Last unsuccesful atempt to keep Tang

[intrudah]

Just bouught a health Yellow Tang yesterday, came home accilamted him and put him in the QT and now he got Ick, QT had a healty Tomato Clown in tank for over 2 months so I know the QT didnt had any ick in there, I have bought tangs few times before and everytime they end up getting ick within few days, All my other fish are healthy and never gave me any problems, I'm gonna try to do whatever I can to save him but I know it wont do any good.
But I'm never gonna buy a tang again, frustrated

[TippyToeX]

Do you keep buying tangs from the same dealer? While in QT, what are you doing to treat the Ich? One more question, is the QT tank large enough for a good swim and providing plenty of hiding spaces?

[RKM]

I read about tanks in a SWF magazine "Aquarium Fish". They claim that tangs naturally have Ich. It is the matter of controling the living environment of the fish so it is not stressed at all. When it becomes stressed The fish will have a break out. So far I have not had any luck with tangs either. I did purchace a UV to help keep other bacteria and what not down in the tank. This way my next tang hopefully will not be as stressed. Also it will help not prevent an outbreak of Ich. If it happens again. Hope the info helps a little, and maybe someone will correct my mistakes, so we all learn a little.

AAC

[lexusboy]

I believe that with tangs its best to have them in at least a 4 foot tank and if your qt tank is not 4 feet they are gonna get streesed out and like AAC said, which I have heard before. When I bought my kole tang I stuck him right in the tank so that he feels most comfortable in the reef tank, which is what he is used to.

[crescent1]

i read the same article years ago in aquarium fish and fama.
i wouldn't dought it to be true, i just cant remember everything that was said in the article.

[stargazer=2]

i have a purple tang and a scopus tang in our 125 they are best pals they hangout togeather all day, at night they each have a different place to go.had an ich out break when i added the purple .we also have 2 cleaner wrasses and 3 cleaner shrimp the wrasses cleaned the 2 tangs daily .the wrasses eat whatever i feed the other fish .it just has to be smaller peices for them to eat it.

[intrudah]

Originally posted by TippyToex
Do you keep buying tangs from the same dealer? While in QT, what are you doing to treat the Ich? One more question, is the QT tank large enough for a good swim and providing plenty of hiding spaces?

There is only 2 LFS where I live, One have more dead fish then alive and one is good, But I have bought from both, I have a 30g QT its about 2-3 feet in length, there some rocks in there so he can hide thin layer of LS,
I tried to feed him frozen brine shrimp & zooplankton with garlic extract but he only eat one piece of zooplankton, fixin to go and buy that green algae lookin food for tangs. I used Ick-Away last night but if there is no sign of improvement soon I'll be going with hyposalinity..
Thanks guys

[sw-addict]

Your just gonna give up and quit just like that. Tangs are a great fish to keep in a tank they always are swiming and moving. If you want to keep tangs you need to have cleaner shrimp and a cleaner goby. This works great for me I have a yellow tang, brown scopas tang and a sailfin and they are getting clean daily, this seems to reduce stress alot.

[intrudah]

I tried the cleaner shrimp before but it didnt help, cause the fish didnt let him clean long enough, I didnt know anything about cleaner goby are they easy to keep?

[intrudah]

Which one of these is the cleaner goby?

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/s...d=21&pCatId=31

[intrudah]

Update on Tang
Just got him some green sea algae from seaweed he is eating eat and looks alot better then last night, I guess Ick-Away is working.

[guitarfish]

You can successfully have a tang, but you need to educate yourself on ich first. Try ATJ's Marine Ich Reference

What I'd recommend is hyposalinity - lowering the SG of the tank down to 1.009 over 48hrs. Watch your pH, as it will drop as you add freshwater. You'll need a refractomer, about $50 on eBay. Once the tang is at 1.009, leave him there for a month. Feed him, make sure he has some hiding spaces. Don't keep a lot of substrate in the QT, just a very small bit to eliminate the "mirror" effect.

After a month, start raising the SG back up to tank levels. Ich cannot survive at 1.009, and will die. As long as you do this, AND you don't have ich in the main tank, you can add the tang, and he'll be fine.

You can put a healthy tang in a tiny tank and it may die from stress - but if ich isn't in the tank, it won't appear on the tang. Period.

Now go get 'em.

[intrudah]

Thanks for the info Guitarfish but I already read all the articles and saved some on PC before I got the Tang.

