ICK not sure please help

[dogman]

My son has a 70 gal.LRLS tank started on 7/8. He has a sailfin tang and a manderin goby that have been doing great for four or five weeks, the tang seems to have ick or some sort of very small flakes on the tail. I do have a UV ster. and a skimmer but have not installed them, waiting to be sure that the cycle is complete. What to do, he is pretty attached to these fish.

 

[beth]

Tangs, and especially maderian fish, are totally inappropriate for new tanks, let alone a tank that is cycling. I can't see either of these fish surviving under these circumstances.
You will need to establish a hospital tank to treat ick, because you can not treat ick in a tank that has LR and LS. What exactly are your water readings anyway?
If you can establish a hospital tank, then I would suggest hyposalinity. If you're not going to setup a separate tank, then all you can do is Freshwater dips for the fish that has ick and feed the fish garlic.
The manderians are fish that should only be kept by experienced hobbyists and only in well established tanks. There just is not enough food for this fish to eat in a cycling tank or a new tank for that matter [and that doesn't mean that you should dump more food in the tank, either!].
Let us know if you can setup a hospital tank, and if you need help and advise in doing that.
Also, you and your son need to get a good marine hobby reference book. I would suggest, Bob Fenner's, "The Conscietious Marine Aquarist". This book details in very simple terms the requisites for marine aquaria and also has a good sized section on fishes and their requrements in the marine tank.
Good luck!

 

[jimi]

It may or may not be ick. What to do you ask? Take the fish back to your lfs and read a few good books on the hobby before you start. If you fail to plan you plan to fail, this saying is more true in this hobby then anywhere else.

 

[dogman]

All readings are very good. I felt the mandarin was a marginal start up fish, but the lfs said it was ok. I should of known better. I had some experience with saltwater ten years previous. If it is ick which I am not sure, would adding a uv, feeding garlic (what type of garlic),and freshwater dips (is that R/O dips) do the job ar prolong the inevitable.
Thanks to all.

 

[beth]

Ick is curable if you get started on it. However, you're not saying if you can move your sick fish to a hospital or not, which is why I suggested a FW dip [since you can't do hyposalinity in your current tank].
Also, if you are dealing with ick, giving any fish to anyone else or returning them to the LFS wo telling them about the diesease, could and most likely would result in ICK problems in whatever aquaria your fish are placed.
Yes, RO water for a dip, or distilled are fine. You must be sure that the PH and temp of the FW is the same as your tank. Better, though, to setup a hospital and go with hyposalinity. Garlic: you can use freshly chopped garlic, making sure that when you chop up, you retain the juices for your fish food, or you can buy pure garlic extract from your local grocery or health food store. Be sure that if you buy bottled garlic that all you are getting is GARLIC, and not other additives---read the label!
Good luck!

 

[dogman]

Thank you Beth. I will try and save the fish.

 

[dogman]

Beth, I ended up taking your advice, I set up a HT-25 Gal. eclipse, with a bare bottom. Going to lower salt content to 1.009 over a few days, also feeding garlic soaked food. The 70 gal. is empty except for LRLS and a hermit, and that is the way it has to stay for three weeks, right? Using bottled R/o to lower salinity, but adding 8.3 buffer and some kent trace elememts. Any other thoughts would be appreciated, thanks to all.