Blue tang acting weird.

[vipvenom]

I have had this blue tang for a few weeks now and she started to act weird. She got into some snail slime about a week ago and still hasn't come totally clean. She now just lays inside of her rock and doesn't come out. I see white spots on her too but I think it is from the snail goo and not ich. Is there anything I can do or will she eventually come clean?

I don't beleive it to be ich but if it was how could I tell? Just white spots? I think the spots are from the slime though.

thanks,
Chris

 

[Hara]

fish do not get "snail trails" .......

It is most likely symptomatic of another problem. (such as ich) Can you take a picture of it and post it?

 

[vipvenom]

It was snail slime. The snails slimed inside of a hole in the rock. The same rock the fish sleeps in. She got covered. I cleaned it out after I saw it in the hole. I will try to post a pic but it is hard because she is in the rock.
If it is ich how can I cure it?

 

[vipvenom]

Here is a pic of the tang. She is a little pale because I caught her sleeping at the side of the tank. So what do you all think it is? And how can I get rid of it and keep it from happening again?

 

[Brenden]

Put her in a QT and hypo treat. Some people use copper but I never have. Everyone says it is hard on the fish.

 

[vipvenom]

So you do think it is a parasite? Also how long to treat with the hypo treatment? 4weeks?

 

[Fluff]

I can't tell from the pic but I think I can see some white specks on the fish? There are some great articles on marine fish illnesses in our articles section. Have a look through them.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showfaq.php?fldAuto=2

Here is an article on ich as well.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

 

[vipvenom]

If I treat my tang for ich (hyposalinity treatment) shouldn't I just go ahead and do the rest of the tankmates? If I do the blue tang for 4weeks and put her back in the tank won't she just get re-infested? I read the article links that fluff gave me and it seems as though I might as well do all my fish (clown, clown goby, and six lined wrasse) instead of just waisting the 4 weeks when I could have my tank ich free. What do you all think?

 

[Phyl]

If you are going to hypo the fish you might just as well do the whole lot of them (just not in your main). You need to make sure that the water volume is great enough to cover all of your fish and you need something (sponge, whatever) to use to provide the bio- processing capability for your QT.

Before you start the hypo process make sure you pick up a PH monitor and refractometer so that you can properly monitor the fish environment.

I wasn't able to get a good look at your picture since I couldn't blow it up. It is really small.

 

[vipvenom]

If you are going to hypo the fish you might just as well do the whole lot of them (just not in your main). "]QT[/acronym].


.

That is what I figured. I was reading that tangs are very suseptable to ich so I figured that the other fish may help it to reproduce where the only one who gets it bad is my tang. I have been keeping an eye on my Ph and salinity. I am stepping the salinity down over a period of a few days. I will go ahead and buy a sponge for the bio filter. Where can I pick up a refractometer for a good price? I have the swing arm type now but I have heard those are not accurate enough.

Also how can I keep the parasites from living in the sponge? Since I have read that any pourous object will help them to spread.