So, it's happened. My yellow tang has ick all over it. I mean ALL over it. I went to my parents house on wed. night stayed there till yesterday and came home last night. This morning, turned the lights on, watched my tank and realized he was sick. I had ick in my fw tank awhile back and i remember treating it by turning up the heat and dosing the tank with salt. Obiviously, SW i'm guessing is treated differently. I don't have a quarantine tank so is there any way of treating it without hurting my corals? What are my options? :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:
Tang 911
- Thread starter saucz
- Start date
without medicating the tank there are some seachem products you can try, but finding them locally might be hard.
I found mixing Metronidazole and focus with garlic into some frozen food worked well. these are medications that won't hurt a reef tank.
check out seacheams site for more info, http://seachem.com/products/medications.html
you can try feeding some fresh crushed garlic mixed in with food, it's supposed to help boost the fish's immune system.
I found mixing Metronidazole and focus with garlic into some frozen food worked well. these are medications that won't hurt a reef tank.
check out seacheams site for more info, http://seachem.com/products/medications.html
you can try feeding some fresh crushed garlic mixed in with food, it's supposed to help boost the fish's immune system.
Ok. so the read on RC makes it seem that it's pretty much the same process as FW fish. This means that i'll be needing a quarantine tank. I don't have one. Can someone help me out with this? I'll gladly pay what it's worth to you to help treat it with hyposalinity.
michael stern
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- new rochelle
How easy/hard will it be to catch it?
- Location
- The Big City
It's best to and get a small rubbermaid container and use that as a quartine tank as you don't really want to treat your main tank. Some of these medications say they're reef safe but they have effects in the tank. The white spots that you see are the ich getting ready to drop off and start the cycle over again, there are more inside the fish that are just starting to work it way out.
If you can get the fish out and setup a small container as a quartine tank try Hyposaility first and then if the fish still looks bad copper.
If you can get the fish out and setup a small container as a quartine tank try Hyposaility first and then if the fish still looks bad copper.
- Location
- The Big City
saucz said:
Just get a small rubbermaid container, 22gals, and use that as a quartine tank. Also your going to need refractometer to do hyposaility correctly.
Ok. so i have a container that i can put it in but i don't have an extra heater, or filter. It wouldn't be ok to keep it in there no? Also, I have a hydrometer but no refractometer. I would figure that i'd want to keep the tang in the container for about 2 weeks to make sure the ick in the tank die off without it's host.
Metronidazole is not the most effective treatment, though they have labeled it to treat ich, it is primarily a internal medication such as pipzine and hexamex. what you do is check the stability of your water make sure it's not going through a cycle, if you can catch it out do a hyposalinity treatment, if you cant i suggest you get tetra+A from new life spectrum, and do a garlic soak. yellow tangs are the strongest among many tangs, if your water conditions are stressing this fish, then you have some bad water quality.
I was thinking this. The lifecycle of ick is as follows. They attach to fish and create a coat which is what we see. They detach themselves so they can fall to the ground to reproduce and do the same thing. BUT they can't live without a host fish. SO... why wouldn't i be able to speed up the cycle process of the ick by turning up the heat, and then when they fall off my tang, move my tang to a quarantine tank, leave it there for a while and wait till the ick dies off in my display tank? I could just pretty much give someone my tang
- Location
- The Big City
saucz said:
Please the fish into the container and either use an air pump, PH or small filter to just move around the water, you need to make sure that you have water breakage. Also place a small heater into the tank, specially with the weather getting colder.
It takes atleast 4 weeks with Hyposaility to get rid of the ich but it could go longer. You really need a refractometer to do it correctly as if the sg goes about 1.009 the ich will hatch and you'll have to start over again.
What I would do is quartine the fish in the container and go out a get some copper and a copper test kit. I use Copper Power which is very strong and you can over treat with it and not have any bad effects, unlike some other coppers. Also better you place the fish back into your main tank make sure to place the fish into a holding container so you don't put copper into your main tank as the fish will have copper in and on it.
- Location
- The Big City
To effectively treat ich, it's important to understand a little
bit about the life cycle of the organism.
-------> ADULT (on fish) -------
| |
| |
| |
** TOMITE ** TROPHOZOITE
| |
| |
| |
------------- CYST --------------
The adult stage lives on the skin and body of the fish. It will
burrow under the epidermis, causing skin damage. Disruption of the skin
leads to osmoregulatory disturbances, osmotic stress, and allows for the
easy entrance of secondary invaders like bacteria.
The cyst stage lives on the bottom of the aquarium, and gives
rise to about 300 tomites per cyst.
** THE TOMITE STAGE IS THE ONLY STAGE WHICH IS SENSITIVE TO MEDICATION!
The life cycle takes 12-16 days to complete, depending on the
temperature, and the tomite stage lasts for only three days.
bit about the life cycle of the organism.
