new hippo tang

[fredflinstone]

Hi all,

I recently purchased a new hippo tang little bigger than a quarter coin.
The tang rubs agianst rocks. It was doing the same when I bought it from the fish store. But now am concerned if anything is wrong with it.

Its been a couple days and he is not eating that much. I tried feeding formula2 (Frozen) but he eats little of it when it gets broken by my circulation pump. Occationally he keeps rubbing against rocks.

Please let me know if rubbing is normal and also let me know how to make him eat a LOT.

Thanks

[viceversabrd]

You got a sick fish bud, if he was rubbing against the rocks in the store that means he had ick, you should never purchase a sick fish as the chances of keeping it alive in your aquarium diminish greatly, now as for treating ick
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=282934
this is a sticky in the fish disease forum you may want to post there also
good luck
viceversabrd

[fredflinstone]

Oh damn. I didnt know that. I thought he was trying to mark some territory crap or something
Ok can I use this Rid Ich+ treatement method? Woudl that do?

[fredflinstone]

like use it for 1 whole week with 25% water change?
Please let me know thanks

[zimmy1979]

I would not use Rid Ich or Kick Ich or any of those chemicals in a reef aquarium. The best bet to do is move him to a quarantine tank. If that is not possible then you will just have to wait it out and hopefully the fish will get better. I usually add Selcon, and Garlic to the food which could or could not help you. Good luck.

[fredflinstone]

I only have live rock and some mushroom corls that came with the live rocks. I find it extremely difficult to catch the fish. I waited for hours but couldnt catch them.

Can I use rid ich if I dont have that much reef to worry about? Will I loose my live rocks?

[Alaskan Reefer]

See if you can return the fish if not stop shopping there, QT the fish, and hope...

[fredflinstone]

I understand but I am not able to catch the fish. Its small and fast.

[fredflinstone]

and hey one more thing. The fish doesnt have any white spots like the pics shown in the stickies. At early stages the ich doesnt show up as small white spots is it?

[Rob Martin]

You can bet your life it's Ich,Tangs are really susceptible,i agree with Zimmy,break the rock down & get it into a QT, else try a medication that is invert safe. I had the same problem & the only way i broke the cycle was to quarantine & medicate accordingly.

[fredflinstone]

Can someone tell me how long this tang will survive if it has ich? How long before a desaster?

[BTTRFLYGRL]

Depends on the health of the fish could be a month, could be a couple of weeks or less ..but it will die without treatment

[TIGER ACE15]

poor tang

[fredflinstone]

HEY, I am treating it. Just want to know. I am not able to catch the tang. Its tank raised I think. It goes and hides under some rock or lys flat on the sand and am not able to track it. But I have like 2 weeks gaurantee from that LFS. So was wondering.. . . . . Paid a lot for this tang.

I am using rid ich+ and changing 25% water everyday for the past 2 days

[Reefugee]

I had a hippo blue tang that had ich (caught it from another fish that I didn't quarantine long enough). Anyway - I tried catching my blue tang, but wasn't able to. In the end, I just left it alone and feed it food enriched with garlic. The ich went away after a few weeks. This was a couple of months ago, and I haven't seen any further sign of ich.

As far as using rid ich - I don't know if that would help. I personally would use any. And for goodness sake - you might not want to do too much water change. I don't think water changes are really going to help you much because the ich is on the fish and in the sand. You don't want to stress that fish out.

[pvtschultz]

The problem with the really small blue tangs is that they typically have a rather poor survival rate the way it is and then you throw a parasite in the mix and it doesn't always look good. I am as guilty as you are. In fact, I just bough a 1.5" blue tang yesterday and after a 5 hour acclimation period went right into my display tank. I have had Ich in the past, over a year ago now that I think about it. I tried the Rid-Ich, Kick-Ich and other "reef safe" medications. The problem is that in large display tanks it is hard to medicate mainly to the sheer volume. I now have about 120 gallons of capacity and it would be expesive as hell to treat the tank if it becomes infected again. I do have a very trusting fish store near me that I have bought a majority of my fish from so I'm not all that worried, but quarantining is the best. Oh, my last boubt with Ich I think that I won with a combination of garlic soaked foods fed several times daily, water changes every week, and UV sterilizer. Not sure which did it, but I have not had an ichy fish in well over a year and have yet to see a white spot appear on a fish. Good luck to you.

[fredflinstone]

UV sterilizer are quire effective is it?
Can I buy a 9 watt for my 55 galon and keep my fishes parasite safe?

[pvtschultz]

You might want to try something a bit bigger. I did use a 9 Watt on my tank and it seemed to work but there are those that will argue that a UV will not have enough impact. The UV only works when the Ich is is the free swimming phase of life which is also when they are searching for a new host. I had originally bought mine for a phyto bloom in my tank (worked great for that) which occured not long after the addition of the Kick-Ich and etc which has a lot of "other" stuff in it. I haven't used the sterilizer since then though, but they keep the tank crystal clear but may oversterilize the water. It can go either way but when you have ich it helps along with healthy fish and a healthy tank. They are nice to have around in case something happens in the future. HTH

[DaveBrader]

Feed that Tang Cyclopeeze three to four times a day... I have raised six of these starting them that young. An LFS here often gets them that small, and sells them Three for 39 bucks..

Many people can not keep them alive, but the ones that I know that feed them Cyclopeeze three or four times a day, and have a coral they can hide in seem to do the best...

Dave

[fredflinstone]

Hi all I saw white spots on the tang. I returned it. They gave me store credit.
I went to another LFS and I saw a blue tang. It was also rubbing against the sand. The LFS said he has 2.5% copper runing through his system. So can someone let me know how to select a correct blue tang without any disease. Also in a 55G tank tell me whats the smallest size I can go for... thanx

[pvtschultz]

Um, those little white spots are very likely to be in your tank now and the only way to get rid of them is to wait out several weeks while they die of attrition or start overwith and sterilize your entire system. You probably have ich, period. Do you have other fish? And if not, you might want to try something a little easier than a blue tang...

[fredflinstone]

I have 2 clowns and 2 neon damsels and cleaner shrimp and peermint shrimp and 4 hermit crabs.

My other clown got those white spots, started breathing fast and wouldnt eat that much. I added garlic to the water and the white spots were gone the next day morning. The clown also had a viral inf on it mouth, that fell as well. I think garlic did the trick!!! or not:(?