Yellow Tang and black spot ich?

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phishcrazee

Member
I just purchased a beautiful Yellow Tang and have been very careful with everything as I'm so worried he will get ich. Today when I come home from work, I think I see like two miniscule black specks on him and now I'm panicking, as I think he has black spot ich. I think I will go ahead and lower the salinity tonight. At what point to do I do a FW dip? I'm not even certain he has ich, just paranoid that he does, but I don't want to take any chances. He's in a quarantine tank. He's eating and a little shy still, so it's hard to get a good look at it.
 
When my yellow tang had black ich I picked up a neon cleaner goby and he took care of the problem in no time. The relationship is also pretty cool to see. Even if your tang doesn't have ich its pretty cool to watch the goby clean your other fish.

Terry
 
That's a cool suggestion, but I live in NE Iowa right now, so it's not very easy to go an get a SW fish. Maybe in the future after I move down to Riverside, I can just go down to Sea of Marvels and get one :)

I saw a cleaner shrimp for sale at Petco in Waterloo, would he do the trick too? I'll be down in Coralville this weekend and over to Oskaloosa to pick up some mushrooms, would it be worthwhile to stop at one of the SW stores around there and get some sort of cleaner shrimp? How about the scarlet skunk shrimp (not sure of the name) is that one any better than a coral banded?
 
I have a cleaner shrimp (aka. Skunk) as well but the cleaner goby seemed more agreesive about keeping the tang clean. You could get both like I have... They are both interesting and safe additions to any tank, assuming you don't have any fish that will eat shrimp.

Terry
 
Cleaner shrimp are fun, but my fish don't like to be cleaned by them ( the yellow tang freaks out and throws them off every time).

I've seen the neon gobys at emporium before. I'm not sure on their whole moving situation and everything, but you could give that a try.
 
i say the best be is to qt him and do hypo. there have been ppl that have had good luck with cleaners actually helping but in most cases cleaners in an aquarium don't do alot. according to the magazine "Marine Fish USA and Reef" vol. 8
 
Today, I can't really see any black specks, but there is this area on his one side that looks "different". It almost looks like a mild abrasion, it's just slightly lighter colored than the rest of him. Not sure what it is. The guy who scooped him did a good job getting him into a container and I don't think I hurt him when I got him into the QT. He's eating well, but still very shy. He's eaten all of what I put into the clips for him, some dried algae and fresh greens. The water is at 1.017 salinity now, I'm trying to drop it slow.

I'm not sure how a neon goby would do with my 2 damsels? I have a 3 stripe and an oddball, a creole damsel, who's a little punk, but beautiful, all purple :)
 
To my knowledge black ich is a form of worm.......freshwater baths and/or formalin dips are an effective treatment. Do a search for "black ich".

HTH
Janey
 
He still has this small rectangualr spot of discoloration and I think I've seen him rub against the rocks, at least that's what he appears to do. He's still eating well. Does Sea of Marvels have any neon gobies in? I'm not completely sure it is ich, does anyone know what else it could be?
 
You would need really good pics for us to help you with diagnosis. If you have tangs, a neon will only help. One question is, if he has ich what is causing it? Stress is the most likely cause. Mine got ich when I added a sohal.

Marcus
 
Well, I just got him, so that'd be the cause of the stress. It's pretty much impossible to get any sort of picture of him, much less a good one of the area I'm talking about. He's very fast and very shy still.
 
Well, I can't really see any black spots on the tang, but he seems to not be eating now or not like he was, and it appears he has the white form of ich, but just on his pectoral fins........ I'm not sure what to do at this point? He's in hypo water at 1.010, water temp at 82, an airstone plus water turbulance from the HOB filter waterfall........ what should I do with the little guy? I'm thinking of dosing with an ich cure tonight, any ideas people? He was a Petco purchase, but he seemed v.healthy at the store, ie. he was eating swimming around, he seemed great. I feel like such a bad fish keeper :(
 
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What all do you feed him? If you feed frozen foods you could start soaking it in garlic guard. It helps to build there immune system. Otherwise just try making it as least stressful for him as you can. Try not to put your hands in a lot and change things. As long as he's swimming and eating he should be able to fight it off.
 
I feed him fresh greens, dried seaweeds and the Formula 1 or 2 whichever one is the veggie one. He's picking at the fresh greens now and then, but really not eating much, he's starting to look a bit thin. I dosed him with Rid Ich tonight. It says 1 tsp per 10g, but I've heard you need more medication when dealing with sw or it's not effective, is this true? I just dosed according to instructions tonight. I want to get him better asap, as I know how fast a fish can go downhill once they stop eating and I feel he's headed down that path.
 
Dosed with Rid Ich last night and came home to a much healthier tang, thank heavens :) His dorsal fin is up again and he's eating his greens, so I think he's out of the woods for now. :)
 
Someone has told me that I'm not suppose to dose Rid Ich when doing the hyposalinity, is this true and if so, why not? He seems much better today.... not sure if I should keep on with the Rid Ich now with the salinity so low?!
 
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