Tangs and Ich

[SDguy]

and how they are captured and treated is an important part.

Um, no I didn't. What are you looking at?

 

[cabinetman123]

I have just about every kind of tang in my system and there is ich in my tank. The worst ones are the powder brown and powder blue for showing signs. Then next in line is the hippo. Then the red sea and pacific sailfin hardly show a sign of ich when there is an outbreak and the lavender never shows a sign of it no matter how bad the outbreak. In my opinion some tangs are more resistant...at least that is what Im seeing in my system when I get an outbreak. My yellow tangs are more resistant than the hippo.

 

[MrTuskfish]

This is not exactly the meaning of my question, but oh well, I should have been clearer.
If you have say 10 tangs all properly quarantined, but place them all in an infected tank or under stressful conditions... will they be ich free just because they were quarantined? Absolutely not!... Some might be (or not?) prone to get infected faster than others (due to a lot of reasons, I suppose, and could species be one of these reasons?). If they are exposed to the pathogen, they have a good chance to get infected again, even being previously quarantined, IMHO.

I'll keep this as short as I can. If ANY tank has ANY ich, Any fish can get it. Some fish develop temporary immunity, some are very ich-resistant. But no fish has permanent immunity from ich. ''Managed" ich tanks can stay that way for quite a while; but sooner or later, all fish in the tank will be in trouble. Of course, there may be an occasional exception to this. The number of folks who THOUGHT they had ich under control and awoke to an ich nightmare provide an endless line of new threads on the disease forum. I'm not trying to be snooty; but experienced aquarists seem to have a much better record living with ich than novices. However (IMO & IME), most experienced aquarists don't have ich in their tanks. All tangs would be at the top of any list of fish to avoid in an ich-managed" tank. Adding any new fish to an ich tank could easily jump-start a very aggressive ich explosion; this is true of any stress-inducing event, or just the right number coming up on the ich-lottery.

 

[marcusbacus]

All tangs would be at the top of any list of fish to avoid in an ich-managed" tank.

I'm getting closer to something I'd like to know and it's taking a better shape now: starting from this statement and assuming that a lot of people (still) have these kind of tanks, are all tang species equally resistant/non-resistant? It seems that people have different reports on how fast they get sick like cabinetman123's example above - hence another reason for the question. It might be just a coincidence or is it really these species (rather than healthier specific individuals which might have sort of a natural "immunity" - even though it's not a full immunity) that can get sicker faster?

 

[MrTuskfish]

I'm getting closer to something I'd like to know and it's taking a better shape now: starting from this statement and assuming that a lot of people (still) have these kind of tanks, are all tang species equally resistant/non-resistant? It seems that people have different reports on how fast they get sick like cabinetman123's example above - hence another reason for the question. It might be just a coincidence or is it really these species (rather than healthier specific individuals which might have sort of a natural "immunity" - even though it's not a full immunity) that can get sicker faster?

The following drivel is just my opinion and experience and I have too much idle time today; so bear with me. Personally, I would never keep an "ich-managed" tank. I think any such tank is living on borrowed time, some last a very long time, some go next week. But, IMO & IME, all will get the parasite in deadly numbers sometime. In any case; I believe ich-managed" tanks are only for expert aquarists who can recognize problems before they happen and are willing to take a big risk.


I think this is strictly an "individual fish" thing. You could get a reply that said his PBT seemed immune and another who said his Clown was. These opinions (IMO) really mean nothing because there are too many unknown factors. There are so many things that we assume may help immunity: diet, tankmates, tank size, general ability of the owner, previous exposure, etc. etc. FWIW; I don't any fish really has natural immunity, I think any immunity is acquired. Its also temporary and possible limited to just one strain of ich. One thing I'd bet the farm on: add ANY tang and five other fish to an "ich-managed" tank and the tang will probably be the 1st to show ich symptoms. I think any immunity/resistance to ich comes from ich exposure in the tank they are housed. I also think any tang that seems to have some immunity in an ich-managed tank would quickly come down with ich in a new tank; if he were moved. I simply don't believe any tang has permanent immunity to all strains of ich. And if all of these opinions aren't confusing enough: there may be no fish with any immunity in an "ich-managed'' tank. The ich that is present, may just be appearing in very low numbers, for reasons nobody really understands.

 

[ziyaadb]

I have had the following tangs and never QT Them :

Hippo - Always had ich
Yellow - Had Ich when i Had the Hippo - removed hippo no more ich
Scopas - Never Had ich
Sailfin - Had Ich when i had the hippo - removed Hippo no more ich

IME the zebrosoma species are stronger then the Pactehnthurus and acenthurus species

 

[marcusbacus]

Now that's a good answer!

If there isn't a natural immunity (which I also believe there isn't except by pure luck of some individuals), there isn't any way to say that the species x or y can be more or less resistant or less prone to get it. One can even think of creating an ich-free "strand" (although not really immune either, just "clean"), raised in captivity, but with the ich-managed tank problem, the fish can easily get reinfected. An analogy can be made to the discus fish: a lot of the wild discus if not all carry some kind of parasite, some more, some less. You can have your prized disease-free tank bred strand all infected just by adding one of these to your tank, even after quarantined, if the disease is in one of these stages when one think it's "gone" but it's just waiting to attack again...

 

[Ryand63]

Ive heard all tangs are ich magnets, but I've heard the powder blue and brown are very susceptible. No expert just what I heard.

 

[rachenbrazil]

Quarantine is not just about waiting to check if a tang have or don't have ich. It is time to adapt and maker it used to feed and recover from capture and travel. So timing should be over just few days of observation.

All proper qt fish may catch ich, but will be prepared to dela with and would recover fast without problem.
Some tangs would have longer qt time...others less...
So my experience handling tangs I could resume

Longer qt time

Achilles
Guttatus tang
Pwd blue
Pwd brown white cheek
Convict tang
Atlantic blue tang

Tangs that adapt better to qt requiring less time to full adaptation
Zebrassoma tangs
Orange shoulder
Phillipine yellow tang
Blue tang


If you provide plenty space reduced competition, good water movement and oxigen levels tangs would be fine after qt adaptation...