New Blue Hipo tang possible ich

[Guy554]

So I went and bought a Blue Hipo tang this evening. After I properly introduced it into the tank I watched it swim around for awhile and everything seems fine. As I was getting ready to go lay in bed I was looking really close at it and noticed little white spots on it. I know if fresh water fish that's ick. I do not recall if it had I when I bought it. The tank is about three weeks old and fully cycled. I have two clowns, three chromis, diamond spotted goby, fire goby and a skunk shrimp (cleaner). NO CORALS YET. What should I do? Doesn't look real bad yet. I do not have a hospital tank up yet, it probably won't be up and running for a while. Please help!!!

 

[carey]

I'm kinda concerned that you have so much in a 3 week old tank. How big is the tank? Water parameters?
If it is in fact ich you will really need that hospital tank up and running. It can be a simple setup with just a filter or water flow and heater. No sand or rock in there at all and maybe a pvc pipe for the fish to hide in and feel safe.
Your two choices to absolutely get rid of ich are hyposalinity and copper which are the only two methods of killing it off without worry. Those chemicals your lfs may try and sell you may work for a time but the ich will live on in the tank just waiting to attack another fish.
As a side note, blue tangs and most tangs for that matter are ich magnets and it isnt rare at all to see ich surface on them when they enter a new tank. You said you didnt notice it when you bought it, could it have been there all along in the store?

 

[Guy554]

I know tangs are really prone for ick. Yes your right it could have been present at time of purchase. Perameters are ph 8.1-8.4, ammonia 0 ppm, nitrites 0ppm, nitrates 10 ppm, salinity 1.024, temp 77.9. The cleaner shrimp is trying to get to it I think. But if it does I personally think the shrimp will help.

 

[Guy554]

Sorry it a 75 gallon display with additional 35 gallons in the sump. My LFS guy says it's all good with what I got in there cuz everything is small.

 

[carey]

A cleaner shrimp can help the fish in distress but does nothing really for getting the ich out of your tank. You didnt mention how big the tank is or how big the tang is. In a new tank with that many fish the size of the tank and fish can play a big role in stressing out the fish.
Dont worry, if the tank is too small I wont yell at you. lol Whats done is done. If it was present on the fish when you got him I would most certainly contact the lfs tomorrow and tell him. I had an lfs that would take ich fish in and put them in their copper system for customers, for free no less. That might be a good solution, at least as far as the tang. The other fish may or may not get it, but odds are the ich is now in the tank no matter what you do.

 

[Guy554]

75 display with additional 35 gallons in sump and tank is about 1.5-2 inches

 

[carey]

hah you posted the size as I was typing the last comment. Yeah, that is in my opinion a tad too small for a tang like that, but I dont think the tank size played a role in this. If it was say a 30g tank then maybe, but its large enough that it shouldnt have stressed the fish so soon.
I hate to say this, but if you bought a fish from an lfs that had ich on him when you got him i would most likely stay far away from that store in the future. To have ich in your tanks and still sell the fish is just wrong.

 

[Guy554]

I will contact him tomorrow, but it will take many years for it to out grow the tank. When it does ill rehome it. I have gotten most of my fish from him and all is good.

 

[Guy554]

I only noticed the spots when the white lights turned of and only blues were on.

 

[huma-huma]

yeah as Carey mentioned, hypo and copper treatments are the only 2 truly proven methods of ridding ich from a tank. also I know you said you don't have one, but try to separate the tang from the other fish asap. sometimes that helps in minimizing the outbreak. I agree in that tank size prob didn't have anything to do with this issue, however even at 4" that tang is going to need every bit of that 4' tank.i don't agree that "ill rehome it later" is a viable option. just like any other pet (dog, cat, etc) the longer we keep a fish the more attached we get to them. so in a few years when it comes time to give the tang a bigger home, you aren't going to want to at all. not personally attacking you for this, just making a generalized statement that could be applied to any of us. myself included.

 

[Maridia]

This hypo copper treatment... What is it exactly? Is it medicine you buy? Or a diy treatment. If you use this treatment in the main tank, assuming you don't have hospital tank, is it safe for the other fish?

 

[Guy554]

Ick is always an issue with tangs. My LFS says the best thing for is to make sure the sick fish eats a lot. I feed my tang some sea weed and myses and in a week time it's looking better

 

[bribo12]

Ick is always an issue with tangs. My LFS says the best thing for is to make sure the sick fish eats a lot. I feed my tang some sea weed and myses and in a week time it's looking better

The issue is as long as you don't completely eradicate ich in the display tank, your fish will keep coming down with ich when stressed. It may continue to get over it with good feeding but it will continue to appear whenever the fish stress.

 

[Guy554]

Yes but when you treat with copper you have to have a hospital tank but that will cause more stress when you move them. Best thing to do is keep them stress free because even if you get rid of it your fish can still get it so your wasting time and stressing the fish out but trying to treat it.

 

[bribo12]

Yes but when you treat with copper you have to have a hospital tank but that will cause more stress when you move them. Best thing to do is keep them stress free because even if you get rid of it your fish can still get it so your wasting time and stressing the fish out but trying to treat it.

I agree, copper is not the way to treat things IMO, it can be hard on the fish. However

 

[bribo12]

Whoops didn't finish. I was gonna say however the tank is not stress free if the fish came down with ich in the first place.

 

[bribo12]

Whoops missed the ich came from lfs part, so yeah keep feeding and fatten him up to keep him healthy. However I'd still set up the quarantine tank so you don't have to worry about this in the future.

 

[carey]

You cannot use copper in you main tank, it will kill inverts and stay in the tank forever pretty much. The same with hyposalinity, it needs to be done in a separate tank.

 

[tonedogz]

Yes but when you treat with copper you have to have a hospital tank but that will cause more stress when you move them. Best thing to do is keep them stress free because even if you get rid of it your fish can still get it so your wasting time and stressing the fish out but trying to treat it.

I don't know where you came up with that concept but once the fish is treated and the tank is left without fish (fallow) for 4-6 weeks and the ich is killed the fish can not be reinfected because the ich is dead. Also if you don't remove the fish for treatment in a qt that fish will have little chance of survival so stress is not really a factor.

 

[carey]

In the end, the question is- Is stressing a dying fish better than letting it sit and most likely die? And STILL having the ich in your tank? Keeping stress levels down is good but not to the detriment of the fish.