pacific blue tang has ich, what now

[Dholmblad]

Well before I left for work I noticed that my pacific blue tank has alot of ich spots on him. The other tang(yellow) had no visible spots. This is a fish only tank with 2b/g chromis, 2 firefish, watchman, pcbtang, yellow tang. The pacific was added a little more then a week ago and up until this morning he looked great. Swimming/eating all day long. I tested the water parameters and everything is fine.

 

So now what? I dont have a QT tank set up anymore. And I am leaving on vacation for four days on Wednesday...

[Brian Ward]

Add garlic to his diet. Ensure he is getting nutritious food. As long as he keeps eating and swimming normally, there isn't much to worry about. Fish can live with ich as long as they aren't stressed and are getting proper nutrition. Is he being picked on? Is a pcbtang a powder blue? If so, it may be picking on the more docile pacific blue. What is the size of the tank.

[bluce]

See my dillema that I am still going through

 

http://www.wamas.org/forums/topic/38203-ick-outbreak-need-help/page__gopid__329066

 

All my fish died but 2 - really felt bad.

I know you will see many thoughts about this, but if i had to do it over again, I would immediatly have used copper (my outbreak was bad - it was all over the fish). I think the Angel and Clowns would have survived if I started using it when they were still healthy. By the time I had the 2nd round of ICH, they were weakened. If your never going to have inverts in your DT then you could dose it with copper. NEVER being the key word.

 

If your outbreak isn't too bad (only a few white spots), I think I would follow what most of the members say, and try to keep them healthy by feeding well, and doing water changes.

[Brian Ward]

treatment with hypo is also effective and i think should be a choice before copper. think of copper like chemo. yes, it kills the ich, but it is extremely taxing on the fish, so it must still be strong enough to withstand the treatment.

[Dholmblad]

Add garlic to his diet. Ensure he is getting nutritious food. As long as he keeps eating and swimming normally, there isn't much to worry about. Fish can live with ich as long as they aren't stressed and are getting proper nutrition. Is he being picked on? Is a pcbtang a powder blue? If so, it may be picking on the more docile pacific blue. What is the size of the tank.

 

 

It is a 90 gallon tank. Sorry to confuse you, it is just one pacific blue tang. No powderblue. The pacific is the largest fish in the tank and does not get picked on from what I can tell.

 

 

Can you suggest some food for me to ensure hes healthy?

[Dholmblad]

treatment with hypo is also effective and i think should be a choice before copper. think of copper like chemo. yes, it kills the ich, but it is extremely taxing on the fish, so it must still be strong enough to withstand the treatment.

 

 

What is hypo?

 

Yeah I am not sure about copper, as I would eventually like to be able to have inverts in the tank.

[Dholmblad]

I apologize it is not a blue hippo, I searched online for "pacific blue tang" which is what it was marked as and yea I see that is a common name for hippos. The fish in my tank that has ich is like the one pictured bellow except it has a darker body

 

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/Atlantic-Blue-Tang_p_719.html

[Brian Ward]

OK. You have an Atlantic Blue. That is an Acanthurus species. They seem to be the most prone to ich, so your situation is not unusual.

 

Hypo is hyposalinity treatment. You reduce the salinity of the tank (or QT system) to 1.010 and keep it there for 6 weeks. The fish can survive it, but the parasite cannot. I think this is a next step. For now, I would begin to soak your food in Garlic Guard. This should help boost the fish's immune system. Be sure you're feeding a varied diet that includes both meaty and veggie foods. Be sure to monitor behavior and feeding response. If he shows any signs of becoming lethargic or not eating, then you will need to get him into QT and treat with hyposalinity. You can find a detailed article on www.advancedaquarist.com

[F&Fmgr]

I would reccomend to try and discern whether it is ICH vs. Velvet, they look similiar if you don't see and treat it all the time. If you put a fish with velvet(amyloodinium) in a hypo treatment, not only will it not work but IME the velvet tends to run rampant in lowered salinity.

 

Maybe try and borrow or BUY a UV sterilizer if it is velvet b/c the only two things I have seen kill velvet are copper and Ultraviolet use.

 

here is a link to someone selling a 40 watt

[Dholmblad]

I cant find any pictures online to see what Velvet looks like. But I am pretty sure it is ich

[F&Fmgr]

I should add that if it is Ich and not Velvet the above mentioned treatments work well. also Ich is not as big a killer as velvet.

Just make sure your water parameters are OK and they should be able to beat it with a lil garlic and TLC

[F&Fmgr]

here might help

[Brian Ward]

As Sean said, if it is velvet, then a hypo treatment will cause the velvet to run rampant and kill the fish.

[F&Fmgr]

heres a very crude drawing but I think it might help

 

Ich looks like the fish has whiteheads

 

Velvet loks like the fish was rolled in sugar

[onux20]

Check out post #6 on this post

My link. Good article on Ich.

 

Listen to what Brian says! I have never met him but he gives great advice and knows what he is talking about.

 

I just picked up a PBT and after a few days of getting bullied by the Kole and Scopas he is showing signs of Ich. I soak food in garlic and feed it to the tank as part of a varied diet. This method has kept the tank and specifically the tangs free of visible signs of Ich.

 

I think the jury is out on whether garlic actually works (See link) but I am happy with the results I have acheived while using it. It could be coincidental but I will keep using it just in case.

