Doan
Aquarium Advice Freak
POINT TAKEN 
Doan
Doan
Just gotta vent..
- Thread starter Doan
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
michealprater
Aquarium Advice Addict
montepora
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Tang experience
Just a quick answer, UV will not kill your pods, it kills water born "everything" but not pods, worms or whatever you have that is not floating in the water are fine with UV.
I kept a PBT, purple tang, Hippo tang and yellow tang from 5 to 8 years. I lost them all in the black out back in August. There are many great suggestions already given but I would like to add a bit more just to help.
Let's assume you pick out a healthy tang from your LFS. It is healthy, round belly, clear eye, normal breath rate, no visible wounds, clear fins and etc, etc... Let's assume you acclimate the fish very well!!!!! It is in your tank and it is in hiding and you shut off the light to reduce stress and now the tang is hiding in the rock work and the tank is dark.
The next day, you are very exciting to go and see your fish, it is shy and still kinda hiding but would take a peek here and there. You are all happy and try to feed it food but it is not eating. THIS IS NORMAL!!! A new fish would take up to a week before feeding in your tank so you should stay put.
Mmm... tangs have no scales. They are very sensitive/hyper fish when in a community tank so usually hobbyists will find their fish infected with ich because they get nervous. At this point, a lot of us would over react and said" WTF, what should I do, the fish is sick and it will get all my fish sick!!", if at this point the fish is active, out in the open and feeding, you really have nothing to worry about. Far too often people would try to do whatever they can to find remedies or try to get the fish out for treatment. This actually further stress the tank/fish and then cause fish or whatever fatality.
My experience is to stay put if the fish is eating. DO NOT FURTHER STRESS THE FISH!!! Con't to feed the fish PLENTY of veggie like nori, formula 2, frozen food soaked in Selcon, Vita Chem, Garlic Extract or other food additive BUT the most important of all, feed spirulina!!!
If you tang is infected with ich but it is eating, spirulina would help to eradicate the ich. Other additives would help to build the fish's immune system especially those with amino acid and vitamine C. IF the fish is eating, then this is the route I would go instead of trying to catch the fish or treat the tank with medication.
So this is my experience. 1) do not jump into conclusion and think that this is the end of the world. 2) do not start to assume that your water is bad and try to do crazy water changes which would disturb the water parameter and cause stress to the fish. 3) make sure that you have plenty of veggie food for your fish like nori. 4) This is again from my past experience, feed your tang flake food. DO NOT OVERFEED as when adding excessive flake food in your tank could cause excessive nutrients and problem algae growth. But my experience is that flake food has very high nutritional value and this would help your fish remain healthy especially when introduced to the new environment.
UV is a good addition although many would think otherwise. I use UV personally and would always use it as long as I have a tank. BUT, UV is not the answer and there a lot more one needs to look into. Overall, I believe keeping a healthy, stable and well maintained environment are the ways to go and this can only be accomplished by one's effort and willingness to learn.
HTH!!!
Just a quick answer, UV will not kill your pods, it kills water born "everything" but not pods, worms or whatever you have that is not floating in the water are fine with UV.
I kept a PBT, purple tang, Hippo tang and yellow tang from 5 to 8 years. I lost them all in the black out back in August. There are many great suggestions already given but I would like to add a bit more just to help.
Let's assume you pick out a healthy tang from your LFS. It is healthy, round belly, clear eye, normal breath rate, no visible wounds, clear fins and etc, etc... Let's assume you acclimate the fish very well!!!!! It is in your tank and it is in hiding and you shut off the light to reduce stress and now the tang is hiding in the rock work and the tank is dark.
The next day, you are very exciting to go and see your fish, it is shy and still kinda hiding but would take a peek here and there. You are all happy and try to feed it food but it is not eating. THIS IS NORMAL!!! A new fish would take up to a week before feeding in your tank so you should stay put.
Mmm... tangs have no scales. They are very sensitive/hyper fish when in a community tank so usually hobbyists will find their fish infected with ich because they get nervous. At this point, a lot of us would over react and said" WTF, what should I do, the fish is sick and it will get all my fish sick!!", if at this point the fish is active, out in the open and feeding, you really have nothing to worry about. Far too often people would try to do whatever they can to find remedies or try to get the fish out for treatment. This actually further stress the tank/fish and then cause fish or whatever fatality.
My experience is to stay put if the fish is eating. DO NOT FURTHER STRESS THE FISH!!! Con't to feed the fish PLENTY of veggie like nori, formula 2, frozen food soaked in Selcon, Vita Chem, Garlic Extract or other food additive BUT the most important of all, feed spirulina!!!
