Powder Blue Tang with Ich

pancho · #1 10/10/2007, 05:05 PM

I have a 5-6 inch PBT with Ich. He has been in my tank for about 12 days now. He is the boss of the tank and is not being harassed by any other fish. I am running a 36w UV with a flow rate of 120 gph and have been feeding him nori soaked with garlic guard. He has been eating nori voraciously since day 1 and he just started taking frozen and flake food as well. I also have 3 cleaner shrimp that clean him. Will he be able to fight off the ich or should I pull him out of the display and treat him with cupramine in a separate tank?

Here are some pics

SlowCobra · #2 10/10/2007, 05:17 PM

Cupramine or any copper treatment is horrible for Tangs. The best course of action would be to QT him by hyposalinity for about 6 weeks total.

Pmolan · #3 10/10/2007, 05:37 PM

I went through this plenty of times. I'm not telling you what to do. If it were me... I would leave the tang in the tank, he will bounce back. He's eating and that is the best sign that things are going your way. If he feels like he needs some help, he knows where the shrimp are. Keep the UV on until all signs of ich are gone. This is what I have done in the past. Personally I feel you have the 2 best tools. Cleaner something, and UV. If you want to get a little more crazy, I've seen cleaner gobies at petco lately. They are cheap there.

Wrench · #4 10/10/2007, 05:50 PM

Sorry to hear that you've got ich in the tank. Once it's in there it's very difficult, if not impossible to erradicate.

But I agree with Pmolan. I have always felt that removing a fish from a display, especially when they're eating, can be more stressful than leaving it in there and letting nature take it's course.

pancho · #5 10/10/2007, 06:03 PM

Thanks for the replies guys. If I see that his condition is getting worse,
I am gonna set up a trap and treat him in a separate tank.

bundy13 · #6 10/10/2007, 06:05 PM

had him over 3 years ,he gets it i just ignore it ,hes nice and fat and always eats like a pig so i guess he just fights it off,i have always feed all food in tanks soaked in garlic,the tanks parameters are perfect as i have sps,lps and all are doing great temp is always perfect -chiller-,I think mine gets it a couple times a year when he gets into it with the other tangs,i just leave it alone and it has always just went away on its own,good luck

cham · #7 10/10/2007, 07:24 PM

I would not QT this fish. You have ich in your system so if you rid your PBT of ich you will just stick it back in a tank that will give it back to him.

Best thing you can do is create a stable environment with very little temp & PH swing as possible (no more than 2 of each) & keep feeding heavily with good foods. He should pull through.

detz15 · #8 10/10/2007, 07:36 PM

I have had ich in my tank a couple of times. I don't think that you ever really get rid of it. However, I have not had a persistant infection where a fish has it and then it clears up and then is back.

For me I have soaked the food, brine shrimp, in garlic and fed it to all the fish and usually the ich will clear up within a week to 10 days. Give that a try and keep the UV on. Other than that I would not worry as long as the fish keeps eating.

Just what has worked best for me.

darkcirca · #9 10/10/2007, 07:41 PM

Best of luck getting him back to health. I agree with everyone else about leaving him in the tank. Just keep monitoring and feeding garlic enriched stuff. Offer nori several times a day as well.

However, someone else mentioned Petco and cleaner gobies cheap. Honestly, avoid purchasing saltwater fish from Petco if you didn't think about that already. Been there, done that, everything died by my false percs. Not worth the waste of money or giving them money to kill off more things.

Pmolan · #10 10/10/2007, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by darkcirca
However, someone else mentioned Petco and cleaner gobies cheap. Honestly, avoid purchasing saltwater fish from Petco if you didn't think about that already. Been there, done that, everything died by my false percs. Not worth the waste of money or giving them money to kill off more things.

I dont particularly like to buy fish from there. I go there for cat food and crap like that. While I'm there Ill look at the fish. If I see a good deal on something, Ill pick it up. Just as I do with frozen formula 1 and 2. If it is a good price, Ill buy it. I look at it as "I just saved that fish's life!!" Also If you keeo your eyes peeled, they commonly mislabel fish and you get

This (50 bux)
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...fm?pCatId=1116

while being labeled this (12 bux)
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=170

maximusclamus · #11 10/10/2007, 08:24 PM

I am in the same boat as you. We just set up a 95gal tank and transferred from most of our stuff from a 24gal nano. We wanted to get into some larger fish so we upgraded. We have gone thru 3 tangs who all got ich and kicked the bucket. We had in the tank a small hippo tang that has squeezed by several ich episodes but I think he is the one that contaminated the 3 new ones. We waited 4 weeks until there was no sign of any symptoms and bit the bullet and bought a new blonde nasso. Now it’s been less than a week and he is starting to show signs of ich on his fins as well as on his body, but the hippo tang is completely clear. If you know of any tricks that can help pass them on!!