 

Dont stress yet. Feed well. Try to pick up some garlic and soak your food and see what happens.

[Dholmblad]

How quickly should I reduce the salinity in my tank? It is currently at 1.025.

[Coral Hind]

Remove tank water and add freshwater to reach 1.023. Then keep lowering the SG two points per day until you have a density of 1.009 in the tank. Hold that for a month then slowly raise it back up.

Edited July 27, 2010 by Coral Hind

[Brian Ward]

remember this will kill your corals and most (if not all) of your inverts. Be sure to run enough carbon if you expect significant die-off.

[Coral Hind]

He said this is a fish only tank so other then some pods there should be much die off.

[Brian Ward]

Oh, missed that. Should be good to go on hypo treatment then.

[Dholmblad]

Well now this makes no sense... I came home and I dont see a single white spot on this fish.

 

When I saw him this morning he was covered in what looked like tiny whitespots/tiny bubbles.

[bluce]

I found this on WetWebMedia site - maybe your lucky and your fish only has micro bubbles sticking to him - see below:

 

Ich v. Air bubbles 8/13/05

I recently treated my orbit batfish for ich. His eyes were cloudy, breathing heavily and in bad shape. After successful copper sulfate

treatment for two weeks I returned him to his 90 gallon home 5 weeks later. The main tank remained fallow for 5 weeks before his return.

Everything appeared ok for a few days. Suddenly I started noticing what I thought were white spots on his tail again. After a few days they appeared to be all over his body. When I turned the lights on late at night they appeared all over. I was extremely upset and debating whether to do a second copper treatment or to try with garlic soaked food and just leave him with the cleaner shrimp since too much copper can be dangerous <You are right to be concerned here>

Suddenly I had a thought that perhaps it was not ich. He wasn't scratching and his eyes were still clear. Appetite fine. Looking carefully in the water I noticed lots of tiny air bubbles from my protein skimmer. Looking in my 4 other reef tanks I did not see any similar spots on the fish.

<Bats, Spadefishes are slimier than many other groups of fishes... and with the copper treatment, this specimen would be even slimier... more susceptible to air bubbles sticking on it.>

However the protein skimmers in those tanks were in the sump and there were no air bubbles in the tank.

I turned off the protein skimmer. Much to my happy surprise the supposed "ich" had all disappeared within 3 hours. Apparently what had happened was that the air bubbles were attaching to the slow moving batfish. With the light reflection off the air bubbles the air bubbles appeared to be ich. Now I am an experienced marine hobbyist with over 10 years in the hobby. I am also a well know Manhattan attorney so am usually pretty careful how I do things. Yet I came very close to committing fish malpractice by treating for ich when all I had was air bubbles.

<Heee! Case closed counselor>

The point of the story is that it is not so easy to tell simply by white spots if you have ich or not.

<Yes>

If there are any tiny air bubbles in your tank it would behoove the aquarist to first shut the protein skimmer for a few hours and see if the "ich" is really air bubbles. Slow moving fish appear to be magnets for air bubbles. Sadly I would bet there are thousands of cases of fish being treated for "ich" when all they had were a case of air bubbles.

<Agreed... with dire consequences often>

It's worth the time to shut your protein skimmer for a few hours to find out. Obviously if your fish are already scratching, not eating, and

have cloudy eyes this extra step is not necessary.

William J. Unroch, Attorney

<Thank you for this. You have saved many organisms, other hobbyists... Bob Fenner> Re: Ich v. Air bubbles

What a great thing to say. Coming from you it is very flattering. You have saved thousands more organisms than I every will and your site is wonderful.

I think my comment was needed since I had never seen that issue discussed before. When I realized I had air bubbles and not ich on the fish I was shocked that even with all my experience I was almost ready to do copper.

<As a keen observer of human nature it seems so likely... and yet you had the further intelligence to see through such a "reflex" reaction>

Light plays strange tricks on tiny air bubbles. They look white, they build up on the fish over a few days, and even an experienced aquarist can think it is ick - I did . Hope you mention this in one of your wonderful

articles. Thanks again

William J. Unroch, Attorney

<Will do. Excelsior! Bob Fenner>

 

 

[Sharkey18]

No it makes sense if it's ick.

 

I currently have a Hippo tang with ick and its the same thing. Today covered in spots, tomorrow almost none. It's part of the parasitic life cycle. Just because you can't currently see the spots on the fish doesn't mean the fish isn't infected. In my experience it will be back within 24 hrs and gets worse each day.

 

I have successfully treated ick with hypo.

 

Right now I am riding it out, feeding well and running UV. I am hoping that the UV will kill enough of the free swimming parasites so it give the hippo a fighting chance.

 

Last month I lost a powder blue, midas blenny and a few anthias to ick but i wasn't running uv then.

 

If it's a fish only tank go hypo asap.

 

Laura

[Dholmblad]

I lost this fish while I was away this weekend:( Should I be worried about my yellow tang contracting ich? I dont see signs of it, I have had him much longer then the Atlantic blue.

[Brian Ward]

It's certainly a possibility. Continue with the hypo treatment we described previously. If executed correctly, it will rid the tank of ich. Hypo also has the added benefit of making it easier for fish to fight off an ich infection. If you don't have any inverts in your tank, I would definitely keep the normal salinity in the 1.020 - 1.023 range. This is high enough to avoid any kidney damage to the fish and low enough to help the fish fight off some infections.