Brown specks on my yellow tang

[OhTheHumanity]

Over the last couple days I have noticed brown specks on the sides of my tang. They are about the size of a grain of sand. He is very active and curious. He is eating just fine. Any ideas?

 

[reefrunner69]

Could be black ick. If so you should treat with hyposalinity in a qt tank. I've had yellow tangs with black ick and they got better on their own, but that was probably dumb luck.

 

[cj10488]

I have had black Ich once and was cured by doing a FW dip with matched temp, pH water until the spots dropped off. About 10secs.. My fish have never gotten it again..

James

 

[OhTheHumanity]

I forgot to mention that it there is nothing on my damsel. Still think it may be black ich? If I can catch it and get it into the QT do I use standard ich medication? I'm not too comfortable with the FW dip.

 

[reefrunner69]

Hyposalinity will do the trick if you don't want to do the FW dip

 

[OhTheHumanity]

A dip of any type makes me nervous.

 

[OhTheHumanity]

Any idea why the damsel hasn't picked it up yet? How do I get the parasite completely out of the disaply?

 

[reefrunner69]

Hyposalinity is not a dip, it is a treatment that takes 3-4 weeks. Black ick is not really "ick", it is a worm, I think.

Hyposalinity

 

[steve-s]

Dips do not treat the main tank either. The tubellarian worms will leave the fish much in the same way as with protozoan parasites and multiplies in the substrate. Typically the fallow period should be longer with this kind of parasite though, 6-8 weeks.

Cheers
Steve