hippo tang ich?

Like 25 for a tiny one, or 50-60 for a decent sized one is my max for that fish,

Even the yellow belly variety is not much more than 70 dollars.

Granted, if it is like 10" long, I guess a store can charge what they feel is right.

 

Just up your feedings...dose everything with garlic guard or garlic xtreme, i prefer the latter, also using vitamins like selcon helps alot...i just got done battling ich on the hippo for about 3 weeks, i didn't stress, just did the above and it went away. the reef safe chemicals don't work. garlic + vitamins + food = ;D

 

garlic doesn't help a fish immune system, but it is supposed to get feeding going, which helps. give him some fresh seaweed to munch on if possible, spinach works too, romaine doesn't have much nutrients but you can leave it in for hours which is also re-assuring to the fish and reduces stress. Get him eating well and he will beat it himself. Whole leaf nori, (not the processed sheets, but something like a Laver sp. sun dried), will have a good amount of vitamin-c naturally available to the fish, that will help.

If you can easily remove him, I would send him back to the qt. copper works. almost everytime. so do fw dips. it will stress them more for the move, but afterward you can keep him in "twilight" no light on the tank, but some in the room, and this helps to calm fish. Doing this in the display would be a good idea, but you may have coral etc... Still I would keep the lights low for awhile and have the coral ntake a day off for the team, we have cloudy days on the reef too.

(it is also good to have him in qt just in case treatment doesn't go well....)

 

We had good luck with our hippo after it contracted Ich (right after purchase and probably stress related) by providing the garlic seaweed in moderate amounts plus purchasing a cleaner wrasse. We also used something called No-Ich that you can apply to a reef tank. It contains no copper or other harmful substances though I am not altogether sure it was what helped us beat the Ich.

My feeling is that providing enough quality food and making sure the fish is eating will help the most. The Ich did spread to some of our other fish as well but it appeared that the wrasse was consistently going after the parasites and after a few days, no more problems.

 

Watch out with that "cleaner wrasse" Unlike cleaner shrimp, they don't always do well in a tank, and usually starve.

As far as garlic, it has been proven in humans to help your immune system, so it should do the same in fish.

 

If he is eating leave him alone.
Make sure water quality is pristine and good hiding places.
Seaweed for sure.
It's normal for Hippos to get ich during a move... another move= more stress.
Read up on the ich cycle... it runs a life cycle of about a month.
Cleaner shrimp seems to relieve them and I would get a neon goby also.

On a side note... I love my hippo tang.. congrats on getting an awesome fish. Mine got ich twice when I first got him. It lasted about 3 weeks went away.. then a milder case came back a month later. He's been ich free for months now.
Seaweed should always be their main diet and brocolli is good for the digestive system.
To mix it up I sometimes put in hikari sinkable algae wafers and the normal meaty foods.

 

+1---Same experience here, except with a powder brown also--Ich comes and goes with Tangs...Just keep the water healthy and the food also.

 

Hmm, did a little research and was unaware of the history of the cleaner wrasse. Interestingly enough, ours has done really well. (fat and healthy) We have had it for nearly 5 months and it eats prepared foods as well as grooms the fish. The reading I have done states that this fish is hard to keep. While I have not had this issue, perhaps it is better to feed well and regulate conditions.

 

I always say that fish don't read books, so if yours eats prepared foods and you have no issues keeping it, then great!

My luck with fish not reading books usually ends up with a coral nipper, or a bastard fish that is supposed to be nice.

 

I agree with leaving it.. Mine would get spots from time to time and I would just up the feeding ensuring that it always had Romaine, then I would feed pellets or formula b frozen cubes soaked in Zoe and Garlic once daily. Try to keep stress low in the tank by not doing any major cleanings unless you absolutly have to. Might also be a good idea to cut back on your lights for a couple days. Just make sure you don't cut back too much and harm any corals.. I always say even Reefs have cloudy days.