Blue tang, ich and ?
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Forum Name: Fish
Forum Description: This is the place to ask questions about fish.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=23499
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Topic: Blue tang, ich and ?
Posted By: MadReefer
Subject: Blue tang, ich and ?
Date Posted: February 03 2008 at 11:46am
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I added a baby blue tang two weeks ago. After a week it has ich. I moved it to quarentine to treat. It also has a bumpy belly and eats like he is starving.
1. No other fish shows any signs of ich. Can I count on ich dieing in the system if no other fish show it?
2. Should I treat the blue tang for worms? Do tangs just tend to be pigs? Is the bumpy belly normal for such a small tang?
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Replies:
Posted By: cl2ysta1
Date Posted: February 03 2008 at 11:49am
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the ich will not die in your system unless you remove every fish. You can give the little hippo a chance to recover, but he will more than likely contract the ich again if you put him back in. As for the eating. they are just pigs! ------------- I <3 Boxers Achilles tang lover |
Posted By: cl2ysta1
Date Posted: February 03 2008 at 11:50am
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if you are truely interested in getting rid of the ich you would have to remove every fish for 6 weeks. The fish you removed would have to be put into a hyposalinity treatment. there is a lot of info about this on the net. You would also need a refractometer b/c they are more accurate than hydrometers. ------------- I <3 Boxers Achilles tang lover |
Posted By: MadReefer
Date Posted: February 03 2008 at 11:55am
| I've read a lot. And nothing seems as clear cut as what you are saying. So this means that the ich is getting on my other fish from time to time. |
Posted By: cl2ysta1
Date Posted: February 03 2008 at 11:56am
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give me a sec i'm going to type it out and explain it to you. ------------- I <3 Boxers Achilles tang lover |
Posted By: cl2ysta1
Date Posted: February 03 2008 at 11:59am
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Ich is a parasite. Meaning it cannot survive without a host. Therefore by removing the fish from the display you are getting rid of the ich. They have a cyst type stage where they can lie dormant on a rock. As far as ive heard they can be dormant for up to 30 days. After they "hatch" if you will they are in a free floating tomite stage. If they do not find a host in 48 hours they die. If they do find a host this is when you see the spot on your fish. They stay on your fish and feed off of it and than burst and reproduce in the thousands. They however cannot live in hyposalinity, but fish can. 6 weeks ensures you kill all of them b/c they CAN survive in the tomite stage in hypo.
here is the link to some pix and more scientific info
http://saltaquarium.about.com/library/blank/blichcycle.htm - http://saltaquarium.about.com/library/blank/blichcycle.htm
Copper is also an effective treatment but i dont reccomend it on tangs, and it is also harder to maintain. I prefer hypo. much easier on the fish ------------- I <3 Boxers Achilles tang lover |
Posted By: MadReefer
Date Posted: February 03 2008 at 12:02pm
| That is what I thought. But what I was thinking is that if the fish in my tank have natural immunity to ich then the ich dies and I can put the tang back in after 6 weeks. |
Posted By: cl2ysta1
Date Posted: February 03 2008 at 12:39pm
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They dont really have an immunity just a very good slime coat as they have probbably been in the tank a while. The ich however will stay in the tank as it will attach to their gills from time to time. Unless you remove all the fish you will still have ich in the tank. You can live with it though. If you give the little hippo a chance to get a good slime coat he could be fine too, but they are ich magnets ------------- I <3 Boxers Achilles tang lover |
Posted By: MadReefer
Date Posted: February 03 2008 at 12:47pm
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Thanks I might be moving before summer, so I'll wait until then to treat the whole tank. Maybe I should keep the blue tang in a 20 gallon at my work until summer. I could remove the coral and keep it at a lower s.g.
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Posted By: cl2ysta1
Date Posted: February 03 2008 at 1:04pm
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if he is doing ok and only has a few spots i wouldnt worry about the hypo yet. If he gets bad though I would definetly do it ------------- I <3 Boxers Achilles tang lover |
Posted By: Shane H
Date Posted: February 03 2008 at 9:56pm
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The fact that he is eating is a very good sign. Keep up the feeding, but maintain the highest water quality possible If the fish remains healthy (good diet, good water quality) it can beat the parasite on its own. Good luck! I love the small blues, but I have heard a lot of similar stories. Keep us posted.
