How do you know when tang has ich

I just purchased a African yellow belly hippo tang and a chocolate mimic tang. Both very beautiful the mimic is starting to morph colors already. But anyways how will you know if they come down with ich? I heard hippos are very prone to them as other Tangs so I want to be able to tell if it ever happens or anything else I should pay attention too. Both are eating and swimming around.

Thanks

 

well, first they will scratch against objects in your tank and your sand.
then you are going to see white little dots all over the tangs body. kind of like if you took grains of salt and sprinkled them on him.

 

Sugar grain sized white spots on them. they scratch on the rocks or the sand. rubbing their bodies on the rock, sand and tank sides.

its pretty tell tail on them.

 

Do the spots come one by one or will it be multiple at a time. I noticed the mimic tang will swim and brush against a rock or two but doesn't have any spots the skin looks nice.

 

It depends.. sometimes it starts with 3 or 4..
or sometimes one morning there is nothing and the next the fish is filled with them.
the dots you see are the eggs of the Parasite.the actual parasite itself you cant see. Not to alarm you but it could be that your tang has the ich already if you see him do that.
However if you keep your water quality up and your feedings high in nutrients then they should be able to fight it off.

 

My parameters are amm nitrite phos 0, nitrate 10, cal 500, salinity 1.024. Ph 8.2 temp 77-78 tank is two months old. I hope he doesn't have ich. The tangs are eating red seaweed and were added two days ago and acclimated for an hour.

 

how big is your tank?.
i would raise your PH to 8.3- 8.4 IMO.
tangs should really be added at least 5 months after the cycle so that they have more stable parameters and natural algae to graze on.
as of right now, just keep your feedings, give them lots of veggies and meaty foods, maybe soaked in garlic and they should be ok.

 

Treating Marine Ich and Brooklynella with Hyposalinity - Reef Health

they will look like that more or less.

 

Tank is 90 gallons
I don't think that is really necessary to wait that long. Who wants to look at water for 5 months to a year.

 

It's important to wait because the tank becomes more stable as well with the maturity of it. If the tank doesn't mature it is less grazing matter for the fish. Tangs need to be able to graze all day because of their appetite and diet. Not providing this can make the fish become ill...