Blue tang with ich

[ZacksFlowerhorn123]

1.025Ok so i added him to the tank like 3 days ago.. I didnt quarantine because i only have a 10 gallon tank for quarantine and i heard somewhere that the tang will almost always develop ich when addedd to a tank.. So i added him and well.. He we are!.

So ive heard people say to feed him well with garlic soaked foods 2 times a day..

Then others say quarantine... I could take him to petco and have them quarantine him with ich med. But whenever i get to close to the tank he hides. Today hes starting to get use to me.. I can actually stand 3 feet away from him and hes comfortable.. So how in the world would i catch him? Hed just get more stressed right?


AM I OVERTHINKING THIS BECAUSE IM STRESSED TOO. I love the little guy.. Yes little.. Hes only 2 inches.. (Another problem )

Please help. you guys are awesome. I need the verdict tonight so i can decide what to do in my scedule for tomorrow..

Here are the tank specs.

Ph: 8.2 salinity: 1.025 0 ammonia, 0 Nitrite and nitrate. 0 phosphate, i have an octopus skimmer, uv sterilizer, and a great filter with carbon in it. I have a 55 gallon tank.. Yes a 55 gallon tank. Dont go bollistic on this because ive seen many people do this.

I AM BY NO MEANS SAYING THAT ITS RIGHT. because i know its wrong but if and when he gets to big my friend accross the street will take him into his 8000 gallon fowlr.. Yes 3 zeros and an 8.

So please just tell me what the best way of treatment would be.. He is in with 2 skunk cleaners, blue leg hermits nassarius snails, turbos and astreas... AND i do 9 gallon waterchanges every week.

 

[ZacksFlowerhorn123]

And its a reef tank.. Could i dose the instant ocean ich treatment in the tank??? I dont know if its reef safe and reef safe crap doesnt work.. But this stuff worked wen quarantineing the clown for ich and the tanks been setup for 4 months. Please hurry

 

[ZacksFlowerhorn123]

I hafta go with reef rookie on this, tangs get ick all the time, they get stressed out really easily, from time to time my blue tang gets ick, normally after the coral beauty chases him around for a couple of days, when ever i see spots, i take a 1/4 clove of garlic in the blender, then mix with 1/4 cup of R.O. water, and add some flake food and 1 cube of mysis, let soak for an hour and feed the hole mixture, my fish eat the flake, mysis, and the garlic peices, and within a couple of days the blue tang is spot free, in the 1 year that i owned my blue tang, it has been infected 3 times and this worked every time, i don't know if the cleaner wrasse is any help or not, but it is worth mentioning that i have one in the tank, other than that, i don't own a QT tank, i don't find the need for one. BUT what works for some, don't work for others right....


Do you think this will work? Do i put the juice in too?

 

[bskerrichard27]

No I do not think it will work ick is a parasite u wt all new fish so u can treat them and rid them so u don't introduce it in the dt ... Walmart has 10 g tanks for 12.00 so get a qt and hypo him or copper or get two 10 gallons and use the swap method .. know he's in the dt tank all the fish will get ick some worse then others . The tang will be fine in a 10 for qt ...

 

[huma-huma]

Cleaner wrasse... Then garlic-foods soaked in garlic

 

[tonedogz]

you need a qt tank,why you think you don't need one is beyond me. You need to hypo or copper the infected fish and leave your main tank fishless for 6 weeks or so to kill off any parasites that have fallen off the fish already, they can't live without a host fish. Cleaner wrasse won't help because the parasite is under the fishes skin where it can't get to it. Finally I think your tang keeps getting ich is because its living in your tank and infects the fish when they get weak or stressed.

 

[huma-huma]

you need a qt tank,why you think you don't need one is beyond me. You need to hypo or copper the infected fish and leave your main tank fishless for 6 weeks or so to kill off any parasites that have fallen off the fish already, they can't live without a host fish. Cleaner wrasse won't help because the parasite is under the fishes skin where it can't get to it. Finally I think your tang keeps getting ich is because its living in your tank and infects the fish when they get weak or stressed.

