My 2 Tangs Seem to Be Infected - Need Help PLS

[BFB]

Hi All,

I'm new to this site.

At the moment i am freaking out, i did check out the diseases for Tangs but just need to be certain. Both my tangs look like they are infected.

My tank is around 5 months old. I have 2 Tangs, 1 Rabbitfish and 4 Percula Clownfish. I got all the fish really small at my fish store, all about 1 inches.

My Tangs

1) Regal Tang, Paracanthurus hepatus - seems to have white spots on the end of his side fins and under the belly. He is swimming and seems to be ok though, eating fine.

2) White Cheek Tang Tang, Acanthurus nigricans - got like black dots all over him, i think its the disease call pepper disease. This guy keeps freaking out every once in a while and swims erratically and goes nuts, eating fine.

Will try and get some pics of them but got to wait till tomorrow till i get my friends camera.

I know you need to see the pics but any help would be great.

Another thing is i am planning on adding a couple of Anemone next month, and Corals in a few months, so need meds that will not screw my water.

Thanks in advance.

 

[trigger40]

by pepper diseas do you mean black ich. if so try a couple formalin baths. as for the other tang do the spots looks small and round like sand or lumpy and not perfectly round?

 

[silverado61]

Did you get all your fish at the same time? Did you quarantine each fish before you put them in the display? What size tank do you have? Its really not a good idea to treat anything in the display tank. A tank needs to mature for a year before you get anemones.
Just some thoughts.

Welcome to the site.

 

[BFB]

by pepper diseas do you mean black ich. if so try a couple formalin baths. as for the other tang do the spots looks small and round like sand or lumpy and not perfectly round?

Thanks for getting back at me.

The black spots do seem like they are Black Ich. Will it effect the other fish?

It seems like the white spots have nearly disappeared now in around 30 mins, i still see some whiteness under his belly on his right side only, hard to tell as he wont turn the other way, jeez! It could be from the crappy salt i'm using that is all over the tank, i did a water change last night.

 

[BFB]

Did you get all your fish at the same time? Did you quarantine each fish before you put them in the display? What size tank do you have? Its really not a good idea to treat anything in the display tank. A tank needs to mature for a year before you get anemones.
Just some thoughts.

Welcome to the site.

Thanks mate. Yes all at the same time and they were all from the same shipment too, all very tiny. No i did not quarantine but had them reserved in my LFS for a few weeks till my tanks matured. Its 480 Litres - around 126 Gallons.

I used to add anemones in a 6 month matured tank n the past with no problems though. I am actually planning on turning the tank for propagating anemones and corals.

 

[trigger40]

Thanks for getting back at me.

The black spots do seem like they are Black Ich. Will it effect the other fish?

It seems like the white spots have nearly disappeared now in around 30 mins, i still see some whiteness under his belly on his right side only, hard to tell as he wont turn the other way, jeez! It could be from the crappy salt i'm using that is all over the tank, i did a water change last night.

yes the black ich will affect other fish. now by white spots do you mean pigment was lost or actual spots that look like grains of sand are stuck to the fish?

 

[beth]

Both white and black ich are contagious. You will need to treat both differently. Black ich is treaded with formalin bathes and ich is treated various ways but hyposalinity would be the safest.

 

[honu808]

Did you let your saltwater mix atleast 24 hrs before doing water change? That ensures not only proper mixing/dissolving, temp matches display, and S.G. matches. Tangs don't take well to ANY changes and can cause stress. If they get stressed they are more immune to getting sick.
All the fish will have to be removed and treated in QT tank, leaving the display fish free for about 6-8 weeks to kill off the parasite in display tank.

 

[jorge garrido]

since you have already placed your fish in the main display I would just wait it out .. as long as they are eating well. try feeding garlic with nori sheets, keep feeding garlic to up immunisystem feed everyday. they go crazy with fresh garlic juice remember to do the juice yourself. I would try this first before any chemicals

 

[honu808]

Garlic has little to no substantual helping properties and if fed to much as shown in research to be detrimental to fishes health.

 

[silverado61]

If you decide to "just wait it out" the rest of your fish will get infected and you very well might lose everything. Put them all in seperate qt's (the tang with white ich in one, black ich in another and the rest in a separate qt) and treat them like Beth advised. Then leave the display empty of fish till the rest dies off. Don't treat the display and don't just wait it out. Sorry, but all this might have been avoided if you didn't put four fish in at one time.

But that's just what I would do.

 

[beth]

You can't wait out a parasite infestation. Ich will continue to live happily ever after in a closed system with host fish.

 

[jorge garrido]

I use garlic on all my fish for over two years with no issues im not saying not to have a quarantine tank, but like me you have already put the fish in the main tank and as for me I would not stress my fish out more by moving them around I had my fish for over a year and ick comes and goes.. a cleaner shrimp is also good to have with a cleaner wrasse..

 

[jay0705]

U have all the tangs I want lol

 

[silverado61]

You can go with whatever advice you choose but the smart money is on Beth's advice. She's our resident fish doctor.