Tangs and Ich?

[dynomight]

Alright Mods I figure this should go into fish diesease (sp?) forum....... then I said no maybe reef fishes......but the topic really seems all around reef related. So just bear with me here.

Alrighty, so I was talking to my saltwater guy at my LFS and we got onto the topic of tangs and Ich. He seemed to be in the "I just let them ride it out and whoever lives, well....lives." I disagree with this and have been fighting with Ich for a while now.

He also acted like tangs just carry it in their skin and a small amount of stress will make it come back no matter the pre-quarantine and treatment I do.

So basically I am just wanting to get some opinions on this matter. Will my quarantine kill the Ich that my tangs are carrying? When I set up my new tank and add them to it will the stress bring it back?

Thanks in advance!

 

[mcoomer]

I've kept tangs in my tank for years and yes they are prone to ich. When I was new to the hobby I would drop them in the main tank and then fight the ich that developed. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost. To watch some of those fish die is disheartening and it's expensive. Now I keep all my fish in a Q-tank before I put them in the display tank. 2 weeks in the Q-tank, maintain a healthy display tank, properly acclimate the fish when adding them to the new tank, no ich.

Coincidence? I think not. I loves me some tangs!

Mike

 

[deejeff442]

my purple just had ich last week probably 25 spots and my achilles had maybe 4 or 5 spots.
i typically feed a little more with vitamines and garlic.
i has gone away.
i believe they carry it all the time but keep them healthy and stress free and it goes aeay.
all the other fish havnt gotten it.
the slime coat they have helps fight the ich.
i added a fowleri tang from my qt yesterday so i will see what happens.
also good idea to keep some cleaner shrimp in the tank for reguler maintanance.

 

[Aquaman]

Ich can be found in almost every reef tank in existance. You'll find that stress is the number one cause of tangs getting ich. I don't subscribe to letting them "ride it out" as it does nothing to fix the underling cause. Taking the fish out and into a Q tank and treat the fish there has its merrits and will rid ich from the fish but again does nothing long term when you put the fish back into an enviroment that stresses it out.

 

[dynomight]

I do everything I can to maintain the health of my fish i.e. selcon and garlic soaking the food and clean water.

Aquaman touched on this but my real question is will they always have the possibility for ich even if they are medicated for a time before being placed in the DT.

 

[Ganzel]

I had trouble with ich on my blue hyppo tang. I did the following 3 steps and it never came back!

1-Garlic gard at least once a day with frozen food for the first 3 months, then dropped to once or twice a week.

2-Added a UV sterilizer, doesn't need to be a big one, I use a coralife3x twist turbo 9w on my 125 gallons tank + 70 gallons sump and it's working just fine.

3-Bought a neon goby. Those little dudes will clean all of your fishes from any parasite, they eat mysis, they don't die as quick as cleaner wrass, they grow to about 1 inch, so they fit in any tank, and can live without parasites once they're gone. The perfect reefmate!

3 months later, no ich on any fish, and it never came back, you know it's suppose to be cycling thing, well it's been more than 8 months without it so I guess it's not just "cycling"

 

[Mr. Brooks]

A tank that has ich will always have ich unless it runs fallow for 6 weeks. A strain of ich can die off or become weak after about 9 months if no new strains are introduced.

Tangs do not always have ich. It's not a disease. It's a parasite. If you QT all your fish before placing them in your display tank. It is possible to prevent ich from ever making it's way in.

If a fish shows signs of ich one week, and no signs the next week. It does not mean your fish "fought it off". The parasite simply jumped off to start another life cycle. The parasite WILL come back, whether you see it or not. Garlic and other "cures" do not kill ich. They may help your fish survive the onslaught. But they won't do anything to cure your tank.

Also, cleaner shrimp and cleaner wrasses do not eat the ich parasite. They simply eat the dead flesh off the infected fish.

The white spots you see when a fish has ich is not the ich parasite. The white spots are the fish's reaction to the infection.