Cleaner wrasse eat bacteria and forgein bodies off of other fish... Hence it will eat ich... Although ich doe form under the fishs skin, it has to surface to dislodge from the host and fall.. Thats when the cleaner wrasse gets him

 

[bskerrichard27]

Cleaner wrasse won't rid yur fish of ick

 

[carey]

Garlic, cleaner wrasses, UV and kick ich will not kill all the ich. :-(

You have two choices, one is hyposalinity treaqtment done in a separate tank or copper treatment, also done in a separate tank. Thats it, end of story. Only two known proven methods of ridding your tank of ich. Some people will swear by the other methods i listed and yeah, maybe the ich falls off and you cant see it anymore. But it may not leave your tank entirely, now wouldnt you like to guarantee that its gone than hope and each day is like a surprise if it comes back?

Not every fish starts out with ich. I have had as many as 9 tanks up and running at one time and have not had ich. I have tangs as well and no ich. Not even on my blue one and they are notorious for having ich. I also made sure i qt'ed the tangs, some of my other fish i have not qt'd but the tangs no doubt had to be qt'ed. My blue started out small too, maybe 2.5 inches and now he is a good 6 inches. thats in a years time so he will out grow that 55g well before you think he will. Just be prepared.

 

[MikeYQM]

I used Proto Marin Coral as an in tank treatment for ich on my Blue Hippo. I have not seen it come back in months. Say what you will but I think the stuff worked.

I caught it early on, fish was still active & feeding. For a more advanced case, I would look at hypo salinity. But in terms of clearing the tank of the parasite, it seemed to work well. Maybe not 100% effective but enough to rid all symptoms going on 3 months now.

 

[bskerrichard27]

And yet another snake oil promoter....hypo ,copper, or switch tank method only methods tried and tried again that cure ick .... These useless cures that waste time money fish and cause hobbiest to get fed up and leave the hobby is absurd
STOP PROMOTING THESE NON PROVEN METHODS IT IS KILLING THE HOBBY

 

[MikeYQM]

No, I don't think I will stop. Even though you used all caps.

I tried it and it worked. During the treatment period, the ich disappeared. If any sign of ich had returned in the following 6 weeks or so, my opinion would be different. Going on 3 months now & not a sign.

Have you tried it? Probably not. That sir, is hypocrisy.

 

[carey]

You may have gotten lucky, or it may rear it's head again. me, I spend way too much on my setups and livestock that i wouldnt wanna take that chance. For every one person that it may seem to work for there are most likely 10 others it didn't. I think it just brings peoples hopes up that it's a "cure" when in fact it is not. This isn't just my opinion but fact that you can research on the internet or the library, hypo and copper are the 2 surest ways of eradicating it. And to leave the main tank fallow for 4-6 weeks with no fish so that any remaining ich in any life stage can finally die.

Just stating the truth so the OP knows what the deal is.

 

[MikeYQM]

If I had 'just gotten lucky', based on the ich life cycle, it would have returned around the 6 week marker. I am now approaching what would be the second visible stage had the life cycle continued with no signs whatsoever.

It's pretty short sighted to say that 'nothing works or will ever work'. Everything advances. Everything gets better. Maybe there are plenty of products that are garbage, or are just misused. This product is rated for early/mild cases and that's when I used it. And followed the directions to a tee. By following its intended use & directions I had complete success.

If you haven't tried a product in a fashion where you can vouch for the appropriate use, keep your opinion as that. OPINION.

By spreading your opinion to contradict tested results and first hand experience, you could be turning someone away from a viable solution.

I used it as directed and it worked. There's no luck involved there. If there were, then the ich MAGICALLY disappeared from my tank at the EXACT time of treatment. Now that's coincidence.

