Blue Hippo Tang with ick

squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
wrong info is in the eye of the beholder. i speak from experienc and my own method has worked for me. will it work for everyone? of course not. i dont know how bad off the fish is to begin with.
when my baby hippo tang came to me he was only an inch. he got ich within a week, no other fish got it, just him. tangs have very small scales, as delicate as a scaless fish (but they do have scales)
so its no surprise that some species of tang get ich while the rest of the tank is fine.
what did i do? nothing, 90% of fish with ich recover if its not an extreme outbreak (like the fish isnt covered from head to toe with ich)
i feed him foods soaked in garlic twice a day. the ich goes through a cycle where it leaves the fish host, giving the tang a break. in this time he is getting stronger and bigger, still fed with garlic.
its a month now since i got him and he has doubled in size and he is ich free.
of course ich is still in the system but as long as hes not stressed out (like no fish are attacking him) well then he should remain ich free for life.
garlic will always be fed to my tangs, i do cut down in time though once i see they have built up a strong immune system.
three years ago in my other tank my pair of clowns and a blenny came down with ich and the clowns ich and blackspot. in this tank i did absolutely nothing, the water quality was high and they were well fed. after a few weeks they were ich free, the blackspot went away on its own too. three years later i still have this tank, with the SAME fish! alive and well.
the only tank i ever had wiped out was do to velvet, not ich. i did treat with copper and formylin(?) (quick cure) every fish died. believe me id take ick over velvet anyday
if you take out your hippo, hypo salinity him and if he even survives that stress, once you place him back in your main display he most likely will get ich all over again, since it IS in your system.
frequent water changes help remove some of the free floating ich. bare bottom tanks also help siphoning the bottom.
but ive found all this not necessary, time consuming and in some cases too much stress for the fish leading to a worse outbreak than before.
in the future if you want a tang there are other tangs that have "thicker skin" and arent as ich prone as the hippos, powder blues etc.
lavender and naso tangs are one of the strongest tangs out there.
so to the poster who said your getting bad advice, i dont see that. ive learned from experience not just what i read online or on forums.
you will gather your own info and do what you feel is best for your fish, and you will learn what method works for you so you can use it in the future
 
al mc

al mc

Active Member
Well meaning people can disagree on the method of treating this disease. Stress (poor water quality, poor diet, other 'bullying fish') is certainly a contributing factor to any fish being affected by ICH if it is present in their system. Many fish will survive an Ich attack with little or no treatment if you can reduce their stress and/or bolster their immune system. Supplements (garlic, etc) certainly help bolster a fish's immune system thereby helping it to fight any disease. Bottled products that claim to reduce or eliminate Ich may also help.
I would suggest that Cooqie read as much as possible from posters here, on the disease and treatment thread and from other sites and make a determination about how to proceed.
IMHO, what has worked for me in the several systems that I have is to try to eliminate ICH from a DT by leaving it fallow for 6 weeks (a royal PIA
) and
treating the fish in a QT with either hyposalinity or copper for 3-4 weeks (another royal PIA
). Opinions vary
 
squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
Originally Posted by Al Mc
Well meaning people can disagree on the method of treating this disease. Stress (poor water quality, poor diet, other 'bullying fish') is certainly a contributing factor to any fish being affected by ICH if it is present in their system. Many fish will survive an Ich attack with little or no treatment if you can reduce their stress and/or bolster their immune system. Supplements (garlic, etc) certainly help bolster a fish's immune system thereby helping it to fight any disease. Bottled products that claim to reduce or eliminate Ich may also help.
I would suggest that Cooqie read as much as possible from posters here, on the disease and treatment thread and from other sites and make a determination about how to proceed.
IMHO, what has worked for me in the several systems that I have is to try to eliminate ICH from a DT by leaving it fallow for 6 weeks (a royal PIA
) and
treating the fish in a QT with either hyposalinity or copper for 3-4 weeks (another royal PIA
). Opinions vary

yep exactly

when my fish all died of velvet i let my tank go fallow for two months. luckily it never came back.
i wish we had a picture of this tang so we can see how bad he is. my tang had a moderate amount, it was all over one eye, his head and fins. now hes totally clear.
id also like to know if this fish is eating well? id feed him a little bit more often to keep his belly fat.
there was a post somewhere around here that the poster talked about a local aquarium having a beautiful display of hippo tangs with ick. he said the tangs were well fed and had fat bellies and never seemed to be bothered by the ick.
sometimes people panic over things, who knows, maybe ich is just like having a bunch of mosquito bites
 
squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
Originally Posted by Cooqie
he eats fine dats what he does all day eat algae
algae from the rocks? or algae from a sheet, like nori?
does he eat flakes or pellets at all? any frozen foods offered?
 
squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
Originally Posted by Cooqie
algae from the rocks do he doesnt eat any pellets ors jumbo krill i put inside
he needs to eat more. algae from the rocks is fine as long as there is enough to pick at.
he needs some bulk. hippos are a bit more carnivorous than other tangs, which means they like alot more meat in their diet.
meat n' veggies is what he needs
try frozen mysis, frozen marine cuisine, frozen emerald entree
flakes, any marine flake will do, i like prime reef flakes and formula two flakes.
the jumbo krill is probably too large for him. most of my fish wont touch krill, only my eel and trigger will eat it
if you can get a hold of garlic that will help him to eat, the smell of garlic is like ringing the dinner bell for fish, they go nuts for it!
 
squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
Originally Posted by Cooqie
i cut the jumbo krill into littles peices my clowns eat it
but its the tang that were worried about
he needs to eat something else other than algae off the rocks
 
cooqie

cooqie

Member
yes i know but you said the jumbo krill is to big and im telling you that i cut it up into pieces so the clowns can eat it so maybe that can help and help more if i put garlic... im goin to get natural garlic will that work
 
squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
Originally Posted by Cooqie
yes i know but you said the jumbo krill is to big and im telling you that i cut it up into pieces so the clowns can eat it so maybe that can help and help more if i put garlic... im goin to get natural garlic will that work
clowns will eat anything. waiting for the tang to become hungry enough to eat the broken up krill may take too long. he needs food now.
you dont have any marine flake?
any garlic at this point will help, will it save his life? no it wont. the tang isnt eating so this worries me. he has an appatite by showing you hes picking algae off the rocks, so that is a good sign. you just need to find a food he will actually consume
how big is the tang?
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by sepulatian
You are getting all of the wrong info here. Parts of the advice are correct, but most of what I have read for your replies are very off. Please post in Disease and Treatment. We will walk you through what needs to be done.
Agreed. There does seem to be some bad info on this thread.
For one thing, only fresh garlic has been shown to possibly boost a fish's immune system. Bottled and capsul garlic does stimulate feeding, but does nothing for the health fo the fish.
Ich is a parasite that burrows into the skin of fish. If you are concerned about the well being of your fish it must be addressed and eliminated from your display.
As for salinity. The ocean's salinity is 1.026. That's what you should keep your tank at if you keep any inverts. Raising salinity to 1.024 does nothing against ich. Actually, just the opposite. Treating fish in a QT tank and slowly lowering salinity to 1.009 prevents the ich from completing their life cycle and eventually kills the parasite.
 
cooqie

cooqie

Member
the tang is about 2 inches theres so much algae in my tank all over the rocks and glass im goin to buy flakes tomorrow
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by Cooqie
the tang is about 2 inches theres so much algae in my tank all over the rocks and glass im goin to buy flakes tomorrow
Do not buy flake food. It is worthless.
Buy food specifically formulated with marine algaes, or buy algae sheets. You also need to set up a QT tank.
 
mcbdz

mcbdz

Active Member
Please move over and read through the disease and treatment forum. This way you will beable to make a more informed decition on how you will treat your fish.
 
squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
guess im doing everything wrong
most of my fish are old and chubby, disease free, parasite free, display spawning rituals etc
but hey its your fish...as long as mine are healthy i can care less
 
mcbdz

mcbdz

Active Member
Originally Posted by squirreloso
guess im doing everything wrong
most of my fish are old and chubby, disease free, parasite free, display spawning rituals etc
but hey its your fish...as long as mine are healthy i can care less
I am not saying you are doing anything wrong. I made this suggestion so he could make the decision with as much info as possible. Different things work for different tanks and that way if something does not work for him he will know what to try next.
I have done many things that have worked for my situation that doesn't work for the next person. Not really knowing how the health is with his fish and that he made the dicision to add this kind of fish without QT to his DT It would be good for him to read through more peoples experenceses. I did not intend to say you weren't right.
 
richie69

richie69

New Member
if you don`t have a reef tank, best thing i`ve found is to keep your salinity at about 1.015 to 1.017. if you do have a reef, i`ve used kick ick w/great success...
 
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