my tang has got an itch.

[trigger40]

my powder blue tang will get this itch every now and then and i cant tell what it is. its not ich because i dont see any white spots and my tank was left to fallow for 6 weeks while the fish went through hypo. this the only fish doing this. should i be worried?

 

[pegasus]

Ich has a lifespan of 21 days without a host, so your tank should definitely be Ich-free. Tangs don't have a slime coating like most fish do, so it doesn't take much to irritate their skin. Little things like a copepod crawling on them can drive them nuts. I highly recommend scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp if you have tang(s), and I can't stress this enough! My yellow constantly stops by their "cleaning station" to get a thorough going over. Sometimes one, or both, of the shrimp will climb onto the tang and go all over picking him clean. He loves it! My coral beauty does the same thing, but not quite as frequently.

 

[trigger40]

i do have a skunk cleaner but it doesnt do its job very well. it eats when i feed the fish and it will actually swim through the water column for food so most of the time it refuses to clean. would there aggression between two cleaner shrimp? i may get anouther for the tang.

 

[pegasus]

i do have a skunk cleaner but it doesnt do its job very well. it eats when i feed the fish and it will actually swim through the water column for food so most of the time it refuses to clean. would there aggression between two cleaner shrimp? i may get anouther for the tang.

I've had a few that were shy of the fish and wouldn't clean, so I'd just add until I found one that would. They're very social shrimp and will usually pair up very quickly. Every time I've added a new cleaner, they're always side by side the very next morning.

 

[trigger40]

I've had a few that were shy of the fish and wouldn't clean, so I'd just add until I found one that would. They're very social shrimp and will usually pair up very quickly. Every time I've added a new cleaner, they're always side by side the very next morning.

oh cool. i gess i will be going to my lfs soon to get another. thanks!

 

[pegasus]

You're welcome!

 

[beth]

Does your tank have a grounding probe? Are there any signs of HLLE on the fish? Nitrates? Try using Zoecon or Selcon.

 

[trigger40]

my tank does not have a grounding probe. ther is no sings of HILLE, in fact its one of the healthyst PBT i have seen. i do have some nitrates for my soft corals.

 

[beth]

A lot of debate about grounding probe usage, whether they cause more or less stray voltage that irritates sensitive fish, or whether they are even safe to use in the hobby, and I'm not an electrician to understand it all. I do hope all your equipment is going thru a GFCI. There's no debate about the safety and necessity of using that with aquarium equipment.

How high are your nitrates. I would prefer to get as close to zero as you can when keeping tangs. Some tangs tend to not do as well with nitrates present. Try using zoecon or selcon.

 

[trigger40]

you think it can be stray voltage? my corals are all fine so i dont think its that. my nitrates are at about 15 to 30. i do keep the nitrates at the higher end of that because thats when my corals really do well. i have looket at selcon but i can figure out what zoecon is.

 

[beth]

In my exp, tangs are not good candidates for environments with high nitrates.

 

[jay0705]

Just a note on the skunks, they do well together. Also my tang goes to them to get cleaned, he's the only fish that does this.

 

[trigger40]

so it's the tang or the corals i gess. ill keep the nitrates low untill i move the tang to a different tank.

 

[mauler]

I think your nitrates are fine if they were to high it would affect your shrimp before your fish

 

[beth]

I had zero nitrates in my reef with mostly soft corals and they thrived, grew, and propagated. What type corals do you have? What lighting?

 

[trigger40]

I had zero nitrates in my reef with mostly soft corals and they thrived, grew, and propagated. What type corals do you have? What lighting?

i have multiple types of mushroom corals, a couple kenya trees, a toad stool, and some zoa's. the light i have is not very strong so i haft to keep coral that can live in low light. but the light is a marine land led.

 

[pegasus]

All of my softies are thriving on .5 ppm NO3. I used to notice how they'd start to shrivel when NO3 would rise above 10 ppm, and now that it's below 1 ppm, they're like... BOOM!

 

[beth]

All of my softies are thriving on .5 ppm NO3. I used to notice how they'd start to shrivel when NO3 would rise above 10 ppm, and now that it's below 1 ppm, they're like... BOOM!

Agree with this.

Marineland LED doesn't really say too much about the lighting, but I would rely more on the best lighting you can muster and good water quality to boost your coral growth and health.

 

[trigger40]

alright well i gess this means i will start doing more water changes. but i have bad news...
it appears my last attempt to eradicate ich from my tank was a failure

 

[silverado61]

I've got orbit marine LEDs and everyone told me they weren't strong enough for most corals. I've got Duncan's and Trumpets and they're doing better than my ZOA's and mushroom. The Duncan's have tripled from 2 to 6 and I've had three polyps split so far on the Trumpets. All in a matter of two months.
Sorry to hear about the ick. Tangs huh? Go figure.