powder blue tang with ick

[vinc]

I just bought a powder blue tang 2 days ago from a lfs. At the store he looked healthy. brought him home and acclamated him and after that I did a 1 min fresh water dip. put him in the tank and went behind all the live rock. I fed him and was eating. but he swims away everytime I go to the tank so I stayed away from the tank to cause less stress. well tonight when I got home he was swimming in the front of the tank so I took a look at him and saw the white dots on him. I am going to quarantine him tomorrow because I am going to have to move all my live rock and corals to get him out. My question is all i have in there for fish is him and a clown and I wanted to know if the parasite has already spread if the spots are still on him. I just didn't want to take NEMO out of the tank and quarantine him if I don't have to. Can I just wait to see if he gets the white dots on him and then quarantine him in a seprate tank. thanks

[t5Nitro]

When my yellow tang and clown had ich I just soaked their food in garlic xtreme and kept them fat. QT would be better though.

[vinc]

bump

[cham]

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1087201&goto=newpost

[b0wenj]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9672660#post9672660 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by vinc
I just bought a powder blue tang 2 days ago from a lfs. At the store he looked healthy. brought him home and acclamated him and after that I did a 1 min fresh water dip.

You put the fish in fresh water for one minute ? I have never heard of this. Did you read about this on some site somewhere to dip the fish in freshwater and why did you decide 1 minute ?

[bower23]

I'm currently in the same boat. Although my new fish was a powder brown but now my blue hippo has it also. And bad! I did a fresh water dip for 3 minutes and quarantined them all. I'm also treating the water with 'Stop Parisites' but the blue hippo still has spots. I would quarantine them all for a month. It sucks but I don't want to take down my reef tank again.

[b0wenj]

Doesn't it seem like fresh water dipping the fish should cause them more stress and just help the parasites finish the job?

[bower23]

well, if you do nothing the ick will finish the job anyhow. Sure it stresses them out but sometimes you have to do something drastic to stop them.

[IMM3DOORSDOWN]

well when my fish had ick i treated the tank with kick ich .it works great and the best part you dont have to take out you rock and your reef to get the darn fish out.kick ich is reef safe.as you can see my tank nothing was harmed.also i soaked the food in garlic

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[smcnally]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9674668#post9674668 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bower23
well, if you do nothing the ick will finish the job anyhow. Sure it stresses them out but sometimes you have to do something drastic to stop them.

I totally disagree with this. IME, the people you see take drastic measures with ICH seem to have more ICH issues than anyone else. I've never seen a healthy fish die from ICH. I've had ICH in my tank on 2 occasions. Both times I fed Garlic heavy and it disappeared within a few days. I haven't seen it come back in my tank in over a year. IMO, the key is to avoid stressing the fish as much as possible. Just because the fish has visible ICH on it doesn't mean it is going to die in a week if you don't get rid of it right away.

[b0wenj]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9674668#post9674668 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bower23
well, if you do nothing the ick will finish the job anyhow. Sure it stresses them out but sometimes you have to do something drastic to stop them.

To me that sounds to drastic, I would just get a cleaner shrimp and let it do it that natural way.

[joeyt66]

I would do nothing unless the fish is looking really ill. My hippo /blue tang has had ick 3-4 times sometimes quite bad but as long as he's eating i leave it alone. Less stress on him the better. I also feed foods with garlic as it is supose to help. Tangs are prone to ick, but if healthy can kick ick by them selves.

[stuccodude]

joes right, thats the same advice i got from my lfs and its true, keep them eating and they will be fine

[bower23]

drastic? maybe we are not talking about the same level of infection.... mine are bad! and my cleaner shrimp are not keeping up. I've never had ick before ever and it hit them like a ton of bricks. Not a couple spots here and there... but bam everywhere. I was using garlic, cleaner shrimp and they just got worse. I had to do something. I am confused that you guys think a freshwater dip and quarantine tank is drastic.... I've read a lot of threads on doing just that. Most people do this with every new fish they get before putting them in the display... am I on the same website?? Remember people it's not the ick on the bodies that we are worried about, it the ick on the gills that will kill the fish first.

