 4 to 8 weeks. There really is no other way to do it.... But there will always be a debate as to how long to leave the fish in a hospital tank to give the best chance for success, and to ensure the most parasites die, and probably nobody really knows 100% for sure (myself included). But as long as the hospital tank is healthy and thriving, nobody will ever argue that shorter is better, as far as wait time is concerned....

 

[tmz]

good luck aan happy reefing.

 

[lazluvtoo]

Well, things are going much better now! I picked up a bottle of Kick-Ich...has anyone ever heard of it? It requires dosing it for about two weeks, about every third day or so. Not only does it treat the infected fish (and it is reef safe!), but it also kills any Ich and its eggs that may been living in the tank itself.

Now, I'm not sure if it was the Kick-Ich, or if the Ich just fell off the fish for another reason, but the next morning, my tang was 50% clearer!

I did a 20 gal water change (I have a 90 gl tank), then added another dose of the Kick-Ich. My blue powder tang looks about 90% healed...just a little fuzziness remains.

Anyway, thanks for all of your input...I'll keep you posted.

Cindy

 

[R.L.Young]

I use kick ich ,and have had great results. You dont do water changes between doses just follow the directions on the bottle ,and go through the whole 12 day doses

 

[lazluvtoo]

That's great to know! I only did the water change because it was due for it, anyway...I also have a nitrate issue (which is also improving). Now I'll leave the water alone for a couple of weeks while I treat it with the Kick-Ich.

 

[R.L.Young]

Dont forget to turn off the skimmer. If you have a crushed coral substrate like I do you, which is 12 years old, you will get alot of crape built up in it which has cause me to have a nitrate nightmare , that I finally have under contoll after alot of work.
Figure out where the nitates are comming fromand attack it at the source.
Kick ich also makes a product called ruby reef used for treating fish in a qt tank if it has good as the kick ich it would be worth looking into.
Good luck

 

[tmz]

There arer mixed reviews on kick ich. Bear in mind that the parasites leave the fish after a few days(that's when you see the white spots since they are exit wounds) settles on the substrate or rock and multiplies into cysts which after a few days to a week morph into free swimmers who attack the fish again in greater numbers. During the free swimming phase copper will kill them and according to many as will hyposalinity. I don't know if kick ich will. Sometimes fish survive a crptocaryon attack and do not experiince a significant second infestation even without any medication in a well run system. I'm also not sure if it's "reef safe".
Good luck and please deep us posted on your results.

 

[roktsintst]

I had a fish covered w/ ich. i started to feed garlic and it went away. I have fed garlic every day since and havn't had ich since!!!
i mix the garlic w/ frozen food and flake and feed often with great results!

 

[lazluvtoo]

According to the label on the bottle of Kick-Ich, it is reef safe...jeez, I sure hope they are right!

Regarding the garlic, do you feed your tang just regular garlic cloves from the produce aisle in the grocery store? How small do you chop it up?

I'd like to try it with my tangs.

Thanks!
Cindy

 

[trdofwrkin]

I lost 2 pbt's to ich. The last one was in a qt tank for 1 month when he got his ich. He was the only fish that was ever in the tank. all spots went away. he was doing great and then On the last day of the treatment he died. he was eating great . I came home from work and found him dead. I will not buy another. They are just to sensitive. good luck. hope he hangs in there