Icky Tang!

fishycouple

fishycouple

Member
Hi: Thanks to all of you with my heavy metal problem..hopefully it's cured..My fingers are crossed!
I now have another problem....
About two weeks ago I introduced a Yellow Tang to my little ocean, and he developed what I thought was Ick on his right fin..a small and a larger (about the size of the head of a pin) white spots. I panicked and bought a 6 gallon Eclipse tank, which I filled with water from my 55 gallon tank...I medicated him for 5 days with Greenex...the last two days the ammonia has been .4 and today .6 both days I did a one gallon water change with fresh saltwater..he never stopped eating, and never had any problems breathing. Tonight the ammonia was back to .6 and after 5 days of medication, there was no improvement, in fact he now has one spot on his left fin....I couldnt bear to see him in that horrible water..so he was moved back to my main aquarium, where he is extremely happy to be back with his buddy the clown fish...and he even likes the condy anemone..lol anyway, my question is,
Can I get a cleaner fish or shrimp to remove the ick from his fins? I'm extremely gun-shy about introducing any medications into my 55 gallon tank. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rick
 
tonylip

tonylip

Member
Hi I bought a purple tang same thing he eat and was great but he had parasites! my reef is 35gl. and I used "CHEM-MARIN" "stop parasites" it works in 5 days! But I had to turn off my skimmer it would just pump fommy water out. I also put in "MELAFIX" a antibacterial remedy for the wounds every body in the reef made it no problem. Afer the 5 days I had fresh saltwater made up and baby sat the skimmer I ran it as high as it would go and driped in the fresh water in until the skimmer ran normaly.
PS: the Tang is worth every gray hair!! I love it!! Good luck!!
 
bobsingh1

bobsingh1

Member
The first thing to do when you discover any parasite is not panic. Even though its easy to get ick and hard to cure it, the cure is not impossible.
I have had mixed luck with Chem-marine stop parasite and Melafix. In fact, couple of my damsels died after I had put Melafix in my tank. Some key things to keep in mind for fighting ick are
All water readings should be optimal. Use RO
or distilled water for water changes.
Do not overpopulate your tank. 1 inch for every 7 gallons
Do not overfeed.
You can feed medicated flakes to your fish for parasites.
A good UV sterilizer works wonders in fighting bacterial and parasite infections.
Chasing your fish around in the main tank and
then in the hospital tank can further strees
your fish and should be done very carefully.
Do not put very territorial and aggresive fish in your tank.
Plenty of hiding places in your tank will give a lot of security to your fish and less stess.
Try your level best NOT to use any medications in water.
 
fishycouple

fishycouple

Member
Man.....I just got back from the LFS with a cleaner wrasse in hand. He is dark blue with light blue stripes on the top of his sides. He is about an inch and a half long.
As soon as he was aclimated and released from my net, he made a bee-line to the tang...he cleaned him from head to toe, even between his eyes, the tang wasnt sure about all this and even jerked away a couple of times when the wrasse got too agressive. Then he went over to where the wrasse was cleaning rocks..lol
Anyway to make a long story short, the tang is now clean of all ick I could see. The wrasse is chasing the clown fish around thinking he is next, but the clown has no ick. The wrasse even pickes on the live rock and the glass of the aquarium... I hope this solves this problem...The adventure continues!
Thnks for your input,
Rick
 
mr . salty

mr . salty

Active Member
That is the answer I was lookin for in my post (cronic ich) I'm glad to hear he did the trick.The only sad thing is they dont live long in captivity.But I think I could give one a good home,seeing as how it's already "in captivity"...So your all set for now...(knock on wood) Now you can sit back and enjoy,you deserve it......STEVE
 
laneki

laneki

Member
I have a yellow tang that has never shown any signs of having ich, but once I bought a cleaner shrimp it was doing its cleaning thing all of the time to her. Actually, my tang started to annoy the cleaner because she would push and block it until it hopped on! Now the cleaner shrimp tries to clean my arm when I am moving things around in the tank.
 
raistlin

raistlin

New Member
I feel your pain! I am starting to have the same problem with my Eiboli mimic. He has faint traces of Ich and his appatite has decreased. I plan to buy a cleaner tomorrow.I have heard that they are the way to go.I once medicated a tank and beat the Ich but damage to my rock made me sick ( it took 5 months to recover).I'm glad your cleaner did the trick I'll let you know how it goes for me.
Keep the reef,
Raistlin
 
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