Tang with Ich

[badinfo]

OK I have a very small tang with ich just started showing signs brand new fish, already put in my coral tank. I setup my 10 gallon quarantine tank tonight and I need two pieces of advice.

How to catch him without removing half my tank?!?!?.

How do I get rid of ich?!?!?.

I'm already aware that I should've quarantined him intialy and will do so with all new additions from this point on.

Thanks for any and all help

 

[Haffs09]

I can't help you with catching the fish...it won't be fun. But, you should assume that tank has ich and keep it fallow for 12 weeks.

I prefer cupramine (Pet World in Ridgemont Plaza usually stocks it) and slowly bring up the concentration to 0.40mg/L over four days. Get a good test kit (I prefer Salifert) and test every day while bringing up the copper level. For a fish in a 10gal tank, I would do a daily 2 gallon water change (or maybe every other) with the water at the QT tanks copper level. I think Seachem makes an ammonia badge that works with cupramine treated water. You can use that to gauge your water changes, but I always error on the conservative side.

What type of tang is it and how big? Of all the tangs I've treated with cupramine, I found zebrasomas the most sensitive to it if you go above 0.50mg/L. You'll want to maintain 0.40mg/L for 4 weeks.

Good luck!

 

[badinfo]

Thanks for your advice.

It's a small maybe 2" at most blue hippo. It's going to go in my 90 Gallon (please no slams)

Sounds like a junky situation I got myself into so now everything in my tank will get ich?
Could reoccour within 12 weeks? YIKES this is not cool!
I'll google it but what is fallow?

Seriously tho thanks for the help

Would the addition of a cleaner shrimp make any difference after removing tang?

 

[toddmh]

here you go... All you need to know

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php

 

[Jacwil]

What other fish do you have besides the tang? Were these all in the 29g?

Others can chime in but would it be ok to have a pair of clowns, 2 mandarins and the tang in the 10g hosp. tank?

 

[tmz]

All the fish should be removed and treated. The tank should be left without fish for 72 days.
Otherwise , ich will persist for a very long time,years,even if you can't see it. It will feed off the fish that survive the initial infestation and thus acquire partial immunity by attacking the more tender tissue in the nostirls mouth and gills.unseen .
Then at some point it can breakout. usually when a new fish without any immunity to it is added to the tank. One survivng parasite can encyst and produce hundreds. Those can again produce hundreds each life cycle in the course of a week or two and so on.

Treatment with a copper med is ok. I prefer tank transfer. Moving the infected fish to a new tank every 3 days ,4 times. Each time a tank is emptied it and associated equipment must be thoroughly dried.

No, a cleaner shrimp will not help prevent or cure ich.

I would not attempt to qt all of those fish in a 10g. Ammonia toxicity is a major issue in an uncycled q tank and should be monitored closely. This is less of a concern with the transfer method, since the fish are moved every 3 days to clean water. Providing some resting areas with pvc pipe cuttings is helpful for stress. Adjusting sg in the new tank to match or be lower than the tank the fish is leaving and temp adjusting are important.

 

[E_rock]

Not to hijack this thread, but can I ask how many of you actually do quarantine every fish?

 

[Haffs09]

+1 on Tom's advice. Ich doesn't have to be visible to be present. I had a hippo tang that showed signs of it at one point. I forgot about it and two years later, I added the hippo and a bunch of other QT'd tangs to my tank at once. Six weeks later the hippo broke out with ich and shortly after, several other fish did too. Long story short, it took a year and a lot of heartache get rid of that parasite

E Rock - all my fish go through QT. It only takes one lapse (as in my example above) to suffer significant consequence by not QTing. If you're building a 90 gal, I suggest incorporating a QT tank or two into your build. You'll be happy you did!

 

[tmz]

Not to hijack this thread, but can I ask how many of you actually do quarantine every fish?

Every single one. If not then why qaurantine ; I could just replace dead fish every once in awhile., Ich is much too common. Your question will probably highjack the thread and start one of those quaranitne is for sissys or,garlic, nutrition, uv ,cleaner shrimp, cinnamon , kick ich ,etc. perserverations.

 

[Conesus_Kid]

Not to hijack this thread, but can I ask how many of you actually do quarantine every fish?

I do. I learned the hard way.

 

[siobhan2086]

I wish I had quarantined every fish before it went in, its definitely one of my biggest mistakes. No matter how much garlic, nutrition, kick ich, lower temps, lower salinity, uv sterilizer... nothing fixes it. I believe the only way to fix a bad Ich problem is to take out all fish in quarantine for a few months and get the main tank straightened out.

All tangs are really prone to Ich, especially hippos. If you're not interested in quarantining all then try your luck on other methods. I've also been told that feeding more times a day can keep the fish healthier. Can also try Formula 1 and 2, the spongyness helps keep their bellies full.

Good luck little Hippo

 

[badinfo]

Thank god this wasn't in my 29 gallon. I would be crying. Thanks for all the advice and I will just leave a QT up forever from this point on. haha, and yes I will QT everything from now on.

 

[tmz]

You are welcome. Most of us have been there and done that. It's a hard lesson to learn.
Good luck and feel free to ask for more information if you need it.

 

[Triggercdog]

I have a suggestion you might want to consider...and I know everyone is going to tell me that this isn't a fix but hear me out....make your fish some homemade food (blended up raw uncooked shrimp) and add a very small piece of ginger root to each cube (use a piece off egg crate) and freeze it. Feed your fish this homemade food and watch the ich disappear!! I did this when my powder blue, flame angel, chevron, and blue jaw trigger came down with ich and after three days the ich disappeared and never returned...I know ich may still be present in my tank but I am a firm believer that if your fish are healthy and fed a nutritious diet, they won't be affected by the disease. I am not too sure what the ginger does but I know my fish are healthy and haven't seen ich for four months...just my two cents....

 

[tmz]

I knew it. Thought I'd hear garlic before ginger. It's nonsense.

 

[tmz]

Copper, tank transfer and sometimes hyposalinity are the ways to treat it effectively along with a fishless tank for 72 days.,.None are reefsafe.

If the reference is to Ich X by Hikari ,its a 3% formaldehyde for out of tank treatment and should also work but it's a pretty harsh med when used for a period of time. It is more commonly used in a 40 minute bath for brooklynella and other skin based parasites that have no free swimming stage. . If it's some other treatment claiming it's reef safe it won't work beyond a placebo effect and may not be reef safe either.

 

[MD Ocean Girl]

I agree with Tom. "Reef safe" Ich medications are not always actually reef safe. For what it's worth, Stop Parasite killed a tuxedo urchin. Quarantining fish and keeping ich out of the DT is the way to go.

 

[tmz]

I checked my bottle of ICh X by Hikari. I use it for formalin dips/baths and have it on hand if I need it for a Q tank treatment for certain maladies.
It is 3% formaldehyde and the rest is water. Oddly, the bottle bears a logo boldly noting "reef tested",very ambiguous. The small print directions , however, recommend use in a quarantine tank. I would not put formaldehyde in a living reef.