[joeyt66]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9677259#post9677259 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bower23
drastic? maybe we are not talking about the same level of infection.... mine are bad! and my cleaner shrimp are not keeping up. I've never had ick before ever and it hit them like a ton of bricks. Not a couple spots here and there... but bam everywhere. I was using garlic, cleaner shrimp and they just got worse. I had to do something. I am confused that you guys think a freshwater dip and quarantine tank is drastic.... I've read a lot of threads on doing just that. Most people do this with every new fish they get before putting them in the display... am I on the same website?? Remember people it's not the ick on the bodies that we are worried about, it the ick on the gills that will kill the fish first.
Mine just last week was covered (bad and now he has 1 or 2 spots left ) lookeed like i dropped him in a bag of salt (which i didnt lol). If its eating and acting normal let it be (he will probally be scrubin the rocks to). i find its more stress on them if there being scooped and treated.
I have heard alot of people doin the fresh dip but not sure the success it has

[bower23]

well I hope it works... too late to turn back now.

[joeyt66]

just wondering how it turned out ?

[Reefmack]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9672660#post9672660 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by vinc
I just bought a powder blue tang 2 days ago from a lfs. At the store he looked healthy. brought him home and acclamated him and after that I did a 1 min fresh water dip. put him in the tank and ......

I'm confused as to why bother acclimating the fish, then doing a fresh water dip, then put him in ther tank. Why bother with the acclimation if he was put in fresh water after? I thought acclimation was to avoid stress? Surely the fresh water dip would have wiped out any benefit of the acclimation?

[fatdaddy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9674571#post9674571 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by b0wenj
Doesn't it seem like fresh water dipping the fish should cause them more stress and just help the parasites finish the job?

I haven't done it, but it used for bad cases of Ich to knock it back. It's not a cure, but it can provide some relief to the fish for a bad infection.

[Reefmack]

I realize it's an ich cure, but the fish had no signs of ich based on the original post. It would seem to me that the stress caused by transport from the lfs to home, then into acclimation, then into fresh water, then into the tank, would just all add up to additional stress. From my freshwater experience it always been preached that excess stress can lower a fish's immunity to fight off things like ich. I assume the same is true in saltwater. I'm wondering if all the stress that that fish went though is what caused the ich to take hold, rather than to help in preventing it.

[Tony44]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9677343#post9677343 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by joeyt66
Mine just last week was covered (bad and now he has 1 or 2 spots left ) lookeed like i dropped him in a bag of salt (which i didnt lol). If its eating and acting normal let it be (he will probally be scrubin the rocks to). i find its more stress on them if there being scooped and treated.
I have heard alot of people doin the fresh dip but not sure the success it has


I have had great success with the FW dip. My Blue tang was on the verge of dying, she was getting sucked up into my Emperor Penguin filter, and those things dont have alot of suction. I FW dipped her, for about five minutes, I made sure the PH was the same in the FW, and tried to get the temperature of the water about the same as well. She ofcourse did not like the FW dip, cause she looked dead while she was in the bucket. I took her out of the bucket, put her back in the QT, and she looked like she was going to die any minute. Next day, she was swimming around like she was before she even had ich. Just remember to put PH buffer in the water, and if you can, put the water in a bag, and let if float for a few minutes, to get the temp. the same.

It looks like the ich is totally gone on my blue tang, but now there are some kind of black things on her, so I am trying the copper method.

[Reefmack]

Hi Tony44. I was reading some posts earlier today about the existence of a black ich also. No idea if that's what you'e seeing now, but I would hope the copper med will take care of whatever it is. Best of luck.

[puffer21]

Just to let you know i think that power blue tangs are the most common tang to get itch. Anything you move a fish it goes through stress. If he is eating feed garlic, vita-chem, selcon, and a good mix of frozen food. This way you will keep him healty. I dont jump to FW dips untill there is no other way.

[fatdaddy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9901173#post9901173 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tlmack
I realize it's an ich cure, but the fish had no signs of ich based on the original post.

Re: FW dip - I believe you're right. It's used more as in intervention when the fish appears to be heading towards death as Ich can also attack the gills.