Hippo Blue Tang has Ick

[mling]

Looks like my Hippo Blue Tang has Ick. I have had it for over a month now. It is behaving normally, eating everything that is can find. It is also very active, which would make it difficult to catch and place in a hospital tank. I understand that ick is usually due to the immune system of a fish being low due to stress, etc. I am sure it is the etc in my case.

 

I know that Blue Tang are notorious for getting ick. What is the best approach to treating it ? Last time I had ick on a Scopas Tang, it was sick enough for me to catch and put in a hospital tank. There is lowered the SG till almost fresh water, i.e. hypo dip, after a few days that did the trick.

 

Do I have no choice but to wait for the ick to make this Hippo weak enough for me to catch and treat in a hospital tank ?

 

Will be be contagious to the other fish ?

 

Water parameters are all great enough for corals to be thriving.

[Buucca]

Looks like my Hippo Blue Tang has Ick. I have had it for over a month now. It is behaving normally, eating everything that is can find. It is also very active, which would make it difficult to catch and place in a hospital tank. I understand that ick is usually due to the immune system of a fish being low due to stress, etc. I am sure it is the etc in my case.

 

I know that Blue Tang are notorious for getting ick. What is the best approach to treating it ? Last time I had ick on a Scopas Tang, it was sick enough for me to catch and put in a hospital tank. There is lowered the SG till almost fresh water, i.e. hypo dip, after a few days that did the trick.

 

Do I have no choice but to wait for the ick to make this Hippo weak enough for me to catch and treat in a hospital tank ?

 

Will be be contagious to the other fish ?

 

Water parameters are all great enough for corals to be thriving.

My Hippo got Ick about a year ago and he to was too active to catch. I decided not to go with the hypo immediately, but did a partial water change and replaced some of the water with RO to lower the SG a couple points. A day later did it again and so on til I got to .018 in the tank. Puchased some Rid Ick and bought an appropriate UV for my system. A week later no more Ick. I don't know how bad the infection is but its worth a look at.

[sturnmeyer]

I purchased a Hippo a couple years ago that developed fin rot and ick really bad. I used garlic in his food, garlic extract actually and it worked great!!! Now I throw garlic in their frozen food every couple of weeks just to help with the immune system.

[mling]

My Hippo got Ick about a year ago and he to was too active to catch. I decided not to go with the hypo immediately, but did a partial water change and replaced some of the water with RO to lower the SG a couple points. A day later did it again and so on til I got to .018 in the tank. Puchased some Rid Ick and bought an appropriate UV for my system. A week later no more Ick. I don't know how bad the infection is but its worth a look at.

Won't lowering the SG in the tank bother the corals ? How low can you lower the SG before the coral start to get in trouble ?

[Buucca]

Won't lowering the SG in the tank bother the corals ? How low can you lower the SG before the coral start to get in trouble ?

Someone else may want to chime in, but my tank corals or inhabitants suffered no ill effect. I did lower it slowly and kept it there for about a month before slowly bringing it back up after I was confident the Ick was gone.

[Lunker]

Here are some links that I found very informative about ich.

 

Part 1 - http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

 

Part 2 - http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php

 

Good luck

[scott711]

The most important thing for helping the fish get rid of ich is high quality food. Keep it eating to keep it fighting off the parasite. I have several tangs and in the past they have gotten ich and all I do is give them a good healthy diet and it goes away.

[mling]

The most important thing for helping the fish get rid of ich is high quality food. Keep it eating to keep it fighting off the parasite. I have several tangs and in the past they have gotten ich and all I do is give them a good healthy diet and it goes away.

I feed my fishes primarily OSI spirulina. I also give a variety of other food, from frozen to pellets to direc worms.

What do you feed your tangs ? I also have a Sailfin Tang.

[Bob]

I had a similar problem with a Powder Blue Tang that infected my Hippo as well as others. Not willing to break down my rock structure, remove fish etc. I did a 4 prong attack. #1, I bought Rid Ick and wound up doing 3 complete treatments over about a month period. #2. I installed a 57w. UV system (in 150 gal/200 gal total water volume.) #3 I started feeding garlic on everything that went into the tank. #4. I lowered my salinity to 1.00 over 3 weeks and remained there for total 6 week period then slowly raised back to 1.05. Having the UV working continuously has given me some peace of mind and in almost one year no reoccurance. Good Luck.....Patience, Patience, Patience. Bob

[Jon Lazar]

I had a similar problem with a Powder Blue Tang that infected my Hippo as well as others. Not willing to break down my rock structure, remove fish etc. I did a 4 prong attack. #1, I bought Rid Ick and wound up doing 3 complete treatments over about a month period. #2. I installed a 57w. UV system (in 150 gal/200 gal total water volume.) #3 I started feeding garlic on everything that went into the tank. #4. I lowered my salinity to 1.00 over 3 weeks and remained there for total 6 week period then slowly raised back to 1.05. Having the UV working continuously has given me some peace of mind and in almost one year no reoccurance. Good Luck.....Patience, Patience, Patience. Bob

 

Bob,

 

I think you might have misstated the salinity levels you used, or perhaps I'm not understanding what you mean. Salinity of 1.00 is zero ppt, which means there is no salt at all. Also, 1.05 specific gravity is too salty. Seawater averages around 35ppt, or a specific gravity of 1.026.

 

Not trying to pick apart your post, but I don't want someone new to saltwater reading this and thinking they can keep their saltwater fish in freshwater for 6 weeks.

 

Jon

[scott711]

Spectrum pellets, the my homemade food. They eat it like it is going out of style!

[killed_by_a_reef]

I had ick all over my yellow belly and tried it all. The last chance I had and worked within days was a wrasse. I'm telling you it worked great and both are happy. Oh yeah also to help is get that high intensity garlic and mix it with your food...build the immune system.

Edited December 26, 2008 by killed_by_a_reef