[James56]

doesn't Ick-Away have copper in it? Copper eats the stomach of a tang. You should of used hypo if the Ick-Away have copper

[RKM]

Kick Ich is what I used. It is reef safe. I am not sure if it worked or the fish was less stressed and got over it

[intrudah]

Ick-Away does not have copper atleast that what it says on the package, The tang had alot of white spots yesterday and I looked at him 5mins ago and didnt saw any ick so ick-away helped.

[ab5ebdxer]

I lost two yellow tangs before I had success. I added a blood shrimp and feed garlic soaked green sea algae every day.

Seems to work. I also change my polyester filter in my sump everyday. It is amazing how dirty they get after only one day.

Good luck
Mike

[intrudah]

Oops! sorry I'm using Kick-Ich not Ich-Away. Dont have a clue where that came from, lol

[s13silvia]

i tried a kole tang as my very first tang and he did well for a week until he just died out of the blue. my second attempt was a big one, since i decided to fork out $ for a chevron tang and so far he is super healthy and a fat pig. he picks at the rocks all day and eats frozen formula 1 and flake foods

[luvmyreef]

I have also used Kick-Ick with good results.

[kbreese]

Originally posted by sw-addict
Your just gonna give up and quit just like that. Tangs are a great fish to keep in a tank they always are swiming and moving. If you want to keep tangs you need to have cleaner shrimp and a cleaner goby. This works great for me I have a yellow tang, brown scopas tang and a sailfin and they are getting clean daily, this seems to reduce stress alot.

i don't understand what this means, how does the cleaner shrimp and goby clean the tangs??

[Diehl]

Just another reason I don't agree with QT fish. I have had my tank setup for over 6 months and had Ich for the first month I treat with Garlic based foods everyday and I use a cleaner shrimp. I have not seen any signs of ich in over 5 months My Yellow tang looks very healthy and I just added a Half and Half Chromis last week and there is no signs of ich. I think with good husbandry and frequent water changes you don't need a QT it only causes more unneccessary stress JMO

[gregory854]

i have lots of tangs, the blue tangs get ick the easiest, i found the best way to control the ick is with Marc Weiss Coral Vital and Garlic Elixir

the coral vital helps kill the ick on the outside, , and the garlic elixir you put into food, and works awesome on ich, and all other parasites.
both of these are natural and reef safe.
if you want i got a bunch of garlic elixir, i bought in bulk for 15 a tube, usually it is 22-28

i only use this when adding new fish, and when ick is persent

[MERCEDES]

We have always put our fish into the main tank. Either way you are stressing the fish and putting it into a Qt then treating and then putting it into another tank and stressing it again could possibly just bring on the ICH again only for you to chase him & stress him more to be put right back where he started. Whew!I am stressed just from typing all of that. When we first set up our 1st tank(150g) we had a couple of ich outbreaks. Treated with some reef safe medicine we had cleaner shrimp which in time the fish will let the shrimp clean them. Patience is such an important word in this hobby but damn is it hard to have. After our tank settled and matured we have not(knock on wood)had a problem. We had a yellow a scopas (both in the zebrasoma family)and a naso together. We traded the yellow and scopas after we got our bristletooth and they were complete as*** to the newbie and everyone else in the tank. Even then we did not have an ich outbreak with all of the fighting that was going on. We booted the troublemakers out and the naso and bristletooth get along great. Our naso rarely got ich it was the yellow tang that usually was the one breaking out. Maybe you should consider a different tang. JMO but that has been our experience do a search on naso tangs and you will find a lot of happy owners who love their "pet dog".

[guitarfish]

I've never understood the "QT just adds to stress" line of reasoning. Maybe if you have a crummy QT setup it does. I bring the fish home from the LFS, where often times the environment was no substrate, too many fish, nothing to hide behind, etc. I drip aclimate him for 60-90 min and put him into a QT. He's by himself, has ample hiding space, nothing to fear. I usually cover the sides of the QT as well as the back to give them an additional level of feeling protected.

I feed them right away with frozen foods, and within 48hrs they're swimming around that QT as happy as can be. Depending on the cirumstances, they stay there for 3-4 weeks, and if healthy, they're acclimated to the main tank. Lights are turned off in the main tank, they get to chill for 12 hrs. then lights on and it's time to explore. I've never lost a fish this way thankfully. If done right QT isn't stressful at all.

As for the "I've never QT'd and never had a problem" folks - good for you!! I mean it, you are very fortunate. A friend of mine has a 75g reef and doesn't QT. He's got ich in there, lost a couple fish. He's tried virtually every remedy mentioned above (except QT/hypo), but dang, every month more spots show up.

Ich is nasty, in my little world ich=doom and must be avoided at all costs, so I QT. Fact remains - no matter how stressed a fish is, it can't get ich if ich ain't in the tank.