Need some help from the experts.

[JDL1000]

I bought a Blue tang from a fish store. About 3 days after getting it I noticed what looked like white Salt sprinkles on the fish. I asked the guy at the fish store what to do. He gave me a product called ICH ATTACK.
He told me to double the directed dose. I've been treating the tank for 4 Days and the white salt looking spots have only gotten worse.
Does anyone know what I have going on here. None of the other fish in the tank seem to be infected.

The tank is a 30 Gallon with live rock,fish, 2 anemones and some crabs.

Thanks for any help.

[mflamb]

I think that there are only 2 real effective treatments for marine ich. They are hyposalinity and copper, neither recommended as a treatment for a display tank.
Place the fish in another tank with some form of artificial biological filtration, a heater, and air stone/pump. Then lower the salinity over 3 days to 1.010, keep it there for 4 weeks after the last white speck is gone. That will clear the fish of ich.
If there are other fish in the tank, they could carry ich, but not show signs of it until stressed, so all fish should be treated the same way. Hypo will kill invertebrates, so beware if you treat the display tank.

[JDL1000]

Should I continue to buy fish from the store I got this one from? Or am I taking a risk no matter what store I shop at?

[mflamb]

Buy NOTHING until you get this problem solved, or you will be buying new fish to kill.

[mflamb]

I QT every fish and treat with hyposalinity before putting them in my display. Most folks think that is not necessary if you buy fish at the right places. I would not QT a fish if GOD delivered it to my front door, but otherwise it goes in the QT. Most folks have some reason for not QTing, but you represent the reason that I do.

[JDL1000]

Once you put copper in your QT tank it never goes away right? Just thinking I wouldn't ever be able to use it for invertebrates.
Do you QT crabs and any other type of animals?
Also do you need sand in a QT tank?

[mflamb]

I NEVER use copper. Nothing goes straight into the tank except food and water. I have 2 tupperware containers of sand in my QT currently because I have 2 wrasses in QT.

[a2fire2i]

Originally posted by JDL1000
Once you put copper in your QT tank it never goes away right? Just thinking I wouldn't ever be able to use it for invertebrates.
Do you QT crabs and any other type of animals?
Also do you need sand in a QT tank?

You will be able to use the tank afterwards if you just wash it out. Copper will kill live rock, sand, snails, crabs, corals, and other inverts. In addition, it will make the live sand and rock no longer usable as they will absorb the copper. Like Mike stated above, the best practice is to QT everything that goes in your tank, and you will now need to treat all fish as if they have ich, and let your main tank go fishless for 6 or so weeks.



http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...highlight=myth

[bgdiving]

If you are unable to remove the fish for treatment, you may want to try adding some liquid garlic to all of the fishes food. It may take several wks but it can be benificial. Garlic helps build the fishes imune system and may slightly discourage the parasites from attaching.

Some people refer to blue tangs as ick magnets, they seem to get ick fairly easily or may run around with a low grade case of ick for a prolonged period,but if the tank and the fish is other wise healthy they don't really seen to be bothered by it that much.

[brucem]

The tang police will be contacting any minute. I know that you are having other problems but a 30 gallon is too small for that fish.

[JDL1000]

This is a small tang about an inch. I've seen them in small tanks all the time. I'm setting up a 90 Gallon right now. It should be fine in there.

[JDL1000]

Another question?
I'm setting up a 90 Gallon that I planned to add everything from my 30 Gallon too. So my question is can I move all the crabs and live rock to the 90 and QT the 30 gallon and use hyposalinity method to treat all the fish? Also are crabs a carrier of ick? Is it ok to leave the sand in the 30 gallon during treatment?

[bdub]

I am by no means an expert and many folks stated some good things here, but I too had the same experience. As stated Blue Tangs are notorious for getting Ich as was mine. I did two things, one was add a cleaner shrmip and the second was adding garlic to the diet, in my case I use "Formula Two" from Ocean Nutrition which has garlic additives, there is flake and pellets and also, other manfuctures such as Kent make a liquid form of garlic as well. Also, your 90 gal will be a better fit as he would have outgrown your 30 gal in about two years or so. with that said, I rarely see anymore ICH on my Blue tang and if I do, you wait and watch and the Tang and shimp will be meeting up. I noticed a difference in just a few days and in two weeks was gone. Good luck

[mflamb]

I don't think inverts can get ich, so moving them would be ok. Leaving the sand in the 30 will be ok.

PM sent.

[cwegescheide]

Originally posted by brucem
The tang police will be contacting any minute. I know that you are having other problems but a 30 gallon is too small for that fish.

I was thinkin the same thing..

[Gimplar]

Pm sent, but i've tried everything to cure ich before, hyposalitinity will work but its a pain in the but. I dont know if its an ancient chinese secret so i wont say it out loud, but John at FAOIS really helped with my ich problem a while ago and it worked with outstanding results. Just my 2 cents though. And no inverts wont carry ich cause they have exoskeletons but, sand will harbor baby ich/eggs.

[mflamb]

Hyposalinity will take care of the sand.

[tcwayne]

Just a thought. Be careful and patient with the 90 and transfering from the 30. I made the mistake awhile back of putting everything in my 90 from a 46 and topping it off with water and expecting everything to thrive right away. Well I was wrong and the 90 went through a cycle and I lost all livestock that was perfectly fine in the 46. My next upgrade will invovle the new tank fully set up and cycled before putting anything as far as livestock is concerned. So my advice is simple, get the 90 all set up for at least 6 weeks and monitor parameters closely before putting anything in it.

[bgdiving]

The crabs and things you transfer to the big tank can carry the ick with them to the new tank. I'm under the impression that ick has a 30 day life cycle, so if you do not place any fish in the big tank for at least 30 days after the last transfer, the ick should burn it's self out with in the 30 days. Since the inverts aren't actually infected with ick one way to reduce the number of ick organisms you transfer would be to acclimate all the inverts to the new water in a bucket and then after they are acclimated do a series of transfers to other containers with the new tank water, swirl them around a few times let them have enough time to get new water around their gills and hollow area in shells ect. them lift them out, let them drip, then move them to the next container do that a few times and you should greatly if not completely reduce the number of undesireable organism you transfer to the new tank.

[reeferaddiction]

blue tangs are notorious for "popping" with ich when you first get them if there are only a few spots then i would just keep him well fed with a quality varied diet and see how it works out chances are it will go away. i dont believe in medicating when it is not needed, in my experience qting a fish after it has been in a displayjust adds stress and makes the fish more vulnerable to secondary diseases. jmo

[cwegescheide]

Originally posted by Gimplar
Pm sent, but i've tried everything to cure ich before, hyposalitinity will work but its a pain in the but. I dont know if its an ancient chinese secret so i wont say it out loud, but John at FAOIS really helped with my ich problem a while ago and it worked with outstanding results. Just my 2 cents though. And no inverts wont carry ich cause they have exoskeletons but, sand will harbor baby ich/eggs.

Hmmm.. The anti-parasitic fish food by any chance?