Ich on Kole Tang

[ed d]

Yesterday, I read about Ich, Today my Kole tang has it. I think? Please help.
I bought a kole tang about 10 days ago. Followed the procedure the LFS told me to acclimitize the tang to my tank. (They forget to mention a quarentine tank to first insure the fish is healthy.)
Symptoms: The tang has quite a few white spots all over his body. The spots seem to come and go. The spots get small and hard to see. Right now the spots are small and hard to see. Last night the spots were bigger, brighter and easy to seen. The spots were the size of a dot made from the tip of a ball point pen. Does this sound like ick? The tang and all other fish are active and don't act sick.
I have a 55g fwlr + some miscellaneous inverts (crabs, snails, shrooms, & 1 med cleaner shrimp) I have a 20" zebra moray eel in the tank and the rest are damsels and clowns. I have not noticed spots on any of the other fish. Can a zebra eel get ich?
I read some of the other posts. I am going to try the garlic thing first, unless strongly advised against.
If this is ICH, is it a mild case? Can it be cured with just garlic? How will I know if I should remove the tang and start hyposalinity?
Hyposalinity - Over a 48 hour period drop the specific gravity to 1.009 in slow increments. Once at that level, leave it at that level for 1 month AFTER all signs of ick have disappeared from your fish. Then, you can slowly, over the course of a few days, increase the specific gravity back to normal levels. If all is well with your fish following 1 wk at normal levels, return fish back to your main tank. - Thank you BETH
I have a 10 gallon tank I gould use as a hospital tank. What is the minimum filtration I could get by with? What about an air pump and corner filter.
Sorry about all the different questions. I am new to this, The more I read the more questions I have!

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How come, when I was young I new it all, and now....

 

[ed d]

Thank you Terry!
My lfs told me the ich due to stress when I introduced the tang. Is that possible? Could the ich been hiding in my tank and my ell, damsel and clowns were immune?
I could not find the garlic liquid, only minced garlic. I am going to soak some frozen food in the then feed my fish. It is OK to put the garlic and the food in the tank. I hope so.
Do water changes help at all. Guess they can't hurt!

 

[ed d]

OOPs, I thought I had read somewhere to put the garlic in with the food. Guess I will see if it was a bad thing. Any thoughts? I will look for a liquid garlic tonight.

 

[jlem]

You are going to here some people say that freshwater dips and SLOWLY raising the temp to about 82 degrees will due more harm then good, but all of the books i have read ( 10 or more) all say that these two options help fight ick. The garlic is a good idea. The common response is that the lesser two will stress the fish. The ich will stress the fish more than anything. The higher temp will speed the ick's life cycle. A good water change will help tremendously also. you will be told different about this advice but the books back it up and it has worked for me.

 

[junkf15]

Ed- I am much less experienced than Beth or Terry, but I am one of those fresh water dip fans. I only know from my own experience, but the five times I have encountered Ick in my new fish, I get a big bowl of R/O water, put a capful of Novaqua in it, catch my infected fish, and dip him in the bowl for 10-15 seconds then put him back in the salt water tank. The lack of salinity in the FW causes extreme osmotic pressure in the little parasites, and they explode almost instantly. The saline gradient will also cause osmotic pressure to build in your fish, which is why this can only be done for a few seconds. Also, the process of catching the fish, and exposing him to the FW will cause extreme stress so it can only be done in the early stages of the infection, while the fish are still strong. As a rule of thumb, if the fish is still swimming strong, and eating well, I will dip him, if he has been weakened to the point that he no longer eats, swims erratic or slow and lethargic, he is probably to weak for the dip. In that case I use the hospital tank. Good luck.

 

[ed d]

Terry, Thank you for all the help and advice! I have learned a lot about ich and stress from this and your many ther replies. Your series on stress is fantastic. So much more to learn. My knowlege of aquariums has greatly increased in the past couple days. (been lucky for the first year)
The Kole Tang is doing very good. Eating, active and not scratching. There are only few spots, mosly on its side fins. None of the other fish have any signs of spots. I am soaking the food in garlic and trying to reduce the stress in the tank. And hope for the best. A lfs also suggest a heater. My water temperature is down to 72F. I am going to raise it slowly to 76F. My salinity is about 1.022.

 

[ed d]

I had the heater. But took it out last spring and a little slow putting it back in.
If you would like to comment on my set up, I have a couple of posts on the reef board descrbing my tank and looking for help on where to go with it. I was given the tank a year ago and have just been adding to it. I have had good luck with only minor losses. Now I must learn the right way. This message board has been very helpful. I have learned more in the last couple days than in my first year.

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The more I read, the more questions I have.