What should I do if anything...

[am3gross]

Bought a powder blue tang last weekend feb 20.. He is a very active and healthy looking specimen... He is eating very well.... Attacks the algae clip as soon as I put it in...

He is in a 58 gallon qt tank all by himself. He is starting to scrape him self over the pipes that are in the tank. I started hypo the day that I bought him. It has takin me a week to get it down to 1.009. I am there as of today. Other then the scraping on the pipes he shows no other signs of having ick. Is there something else that he may have that I should be treating for?

 

[h2so4hurts]

For hypo, you can drop the salinity to 13PPT in a couple of hours. Fish can tolerate very quick LOWERING of salinity, it's going back up that's the issue. I've done this many times with a variety of fish. Actually, quickly lowering the salinity is the best thing you can do for a fish with high parasite loads. Slowly lowering the salinity only helps the parasite get a foothold because it can grow and develop the entire time you're lowering the salinity.

If you don't see white spots, it could just be stress or maybe flukes. I'd keep an eye out for spots. Feed him a highly nutritious food like New Life Spectrum pellets and see how he responds. Be very careful mixing other treatments in combination with hyposalinity. There's good information out there that adding copper to the regimen can be deadly.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Bought a powder blue tang last weekend feb 20.. He is a very active and healthy looking specimen... He is eating very well.... Attacks the algae clip as soon as I put it in...

He is in a 58 gallon qt tank all by himself. He is starting to scrape him self over the pipes that are in the tank. I started hypo the day that I bought him. It has takin me a week to get it down to 1.009. I am there as of today. Other then the scraping on the pipes he shows no other signs of having ick. Is there something else that he may have that I should be treating for?

Not unless you see symptoms of something other than ich, that's all hypo will treat. It can take a while for symptoms to disappear; the ich cycle is long and complicated. If you've read the ich stickies above, they give an excellent look at the ich life-cycle. No ich was killed as SG was dropping; it had to get to 1.008-1.009 to do anything. Just be sure you have a well-calibrated refractometer and are religious about top-offs. An ATO really helps. There is no "wiggle room" with hypo, just a short time at a SG above 1.009 (due to evaporation) can let a theront get into the fish----and the process starts all over. It sounds like you haven't seen any white spots and he is in a QT, correct? Is he primarily scratching the gill areas? Because this is a PBT, as susceptible to ich as any fish that swims, I think its safe to assume its ich. I would also de-worm this fish with Prazi-Pro, like all new fish, while he's in a QT.

 

[am3gross]

Thanks for the help guys.. I will keep an eye on him... Other then the scraping he looks to be healthy as an be... I will keep you posted... I am planning 6 weeks at 1.009.. Then a week to bring it up to where the display is... Then I will watch him for another 2 weeks before he makes it to the display.. I can't wait!!

 

[MrTuskfish]

Sounds like a plan, they are gorgeous fish! Again, I'd use some Prazi-Pro. Flukes can cause scratching and you're not seeing spots. Prazi+pro is also the easiest, safest med I know of.

 

[am3gross]

Sounds like a plan, they are gorgeous fish! Again, I'd use some Prazi-Pro. Flukes can cause scratching and you're not seeing spots. Prazi+pro is also the easiest, safest med I know of.

Can I do this at the same time I am doing the hypo?

 

[MrTuskfish]

Can I do this at the same time I am doing the hypo?

I'm not sure; I never use hypo and just can't remember. The PrazPro package has a tech support number, I'd call them. If your other fish haven't been wormed; you may want to do them all at once, PP is one of the very few reef-safe meds (kills feather dusters though) But with scratching & no spots, I think you should treat him as a soon as you get an answer. Someone will chime in here soon, I'm sure.