Ick outbreak on yellow eye tang!

[mrfobber]

Hello everybody,

I bought a decent size yellow eye khole tang yesterday, it seemed healthy! Just right now, while it is gazing on my glass filled with hair algae, I discovered that its fat body has more white dots than the Vancouver skiing track!!! I think its in hiding now, the outbreak is probably pretty recent, maybe the past 2 hours? I was looking at him earlier, and didn't discover anything. Right now I have tweaked the temp to about 80, from the original 72. I have a clown fish, 2 cleaner shrimps, 2 peppermint shrimps, one salfin tang, one pink dottyback, and two scissor gobies, and one tiger pistol shrimp. It is impossible for me to catch him from my tank, what should my next step be? Any advices or comments would be greatly appreciated!

[mrfobber]

oh sorry, here's the answers that I accidentally omitted.

Tank size- 50 gallons
Age of tank- transferred from a 35 gallon with no new rocks. About 6 years.
Lighting- 2 250 watts metal halide
Salinity- cant find the tester, but as soon as I find it, I will post update
Water temperature- was 72, now raised it to 81
Nitrites- N/A didn't test since the test kit ran out
Nitrates-N/A
Calcium (If applicable)- N/A
Magnesium- N/A
Alk or pH- N/A
Dosing anything?- nope
Any recent changes to tank- added the infected Yellow eye Khole tang yesterday
Inhabitants:

FISH - 1 clown fish, 1 salfin tang, 1 pink dotty back, 2 scissor goby and 1 yellow eye khole tang

Inverts: 1 serpent star, 2 peppermint shripms, 2 cleaner shrimps, 4 turbo snails,

Corals: 1 ball of candy cane polyps.

[GrantMBrady]

You need to test ammonia, and nitrites to make sure they are not elevated.
.
Also check your PH and salinity.

Is the sailfin tang harrassing him at all?

How did you acclimate him?

72 is really cold IMO, especially since the tank it came out of was probably 78-80.

Try using garlic guard, focus and Metronidazole together by soaking food in that.

You need to find out why he got ich. Which I would say is probably the cold temp, but if that was not it you need to find out what did cause it otherwise it does not matter what you do.

[mrfobber]

Ill go buy some test kits and post the results when I get them. Same with PH and salinity.

The sailfin tang is not harassing him.

I floated him in a bag for about 40 minutes, then I used the kent marine dosing unit to does about 2 cups of tank water drop by drop into his bag before I finally release him to the tank.

[nahtanoj]

i don't think 72 is too cold. i run at 74. and i've never heard of temperature causing ich, the parasite had to have been present in the fishes original water and the stress of moving him in caused it to attach. very common with new tangs. why did you raise the temperature to 80? warm temps actually increase the rate at which ich can reproduce, IMO amplifying the problem at a faster rate.
since we are on the subject of acclimation, i am not a big fan of the drip method. it is difficult to maintain pH in a small bag with a big fish breathing hard due to stress and pooping and peeing. a drip simply will not keep pH matched tank to bag/bucket. so when you dump the fish in 1 hour later, it is just as big of a shock (if not bigger) as just dumping it in straight from the bag. all i would do is float for temperature matching. that is all i do.
every new fish should be quaritined to prevent disease introduction. if it is just ich there is a good chance the fish will recover with no stress, clean water, and good food. but if it is something more than ich, cross your fingers you don't kill every fish you have.

[mrfobber]

Thanks for the tip on tripping acclimation. After I heard what you explained, it made a lot of sense and I dont think I'm going to drip anymore.

I checked this morning and the Icks are all gone. It must cycled to a different stage now.

I just did a 10 percent water change, still couldn't get the water parameters because the store sold out of the test kits. I'm going to attempt to treat the whole reef tank with Microbe-Lift's Herbatana. Has anyone ever used it before? Its suppose to be reef safe. Please let me know if you had tried this product before. Thanks!

[Cesarv4]

In my experience with Ich on tangs, it's best not to remove them to a hospital tank because that will only cause more stress and make ich worse. Just leave him in there and maybe give it a fresh water dip (Make sure it's RO water.) The fresh water dip for a couple minutes is the safest way IMO. It does cause stress to the fish but I think it's the same amount of stress as any acclimation technique. The fresh water will kill any parasites that are on the fish. Make sure the water is as close to the temperature on the tank as possible.

