frustration

[bergamer]

this is my 3rd tang
1st was naso, caught ich then HLLE and died
2nd was a blue regal (1incher) ich, then died (although I do realize that at that size their mortality rate is really high)
I am on my 3rd blue regal tang (this time about 3 inches)
I bring it home from the lfs and its beautiful looking
the next day it has so much ich on its body that it looks like a clown.
This is not a big deal for me bc my cleaner shrimp cleaned off all the ich and today he was perfect again
then by nightfall, the ich comes back in full force
and even at this moment, my cleaner shrimp are going to town on him removing it all
My foxface has caught ich a few times and the cleaner shrimp have taken care of it and he has been ich free for months
none of my other fish have caught ich
all my perameters are perfect
well my PH is at 8.0- that would be the worst
my tmp is 78
how do I stop these reaccuring ich outbreaks on the tang?

 

[jamiereef]

Is it fish only tank? If so treat with coppersafe. If not use QT for treatment. Also you might want to invest in a UV sterilizer for your tank.

 

[andretti]

One of the major reasons fish get ick is from stress. When we buy them and do not acclimate them proberly, it causes a huge shock to their system. Your temp, pH, salinity, specific gravity, alkalinity, etc must be very similar to where they came from or else. How are you acclimating them? If you're not an expert at this, follow saltwater fish's recomendations concerning this. In addition, you should also mix your food with garlic extreme by Kent. Basically, the garlic raises the immune system of our underwater friends. Since my lfs suggested doing this, I have not had one outbreak of that icky ick!

 

[elfdoctors]

Environmental stress is not thought to play a role for causation of saltwater ich. It has to be introduced into the tank. (This is not true for freshwater ich which can show up spontaneously if something else is wrong with the tank).
Some fish can develop a limited immunity to ich which does not kill the ich but prevents it from killing the fish. (Garlic may help this way). Biological control with cleaner shrimp or other cleaner fish is also not likely to be successful as they cannot treat the gills where much of the infection takes place.
Tangs are particularly susceptible to ich so they rarely develop this immunity. They need to be maintained in tanks without ich. This usually means treating all of your fish and then quarantining all of the new arrivals. The only reliable treatments for ich are hyposalinity (the preferred treatment) and copper (this can be stressful for tangs and may bring out HLLE). Check out the sticky at the top of this forum.

 

[mikeyjer]

I heard that blue regal tangs are succeptible to ich easily,,,don't know if it's true or not. Been told by many folks who had tanks for a long time....

 

[beth]

It is not wise or necessary to treat tangs or angels with copper unless absolutely necessary. And, with ich, it is not necessary since hyposalinity is a good treatment choice.
You LFS obviously has a problem with ich. Think about setting up a QT so that your fish go into the QT before it every gets into your tank. This way you can treat it. Copper can cause HLLE in tangs and angels, IMO.
What are your water conditions in your tank? Tanks have little tolerance for anything less than perfect water quality. Otherwise, they are prone to HLLE.

 

[mikeyjer]

I've learned my expensive lesson with copper. I've lost 2 yellow tangs because of copper. The sailfan tang is still recovering, going to put carbon bag in the canister filter to remove the rest of copper. I didn't have Qt tank at first, but now I do, everytime I get a new fish, that's where they go!!! I've lost enough, don't want to go through it again.

 

[beth]

Mike, that is good to hear that you decided to set up a QT. In this hobby, it is as necessary as a bag of salt IMO.