-------> ADULT (on fish) -------
| |
| |
| |
** TOMITE ** TROPHOZOITE
| |
| |
| |
------------- CYST --------------
The adult stage lives on the skin and body of the fish. It will
burrow under the epidermis, causing skin damage. Disruption of the skin
leads to osmoregulatory disturbances, osmotic stress, and allows for the
easy entrance of secondary invaders like bacteria.
The cyst stage lives on the bottom of the aquarium, and gives
rise to about 300 tomites per cyst.
** THE TOMITE STAGE IS THE ONLY STAGE WHICH IS SENSITIVE TO MEDICATION!
The life cycle takes 12-16 days to complete, depending on the
temperature, and the tomite stage lasts for only three days.
Ok. I think i only have 1 option left. I'm gonna have to give the Tang away. It's not that i don't want to deal with it but i feel like this is going to cost me some more money which i don't have right now. I REALLY don't have money right now. I think i will just let me tank age for now with the rocks and nice corals. I added fish too soon and now i'm paying for it. Until i can set up my tank properly, i will have to do without the livestock. Am i a disgrace to the MR community? Anyone that's willing to deal with the hassle, free tang?
Even if you remove the Tang you still have to check out the water parameters as that was the cause of the stress to begin with. The cysts are still going to be in your tank for as long as you dont treat it.
Inevitably, if your waterquality stays poor any fish that you put in there will be stressed and susseptible to ich. A healthy fish that is not under stress will not get ich.......
I would not say that you are a disgrace to this community. Every single one of us went through all of the problems at one point or another. I highly doubt that there is any single person or expert that had a perfect run right from the start.
The way I see it, there are only two types of reefers on this board.
1. People that get into the hobby cause they were attracted to reefs but could not handle the challenges that were thrown at them so they sell everything and leave.
2. The reefers that get hooked for life no matter what challenges get thrown at them in the beginning.
Eventually people relize in this hobby the importance of what equipment they buy because the more expensive the equipment, the higher quality water you will have. From the test kits you buy, the water you use, the skimmer etc etc etc.
Basically what it comes down to is knowing your own abilities and taking your time with everything. So many rush into things and by corals when their tank is still unstable even to keep the hardiest fish. I ***** and moan about placing certain fish in certain tanks. Its all for a good reason. A stressed fish will be a sick fish. Unless you are willing and able, physically - mentally - financially, I reecommend yo get out of this hobby and get a goldfish.
Inevitably, if your waterquality stays poor any fish that you put in there will be stressed and susseptible to ich. A healthy fish that is not under stress will not get ich.......
I would not say that you are a disgrace to this community. Every single one of us went through all of the problems at one point or another. I highly doubt that there is any single person or expert that had a perfect run right from the start.
The way I see it, there are only two types of reefers on this board.
1. People that get into the hobby cause they were attracted to reefs but could not handle the challenges that were thrown at them so they sell everything and leave.
2. The reefers that get hooked for life no matter what challenges get thrown at them in the beginning.
Eventually people relize in this hobby the importance of what equipment they buy because the more expensive the equipment, the higher quality water you will have. From the test kits you buy, the water you use, the skimmer etc etc etc.
Basically what it comes down to is knowing your own abilities and taking your time with everything. So many rush into things and by corals when their tank is still unstable even to keep the hardiest fish. I ***** and moan about placing certain fish in certain tanks. Its all for a good reason. A stressed fish will be a sick fish. Unless you are willing and able, physically - mentally - financially, I reecommend yo get out of this hobby and get a goldfish.
well your not a disgrace, just maybe impatient.
but then again when i started saltwater i to was impatient.
but when i started reefing(not too long ago) i actually waited like 3 months before adding anything except snails and crabs(and i had used the catalina water which is apparentlly natural seewater,) well i waitted for all the blooms of algea and diatoms and cyano and detritus and everything had passed, and then i put in my first corals.
i just wanted to do it rite this time, and so far so good (; hope i didnt just jinx myself.
but another thing is, when MR reefers gave me advice, i allways took it and listend to them. even if i didnt understand what it wa all about. there is no pint in asking advice if you dont take it. ya know what i meen.
so just be patient and youll be happy
"patience is a virtue"
but then again when i started saltwater i to was impatient.
but when i started reefing(not too long ago) i actually waited like 3 months before adding anything except snails and crabs(and i had used the catalina water which is apparentlly natural seewater,) well i waitted for all the blooms of algea and diatoms and cyano and detritus and everything had passed, and then i put in my first corals.
i just wanted to do it rite this time, and so far so good (; hope i didnt just jinx myself.
but another thing is, when MR reefers gave me advice, i allways took it and listend to them. even if i didnt understand what it wa all about. there is no pint in asking advice if you dont take it. ya know what i meen.
so just be patient and youll be happy
"patience is a virtue"
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