 

[Schism]

I have a 55 gallon tank.. Yes a 55 gallon tank. Dont go bollistic on this because ive seen many people do this.

im not gonna go ballistic on this, however would just like to point out that just because ppl do it does not make it ok, nor does it mean the fish lives a long stress free life in that tank. Thats all ill say.

I AM BY NO MEANS SAYING THAT ITS RIGHT. because i know its wrong but if and when he gets to big my friend accross the street will take him into his 8000 gallon fowlr.. Yes 3 zeros and an 8.

Atleast you have a backup plan. Many dont.

So please just tell me what the best way of treatment would be.. He is in with 2 skunk cleaners, blue leg hermits nassarius snails, turbos and astreas... AND i do 9 gallon waterchanges every week.

The absolute best course of action is quarantine and treatment with hypo salinity or copper. This is an absolute guaranteed way of ridding ich so i suggest you do it or your LFS as you stated. The ich cycle is about 28 days, meaning youll also have to wait that long before you add anything new to the 55 since the tang is your only host any remaining ich in the tank will die without a host. If that makes sense.

Quarantine and treatment is recommended for 4-6 weeks to rid of the parasite.

Also no not all blue tangs get ich or have ich. They are however very susceptible to it and this is why we quarantine and give them proper tanks to rid of the parasite and then provide a stress free environment. If you quarantine properly you should ever have to deal with ich in your tank.

 

[tonedogz]

If I had 'just gotten lucky', based on the ich life cycle, it would have returned around the 6 week marker. I am now approaching what would be the second visible stage had the life cycle continued with no signs whatsoever.

It's pretty short sighted to say that 'nothing works or will ever work'. Everything advances. Everything gets better. Maybe there are plenty of products that are garbage, or are just misused. This product is rated for early/mild cases and that's when I used it. And followed the directions to a tee. By following its intended use & directions I had complete success.

If you haven't tried a product in a fashion where you can vouch for the appropriate use, keep your opinion as that. OPINION.

By spreading your opinion to contradict tested results and first hand experience, you could be turning someone away from a viable solution.

I used it as directed and it worked. There's no luck involved there. If there were, then the ich MAGICALLY disappeared from my tank at the EXACT time of treatment. Now that's coincidence.

Hey Mikey, Your method may have worked for some reason or another but 9 times out of 10 it won't. We don't always have had to have tried something to know it works or doesn't work, there are tons of experts who will tell you that hypo or copper are the only sure fire methods that work. You may not agree with them but I find that Carey and Schism are pretty knowledgable here on this forum so give a little credence to what they say.

 

[bskerrichard27]

I myself have killed myshare of livestock with the snake oils and I have purchased 3 tanks off cl and two of the three gave up due to ick and they both came with snake oil cures ones rid ick reef safe med other is instant ocean tables cure all none work just made two people leave the hobby for people giving them false info don't mean to sound rude it just bothers me to misinform people and cost fish lives and money

 

[Keithhjs]

May I ask that you are sure it is indeed ick? I had two fish (a flame angel & a blue tang) show what appeared to be ick 24 hours or so after I got them. Both fish ate fine & acted normal. With in 24-48 both were white dot free. And no it wasn't sand on them. IMO sometimes a stressed fish looks like it is getting ick which nay not actually be. My flame angel came overnighted from fed ex so I'm sure it was a little stressed at first. My blue tang was from a LFS but they are notorious for their skin(scale?) sensitivity. Just food for thought.

 

[huma-huma]

To the OP, i suggest you look at it this way: copper and/or hypo-salinity are the only two repeatedly proven ways of getting rid of ich (completely), that being said, it doesnt mean there arent other forms or ways of ridding your fish of ich, it just means that their success rate isnt quite as high as the copper/hypo... Its prett much a decision you and only you can make, attempt. A different "solution" and see if it works... Or go the copper/hypo route and know that in the end, itll work.. Although it takes longer. Fyi copper is lethal to inverts keep that in mind

 

[nikki_kaiser]

Don't do both at the same time or you'll kill the fish!