Tiny white dot on blue tang

[weekf]

I have just bought a blue tang/regal tang 3 hours ago. After acclimate it for half an hour I let it go into my tank. And ever since it has got this tiny little white dots all over his body is this normal?

He was ok while I bought it in the shop nothing wrong with it even before I let it go into the tank he has already got this dots while he was in the plastic bag floating inside my tank. Is this going to be a permanent thing or he was just stressed out for the time being. If permanent I might just bring it back to the shop tomorrow.

Anyone can give advice will be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[melosu58]

Yes he has a parasite called marine ich. Now that he is in your tank the whole tank is infected. Each one of those little white dots will soon fall off and create 200 more for each one called tomites. The only way to rid your tank is for it to be fishless for 8 weeks. Treat fish in a QT with hypo . Im going to move this post to appropiate forum. Good Luck

 

[weekf]

When I was at the store it looks perfectly fine with other tangs as well. Other tangs looks fine as well I only chose the smallest one.

These things came almost immediately after I release it into my tank. Can ich comes that fast? I have taken it out of my tank now. It has been in my tank for about 8 hours will my other two clowns be affected??? I only have 2 ocellaris clowns and a few corals will this infect my corals as well?

Mannn I am so worry...

 

[abnmojo]

most, if not all fish, can carry ich to some degree. Only when under stress, does their imune system break down a bit and the ich just "explodes" on you. This can be fatal to each and every fish in your tank, so be careful.

I would consider the purchase of a UV sterilzer, which will kill the parasite when it is in the free floating stage.

You can do freshwater dips and other chemical dips to kill the ich when it is on the fish

You can do nothing about the parasite when it is in the cyst stage in your substrate. I hear of people using copper to control, but I do believe that the cyst in the substrate is nearly indestructable.

If you add copper to your tank, be advised you will never be able to add any inverts. The copper will leach into the LR and sand, and if the tank is acyrlic it will even leach into that as well. The copper will be released back into the tank for years to come.

I know someone on here is going to beat me up for this, but this is what I would do, and have done myself for my blue tang that I have had for over 5 years now (so I must have done something right)

If you want tangs, invest in a UV sterilzer. Tangs are just bad for getting this disease. Do your research on these things, some they sell at LFS are not for salt tanks, only for ponds. Google UV sterilizer and read, read, read before you buy. I would suggest a model that is easy to clean as well, some are impossible to work on.

Get a cleaner shrimp or two - they will pick the parasites off the fish
If you have nothing else that will eat them, get (cleaner) neon gobies, they do the same job and are cool fish to have as well. If you get enough of them, they will breed in the tank.

Avoid cleaner wrasse, they don't do well in home aquariums.

Do freshwater dips and/or other medication dips as directed on the bottle. If you go with freshwater dips, get some RO or DI water the same temp as your tank, and dip the fish for a few minutes. You must watch the fish, as sometimes in a weakened condition from the disease they can't handle the dip as long as on a previous dip. Just watch him closely. If he starts 'breathing' super heavy or lies down on his side, remove him, he is done.

In the future, set up a plastic 10 gallon from walmart and use it as a quarantine tank. You can get a complete system for $40 or so. Leave the fish in there for at least a couple of weeks and you could avoid things like this, and you could have treated the fish by himself in the quarantine tank.

Good Luck - my blue got ich bad when I moved my tank from one part of NC to where I am now, and I had him for 2 years at that point. Stress is what brings it out, but with tangs it seems it is really always there.

 

[weekf]

Wow believe it or not. I catched the tang last night and put it in the container and this morning I was about to return it to the store and looked inside there were all these tiny little things all over the bottom of the container and they are MOVING. They are like fleas of some kind swimming around. You can't see them very clearly as they are so tiny you will need a microscope. But you can definitely see the moving. They have gone off the tang's body and swimming underneath!!! I bet there were already some of these in my tank when I tried to catch the tang! Hope my clowns will not be infected.

And more surprise when I reached the fish store. There were about 15 blue tangs inside the tank when I bought mine there yesterday and this morning they were only 2 left inside both has got white spot all over as well and I am the only one who bought the tang yesterday. The other store keeper told me may be because when the other store keeper trying to catch mine tang yesterday and stressed them all out that's why mine has already developed ich before I even reached home. I told them to look inside my container they can't believe what they saw those tiny little flea things swimming around. Said they have never seen anything like this before.

They agreed to refund my full payment because it is their fault stressing the tangs out trying to catch mine. But the damage has already been done. I have got my tank up and running for 8 months without dramas now I am just waiting to see when the break out will happen. Really pissed me off.

 

[roka64]

I would consider the purchase of a UV sterilzer

This won't always kill all of them.

Do freshwater dips

This is not really recommended, as it stresses the already stressed fish.
As melosu58 said, put in a QT and use hypo treatment, if possible.

One thing you might be able to do to the main is bring down the salinity to about 1.020, slowly, this might help to keep the stress of the fish down and help with future outbreaks.....But QT is the best solution, IMO.

 

[2revup]

Avoid cleaner wrasse, they don't do well in home aquariums.

this is not true either, i have 2 and these guys are the most intresting guys to watch they are always up to something crazy, they also have the most energy I think they certainly have done well in my tank for some time.

 

[tecwzrd]

Cleaner wrasse have an abysmal survival rate in home aquariums and most will do fine for the first month but eventually die from starvation since parasites is the only natural diet and most will only sparsely nibble at any other food.

My lfs has 2 they keep in their QT tanks and have an endless supply of new fish for them to clean and have had them for over a year now. They do not sell them and personally I wouldn’t buy from any lfs that did.

You have only had your two for a little over a month now and if they make it through the summer consider yourself very lucky.

Quarantining all stock before adding to the main is really the only responsible thing to do IMO.

 

[melosu58]

Fresh water dips are not suggested. This will cause the fish to be more stressed out and the survival rate will be worse. I have known several people that did FW dips and I would dare say 10% made it. QT your fish and treat and leave main fishless for eight weeks as this will break the cycle and remove ick from your tank.