Powder blue tang with ich

[FishN00b83]

So I picked up a yellow and powder blue tang a little over a week ago. They both looked amazing in the store, and I saw them both eat, so I pulled the trigger. I put them in the qt tank and then the white spots showed up about 2 days later (no surprise.

I started hypo and the spots on the powder blue seem to come and go extremely fast, like under 24 hours. The yellow tang doesn't have anything, ever it's just the PBT. Could this really be ick, or could it be something else? I've never seen ich come and go like this.

 

[HumbleFish]

Could be Velvet. Hypo won't completely eradicate Velvet, but being a f/w dip provides temporary relief it's possible Hypo is doing the same thing.

 

[Rea17]

I don't think hypo makes a dent in velvet at all. Hypo is ONLY effective against ich, and even then, it's a very precise treatment.

 

[sleepydoc]

Velvet and ich can resemble each other somewhat. Ich can come and go. Velvet will be unaffected by hypo and is typically quite aggressive, so if they are improving it likely isn't velvet.

If you have doubts, I would raise the SG and start copper as it is effective against both. If you decide to use hypo to treat the ich, make sure you have an accurate hydrometer or refractometer. If using a refractometer, calibrate it to DI water (0.000) rather than a calibration solution since your target SG is closer to 0 than 1.026.

 

[FishN00b83]

Yeah I read a lot on velvet too, but I'm just not sure. These are my first 2 tangs ever and I wanted to do all the right things before I put them in.

I guess I could raise the salinity again and see what happens. I guess if it is ich it would come back at that point and I would know what it was. Wouldn't the other tang get it as well though if it was either ich or velvet? That's the weird part to me. At one point the PBT looked loaded with salt particles, now nothing. I haven't seen anything in a few days either.

 

[Travis Rohrbach]

If u already have it in hypo and you believe it is ich they need to stay in hypo for at least 4weeks

 

[FishN00b83]

I understand that part. I guess my question would be when the fish is in hypo, would the parasites instantly go away or do they go through a few life cycles before they die?

My experience with freshwater ich was you see the parasite for a while before they actually die. I haven't seen anything to that extent as of now. It was bad day one, day 2 it all went away, and I haven't seen anything since really.

 

[Travis Rohrbach]

It does have a life cycle there's a really helpful sticky about ick in the parasite and dieses section

 

[FishN00b83]

Thanks ill check it out now

 

[Travis Rohrbach]

Np it helped me out a lot I went through the whole ick parasite a while ago I've had my fish back in my dt for 2months now

 

[sleepydoc]

+1 understanding the parasite's life cycle is critical to understanding how and why the various treatments work.

 

[FishN00b83]

So the fish is swimming now like he lost his balance, kind of floating around. The salinity is .008...should I raise the salinity again and wait for him to recover a bit, then start copper, or is this a lost cause at this point?

 

[Travis Rohrbach]

That's had to say there's always the chance they can make it but it may be to far gone. I'm not an expert so I don't know what you should do sorry.

 

[FishN00b83]

Damn man, I wish I knew what to do right now. I'm sitting here trying to figure it out with no luck.

 

[Rea17]

Is the pbt infested with a parasite or has he lost his equilibrium?

 

[sleepydoc]

Are you sure your salinity measurement is correct? I observed similar behavior during a course of Hypo and found my SG to be 1.005. After raising it to 1.008 the fish started doing better.

 

[FishN00b83]

Well I have 2 tangs in there right now and one is doing fine the other is struggling. I did just do a water change and it's .007 it looks like. Should I raise it a little more?

 

[Travis Rohrbach]

Yes no lower than 1.008

 

[FishN00b83]

I just calibrated to rodi and it was off by .004!!! I'm adding more salt to the bin water and I'm going to do a water change before I goto bed. You think that could be the reason?

 

[FishN00b83]

Can they die from this short term, or is this something they can recover from?