Is this my first

[Nick862]

I bought a powder blue tang two days ago from my lfs, i was told it had been eating well and looked well fed, it's colours were bright and it was very active at the time I took it. It has now been in my tank for a day and a bit, there are small white spots that have come up all over its body including its fins,

I have had my tank for 3 years and been very successful with most corals and live stock but iv been lucky enough not to get ich in that time.

I know tangs can get stressed so would that cause ich? and that quickly. there was no noticeable signs in the lfs of it being unhealthy and the other fish it was with looked fine.

All my other fish look fine and healthy, if it turns out to be ich what can I do? A QT is probably not an option as my small flat is limited on space. Sorry for the rubbish pictures, best I could get with an iPhone Cheers

 

[ezy33]

I've had good luck feed tangs Garlic Extreme from Kent. If you see the spots add it to the water per instructions. It won't kill the ICH but will boost the fishes immune system letting it fight off the infection.

 

[TheTodd]

Fish can carry Ich in their gils where you can't see it, so sometimes they sneak it in that way. Could also be that it was in the tank, but the other fish were strong enough to fight it off. New Tang was stressed, so immunity was low and the parasite got the best of it. It's a parasite, so it came from somewhere.

Without QT, garlic is supposed to help. Also keep water conditions pristine and the tank as stress free as possible. Strong, healthy fish can sometimes come out the winner. Beyond that, IMO, most stuff does not really do anything (cleaner shrimp/wrasses, UV filters, various treatments, etc).

 

[mr_X]

Powder blues can be territorial and downright nasty in closed systems. What size tank is this?
LFS's some times keep their salinity much lower to keep parasites at bay. I see it a lot around here. You will see the tangs occasionally rub against the rocks but you see no ICH.
Anyway, what happens is, you get them home and put them in your higher salinity water, and a brand new environment, and boom...all of the sudden, ICH shows up.

 

[Nick862]

Cheers guys, it seems to be settling in, my salinity is 1.024 and it's in a 350l reef tank with 5 other small fish, it's only about 1 1/2" big so still small. I'll try the garlic and do water changes more frequently, all my other fish seem great at the moment so I hope this will pass, if after a week and the tang still seems stressed I'll think about catching it and taking it back so it can go to an owner with a bigger tank because every thing seems fine other than it could be tank size,
Cheers again

 

[TheTodd]

So its a bit over 90g...odds are the Tang will do better in a larger tank in the long run. There are Tangs (Kole, Tomini, Two Spot, etc) that would work in a 90g. Maybe consider one of those?