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Posted By: dave huish
Date Posted: February 03 2008 at 10:45pm
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feed everybody food soaked in garlic. If your tank doesn't have any invertabrates you could medicate the tank use non-chelated copper. non-chelated copper is very toxic to all invertabrates. chelated copper is hard to test for and generally kits available cannot test for chelated copper. In the past I have used a gravel vac to gentle filter out dormant parasites. I also have tried using lots of sand sifting stars, 12 lrg. per 180 gal, to strip the micro fauna out of the sand bed. This was only experimental but it seemed to help. I then added more live sand that hadn't had any fish in contact with it for more than 30 days. You could also add a UV sterilizer, which you could turn on and off whenever you would like. I think that could be a good addition to any tank. sorry to hear about the troubles. ------------- extended warranty.....how can I lose?!? |
Posted By: dave huish
Date Posted: February 04 2008 at 12:10am
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p.s. feed the hippo tang lots of meaty foods.
------------- extended warranty.....how can I lose?!? |
Posted By: dave huish
Date Posted: February 04 2008 at 12:24am
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I have treated many tangs in a quarantine system with non-chelated copper at .15ppm. the tangs and most other fish did fine. I did not keep them in there for very long about 2 weeks. The first fish to show any sign of abnormalities were always the pygmy angels and other angels. They seemed to get very listless if exposed for too long or the concentration was higher than .15ppm. NEVER put scaleless fish such as mandrin dragonettes in copper. They will not do well at all in a tank being treated with copper. Luckily the little buggers can make a thick mucosal cocoon that protects them from parasites and also predation at night. I do agree with cI2ysta1 that hypo is a much better solution (no pun intended) but it still won't totally kill the tomonts. ------------- extended warranty.....how can I lose?!? |
Posted By: Tresa
Date Posted: February 04 2008 at 8:08am
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The "lumpy" tummy is fine, keep feeding him and it will eventually smooth out.
I have managed to raise about 8 or 9 blues from the size of a dime to "meduim" size. I have only lost three through all of this, two to ich one to faulty water change water. The two I lost due to ich were not eaters so I am sure that had a lot to do with it.They all had ich as babies but with time they showed no signs.
Another thing to think about is his tankmates, make sure they are not harassing him - stress will make everything worse.
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Posted By: MadReefer
Date Posted: February 04 2008 at 4:00pm
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He is all by himself now in quarentine and hides all the time. No sign of ich. He comes out far enough to eat.
He was like the king of the tank in my main so I doubt he was being harassed. All my fish are small so he stepped right up after a few days in the tank. I was surprised to see the female clown allow this.
I was going to take him to the 20 gallon tank at school so I could keep him in a place where I could catch him again if any problems happen. I could also lower S.G. if needed. Is this a bad idea? I can't feed him on the weekends but I figured that shouldn't be too long. Rarely four/five days at most.
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Posted By: Tresa
Date Posted: February 05 2008 at 9:41am
| I think that putting him in quarantine is a good idea but I am not sure that letting a little one go that long without food is good. I am very guilty of overfeeding but when a fish is stressed or sick I think not feeding them regularly makes it worse......... |
Posted By: dkle
Date Posted: February 05 2008 at 10:33am
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May be my opinion is in the minority here, but I've never treat saltwater ich. Unlike freshwater ich, which is almost always fatal if not treated, my experience with saltwater ich is that the fish will get over it if they are healthy. Everytime I add a new fish in the tank, my tangs, especially the blue tang, will come down with ich. But they all recovered in time if they are well-fed and not stressed out because of fighting. ------------- If you can't bedazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bs! Dinhkim Le - Procrastinator extra-ordinare |
Posted By: dave huish
Date Posted: February 05 2008 at 10:37am
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I agree with dkle. I don't like to use treatments unless absolutely neccessary. ------------- extended warranty.....how can I lose?!? |
Posted By: Jhamb
Date Posted: February 06 2008 at 4:14pm
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I used to not treat ich either until my powder brown got it. it was very bad and i tried to catch him but was un successful. I tried for 2 more days to catch him but never did until he couldn't swim a way from me anymore cause he was dead! Haven't had an ich out break since then but he did get it on and off alot every time i just let him and the other fish be and they all just over came it! ------------- Jeremy 40B INW USAF |