If you tang is infected with ich but it is eating, spirulina would help to eradicate the ich. Other additives would help to build the fish's immune system especially those with amino acid and vitamine C. IF the fish is eating, then this is the route I would go instead of trying to catch the fish or treat the tank with medication.
So this is my experience. 1) do not jump into conclusion and think that this is the end of the world. 2) do not start to assume that your water is bad and try to do crazy water changes which would disturb the water parameter and cause stress to the fish. 3) make sure that you have plenty of veggie food for your fish like nori. 4) This is again from my past experience, feed your tang flake food. DO NOT OVERFEED as when adding excessive flake food in your tank could cause excessive nutrients and problem algae growth. But my experience is that flake food has very high nutritional value and this would help your fish remain healthy especially when introduced to the new environment.
UV is a good addition although many would think otherwise. I use UV personally and would always use it as long as I have a tank. BUT, UV is not the answer and there a lot more one needs to look into. Overall, I believe keeping a healthy, stable and well maintained environment are the ways to go and this can only be accomplished by one's effort and willingness to learn.
HTH!!!
michealprater
Aquarium Advice Addict
montepora, excellent advice.
I agree, before I had rid my tank of ich. I have had tangs fight off ich on thier own, just by continuing to feed them good. I had a blue tang that would get ich and fight it off seemed like once a month. That blue tang is still with me.
To play devils advocate. I make sure the fish is eating at the store then acclimate with a slow drip. This usually takes 4 -6 hours to get the water to match. If this is done correctly the fish will go through little or no stress, it should eat as soon as it is placed in the tank. But, if you bought the fish online and it had to be shipped, it will not happen due to the stress of the shipping.
I agree, before I had rid my tank of ich. I have had tangs fight off ich on thier own, just by continuing to feed them good. I had a blue tang that would get ich and fight it off seemed like once a month. That blue tang is still with me.
Doan
Aquarium Advice Freak
Honestly and I feel like this my really upset some people here. I think the tang MAY still be with me as it was eating and all before I moved it to QT and tried the copper. It creates an interesting delemia because I firmly believe that the stress of the tank change and copper killed my tang. That being said.. I also know that it may or may not have fought it off on its own. Also even if it did ich would still be in the tank waiting to pounce at the first sign of trouble. Again it's a really tough situation especially for someone like me who has not been at this even a year yet. Prior to this I lost a hippo that I just fed well and left in the tank with water changes and it died. I guess that this is just part of the salt water hobby that is sad but also real tough cause no one has a definate answer. The same Ich that I tried to save my tang from killed my goby on sunday and he was left in thank now I have a clown that I left in that seems to be fighting it off now while 2 other fish (a clown and a flame angel) have no spots at all and seem to be totally obolivious to the scourge in the tank. Me personally I am after this whole experence against copper. Totally. I have ordered a refractometer and am gonna try the whole hypo thing. My problem with copper is that It is like fish radiation. You put the fish in copper which is extremely toxic then hope the fish can hold on longer than the virus. This is just tough cause even if it beats the ich you have totally destroyed the immune system of the fish and perhaps the fauna that is needed for the fish to eat properly. So even if you fish beats the odds and lives through this and all the stress of moving etc.. It still is not looking good long term..or it at least there are some more issues the fish will have to overcome. I dunno it is a very tough situation for any hobbiest. It also seems strange to me that this is a problem that has not been solved yet. There are millions and millions of dollars changing hands every year in this hobby. How it is that some scientest at whatever college can get a grant to study the effects of bird poop on the finish of a car and no one can get money to really solve this problem baffels me. It affects food fish as well and if you treat them with copper you can't sell them for consumption so it is not just an orinamental fish problem but also a food problem.. Ok I am way off topic now so I will close my rant.
Doan
Doan
michealprater
Aquarium Advice Addict
I am not upset. I think people will learn from this thread.
The stress might have, I highly doubt copper did anything. Copper will not affect a fish, however ich cannot live in it.
If the fish would have fought it off that means the ich would have ran its cycle. If the tank is over 84 degrees all the ich in the water would have died. Only way ich could get in the tank then is through a new specimen.
Just remember most LFS have their entire fish system treated in copper a lot of the time. Picking out a healthy specimen and quarintining will resolve the problem at the start.
I think anyone who has had to deal with ich could read this thread, take notes and keep their tank free of ich.
Similar threads
