Tangs and Ich

[Brandon Cassidy]

I have had had three different tangs in my 1 year experience as a reefer. 2 have died from ich. My yellow died, then i bought a tennetti tang, and he got ich, but ich rid helped him. I just bought a new Sailfin tange...three days ago. He got ich. Now, why are all my tangs getting ich. Everyother fish I have never got it. Everything in my tank now is doing really well. If anyone would like to shed some light on this, I'd be very greatful. Thanks! B

 

[tmz]

Tangs are very prone to ich. I'm not sure why. It may be that their slime coat is less protective than other fish. Or it may be their sleeping habits. They tend to find a crevice or cave to snuggle up in at night. Cryptocaryon parasites leave the fish at night and settle on the rock or sustrate,then multiply into cysts which"hatch" at night within a week or so. They immediately look for a host for the in fish stage of their life cycle and the Tang in it's favorite sleeping place is a likely target.

Since you have had an ich infested fish in your tank,you now have ich in your tank.Depending upon the overall health of your other fish and the virulence of the ich strain they may or may not be infected. They may be infected without visible spots and the parasite may be where you can't see it such as the gills. The only way to clear your reef tank is to leave it fishless for several months. If you choose not to do that you will have to wait 11months for the strain of ich in your system to exhaust it's life cycle.
Any new fish is likely to be infected by the ich in your tank.
After the 11 months or the several(72days)fishless months, only properly quarantined and treated specimens should be introduced.
There are many unproven products to treat ich in a reef aquarium, I would not recommend any of them. Copper sulfate in quarantine is the proven method. Many are also having success with hyposalinity in quarantine. Good Luck

 

[Brandon Cassidy]

The new Sailfin was in the tank for only a day. I am sure that is enough for the ich to spread around, but theothers are quite healthy for the moment. I put the Sailfin in quarentine for 2 days with ICH RID and hyposalinity and I found him dead this morning. He even look a million times better last night. A nice water change and still......dead. I think I'm done with the tangs for now. I'll opt for some chromis.

 

[NirvanaFan]

Were you using a refractometer to test the specific gravity of the qt tank?

Your fish in the display tank are healthy and not stressed, so they can fight off the ich. The new addition is stressed out and is more prone to getting a bad case of ich, which will stress it more. I've never used ich rid, so I can't really comment on that. The hyposalinity seems to be working for my powder blue though. I haven't seen any ich on him for over 2 weeks now.

Since there is ich in your display, even after quarantining the tang, when you re-introduce him to your display he would get ich again. If you're not going to quarantine all your fish, then don't even bother pulling any fish to qt. They'll just catch it when they get introduced back to the display. Let them fight it in the display. If your other fish get it, look into adding some garlic to their food. Some people have had success with that boosting their fishes immune systems.

 

[Brandon Cassidy]

I will probably try the garlic if the get it....or I might even do it even though the don't for the time being. It might work to prevent ich. The new fish died so I won't put him back in the display obviously. What kind of garlic? Extract or a piece of a clove? Thanks.

 

[Brandon Cassidy]

Oh and I did not use a refractometer. I have had pretty good luck with the swing arm. We tested 3 vials of saltwater with both swing arm and ref. at LFS, and all the tests were so close so I just stuck with the swing arm for ease.

 

[NirvanaFan]

I'm not really sure about the garlic. You'll have to research it a bit. If I was to guess I would probably say to put the extract in the food, but I really don't know.

 

[tmz]

Swing arm won't cut it for getting down to 1.09. They're just not accurate enough. Hypo treatments require ,many argue 1.09sg, much lower and the fish can be hurt,much higher and it won't kill the parasite. I prefer to use copper sulfate.

I use garlic extreme, a concentrate by Kent Marine. I can't recommend it as much more than a food flavoring. Allicin which is the element in garlic that enhances immuno response in humans is only active for an hour after the garlic is pressed. So a concentrate preserved in citric acid is likely to have little if any immuno enhancing quality.Even with the fresh squeezed garlic there is no proof that it works in a marine environment. The jury is still out.
I have also used a uv sterilizer which although not very effective against the larger parasites,is very effective against smaller microfuana such as dinofagellates and bacteria which contribute to secondary infections which are often more lethal than the cryptocaryon.