Make sure you add at least 1 Cleaner Shrimp to your tank if you don't already have one. They remove parasites from fish and constantly jump on them to clean them. Water changes are important too. And keep an eye on that Sailfin tang because tangs infect other tangs quicker than most other fish.

Just make sure you give your next fish or coral a quick FW dip before you add it to your tank.

Just my 2 cents!:2cents:

[manny77]

Hmm fresh water dip before adding to the tank. I learn new everyday in this site

[Cesarv4]

How's the tang doing?

[manny77]

How long does the ich last anyways before they shake it off? ich is the white spots right and parasites are the black one?

[Reefer420]

Ich can last up to a month before it dies off. Try garlic soaking your food and pieces of nori that helped with my outbreak. I always dip new fish/corals in revive before i add to my tank just to be safe.

[mrfobber]

The Khole tang has been doing well. I treated the whole tank with Microbe Lift's Herbtana, and it seems to be giving out good results. However, the tang is still pretty shy despite the fact that he has been in the tank for almost a week! And he has not eaten any food that I fed. (Omega One Veggie Flakes)

There are no other infections in the tank, and I'm on the 4th day of the treatment ( Out of 10 days) The khole tang ocasionally nips at the glasses, but it has not accepted flake food yet. What other food alternatives should I try? Any advices or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Oh yah, I soak all my food in Seachem's Garlic Guard eversince the khole outbreak. ( I couldnt find the other two Seachem products that is suppose to help with ick, well the Garlic Guard help?)

[manny77]

I saw garlic guard at aquatic warehouse. I needed some for mine too. Little guy got an ich but no problem With him. Eats like a pig and swims all over the place with the chromis. I feed all of them mini mysis. Also leave some nori for them to nibble on.

[mrfobber]

Hello Everyone,

Today when I saw my yellow tang, it seems like it has been ick free, but I will have to wait for a couple more days to find out.

My yellow tang is still pretty shy, but it has been coming out more and more now. It also started to peck on the side of the tank more and more, although it still have not eaten the food I fed.

Today I tried to put in some dry sheets of seaweed with a clip, but it seems to scare away the poor tang, and now it hasn't come out yet. I have removed the clip and put the seaweed sheet under a piece of a small rock. What else should I try that can encourage my yellow eye tang to eat? I'm still quite worry because he has not eaten any of the food I fed. Its been more than a week since he arrived in my tank.

[rodbuster229]

A good garlic soak would help to get him to eat theirs also this thing called entice by seachem I've never used it but heard that it will help to get them eating but keep trying the garlic guard and he'll start eating that's how I got my moorish idol to eat

[mrfobber]

The yellow eye has increased its activities now, swimming around the tank and nipping on glasses and rocks when I'm not there. Whenever I get close to the tank, it just runs to hide. Still the same, refuse to eat the food I fed. Will continue to try to feed veggie flakes after soaked in garlic. Maybe the veggie flake I have sucks, but my sailfin tang loves it! Care to recommend other veggie flakes that gets excellent results from tangs?? And I'm looking to get the SeaChem Entice, but had no luck at the LFS ( I'm located in Los Angeles now) Anybody had tried SeaChem Entice before? If so care to share your opinion on the product? Thank you all very much! =]

[mrfobber]

All was well until today...

Today was the 9th day of the 10 day treatment of Microbe Lift's Herbtana, and the ick came back. Now the whole tank is infected, and my poor yellow eye tang doesn't seem to be able to make it. Its breathing hard and very fragile, probably because it never ate the food that I fed.

I have been feeding flakes soaked in garlic, seaweed sheets by two little fishes, fresh zucchini, and fresh broccoli, but the yellow eye tang refused them all. I don't know what else to do other than to wait to clean up the body, this is so terrible =[

[Cesarv4]

How's your tang doing?

[mrfobber]

Tang's gone, my pink dotty back is gone too. Right now sailfin and the clown fish is still alive, but still infected. They are eating alot and active, so maybe they will survive. I stopped Herbtana, the thing is trash, no good.

Now im just feeding them a lot of food soaked in garlic, and doing a lot of water changes. Hopefully they will survive.

[Scuba Dude]

Sorry to hear about the tang and dottyback. I'm using Herbtana right now to treat my juvenile Sailfin tang. He seems to be cleared up of it, and no other fish in the tank are outwardly showing signs if ick. I've already treated for 8 days, but I bought another bottle and plan to treat until it's gone.

All of the fish are eating well, so hopefully the treatment will work. If not, I'll QT all the fish for 7 weeks and try to rid the tank of the parasite. :/