Blue tang might have ich help

I just got a blue tang a few weeks ago. today i noticed that it had alot of white spots on it which im assuming it is ich. What can i do to help it or get rid of it ? The tang is eating everyday and is not rubbing on any rocks. Any help or advice would be helpful thank you.

 

Welcome to 3reef.

There are two common interventions.

1. Remove the Tang and other fish and place in a quarantine step up and treat them all while leaving the tank fallow(fish less) for over a month. You must quarantine everything from there on out to prevent re-introduction of the parasite.

Or

2. Leave the Tang in the tank, makes sure water quality is good, no over crowding, no bullying. Feed foods enhanced with garlic and or Selcon. In approximately 7 days the parasite will fall off the fish into the substrate to complete it's life cycle. Hopefully if the tank is as stress free as possible the fish will not become symptomatic again.

 

Thanks for the advice. Yeah i would have to leave the fish in this tank, Its a 75 gallon and my second tank is only 14gallon, so far the only fish that would stress it would be the damsel but they dont but heads very often. Ill try the garlic and selcon. What are the chances that it will effect my other fish? I have two chocolate clowns, a anglerfish, two damsels, yellow tang, scooter blenny, and a 6 line wrasse.

 

+1 you can make DIY fish traps out of 2L bottles. See You tube for that. I recommend copper based medication ONLY IN A QT tank though. Research hypo salinity dips and freshwater dips.

all you need for a QT tank is a small cheap tank, basic lights, heater, "fake shelter", flow, and fresh regular saltwater changes.

Research "garlic" foods or DIY garlic foods.

GL

 

I recently brought home a hippo tang that ended up having ich as well. It spread to every fish in my tank, and I lost my Kole Tang and my Orchid Dottyback. I'm in the process of removing fish via the DIY trap mentioned above. Here's the link to a thread on it. I used the pop bottle design on Page 2 of the thread. Very simple to make and I've caught 3 of the 5 fish I couldn't get with a net so far.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/diy-fishtrap-42442.html

I know others have been able to beat it via good feeding and low stress environments, so I may be the exception to the rule. But, that method didn't work for me. As far as QT, WalMart storage totes and heaters work great.

 

Just so that you are not too alarmed by the arrival of the tang police, thought i would give you a heads up. You did not state how big your tangs are, however they will outgrow your tank fairly rapidly and you will need to upgrade or rehome them. Tangs are notorious for ich, particularly the blue and powder blue tangs for some reason. Good luck and let us know how the garlic and selcon work out.

 

Two Words:


Quarantine Tank! before they ever see your DT

 

I agree, although the Yellow Tang may be fine in the 75. The others will outgrow it as mentioned. On a side note, how long have you had the Angler and Scooter Blenny together? Seems like an ideal meal for an Angler :-/

 

My yellow tangs about 1.5 in and my blue tang is 1in so they are really small still. Hopfully they have the food. The lfs offered me to return the blue tang but I wanted to see if I could fix the problem myself rather then stress it with traveling.

The angler has been in the tank for about a month with the blenny. So far they have not gone near each other. The blenny hangs at the bottom and the angler is usually at the top off the live rock. But if the scooter goes missing I will know where it went lol

 

So one of the fish stores told me it might not be ich since the white dots are mostly just on one sound of the fish does that siund right? Also yhey suggested a cleaner wrasse to help eat the ich. Does anyone have any advice on what they suggested ?