 

[dynomight]

^^^^^^^^This was my whole thought on the subject. It didn't make sense to me for a parasite to be in remission in its host and then stress triggers it. Thats not how they work biologically.

I have my tank bare except for a starry blenny I cant catch. He shows no signs of ich and has been that way since day one. I am going to leave all fish in qt until I set up my new 70g cube next month which will make it just at 6 weeks. I have thought about a UV steralizer but have mixed feelings about them.

Just trying to clear up some LFSBS.

Thanks for the responses.

 

[Itaysworld]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14831444#post14831444 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thechad21
A tank that has ich will always have ich unless it runs fallow for 6 weeks. A strain of ich can die off or become weak after about 9 months if no new strains are introduced.

Tangs do not always have ich. It's not a disease. It's a parasite. If you QT all your fish before placing them in your display tank. It is possible to prevent ich from ever making it's way in.

If a fish shows signs of ich one week, and no signs the next week. It does not mean your fish "fought it off". The parasite simply jumped off to start another life cycle. The parasite WILL come back, whether you see it or not. Garlic and other "cures" do not kill ich. They may help your fish survive the onslaught. But they won't do anything to cure your tank.

Also, cleaner shrimp and cleaner wrasses do not eat the ich parasite. They simply eat the dead flesh off the infected fish.

The white spots you see when a fish has ich is not the ich parasite. The white spots are the fish's reaction to the infection.

Well said Chad. Great write up about it...er... ich.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Have/Do you seen/see any signs of ich on any of your fish?

 

[jenglish]

Chad, good synopsis, The data I have seen for the strain was 10 months from Lee Birch and 11 for Dr. Burgess. It probably has a range like anything else.

Tangs are more prone to show ich due to a thinner slime coat than other fish. This is not an issue in the wild for tangs who swim great distances and don't stick around for subsequent rounds of ich.

 

[dynomight]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14832628#post14832628 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jenglish
Chad, good synopsis, The data I have seen for the strain was 10 months from Lee Birch and 11 for Dr. Burgess. It probably has a range like anything else.

Tangs are more prone to show ich due to a thinner slime coat than other fish. This is not an issue in the wild for tangs who swim great distances and don't stick around for subsequent rounds of ich.

Man that is depressing to hear. I feel like this is never going to go away now. I do everything I think I should be doing to keep my fish healthy. I feed multiple foods, garlic and selcon, and keep the water clean. The only stressful factor I can think of is right now my DT is only a 29g. Now dont start flaming me yet, I have a new 36X30X17.5 cube in the works and will be started with all my LR of my previous system in early may. I also make sure to get the smaller tangs like the tomini's. I plan to cap them at 4-5 specimens.

 

[jenglish]

not a flame but....

are you talking about putting multiple tangs in a tank thats longest dimension is 36 inches? I tend to think of a 48 inch tank being good for a single tang. Perhaps the cube provides enough circular swim track (as opposed to the back and forth in a rectangle) that the tang would be OK, but multiples sounds pushing it to me.

 

[dynomight]

Yeah I thought about that as well, I feel the depth adds enough swimming area for the fish. There will be only about 30-40lbs of LR in the display. It is quite large being 30 inches deep.

Also I dont have a tang that will reach any amazing lengths. Namely a yellow eye Kole, yellow, and a palani. I just realized I put 4-5 specimens in my last post but its more like these three unless I see something I cant pass up.

On another note I just ordered a UV steralizer. People are usually torn between the good and bad of them. I will find it out on my own.

 

[jenglish]

My view on UV is that they only effect what runs through them, hence they don't kill many good bacteria. They can effect free swimming bacteria and algae and to a lesser extent protazoa. Perhaps there best use is on the skimmer feed to break down organics. my .02 on UV

As far as tangs, 3 still sounds like a lot but I'm a nano kind of guy so I have never had a tang. Maybe it is perfectly fine, I'm just not that well versed in tangs.