Parasites on my Purple Tang

[midasblenn]

White specs on my purple tang in my 75 Gal. Pretty sure its some kind of parasite. My Blue in my 90 Gal had them when I first got him and LFS said to soak food in Garlic. Did so and they went away after 2 or 3 days. Have not returned and it has been a year.
Tried that with my Purple for 3 days now but no luck. Pretty sure its not ick, just some kind of parasite. I have 2 cleaner shrimp in the tank but he wont let them do their job. My sailfin loves them but the purple wont go near them.
Any suggestions of what I can do short of taking him out of the tank. Dont want to kill my system with medication but really dont want to have to set the QT back up either since I dont plan on getting any more fish.
Is there a reef safe medication that I can try?

 

[beth]

There are no reef safe meds.
Why don't you think it is ich? How many spots are you seeing? Take a look at the ich pics in the Diseased Fish thread at the top of this forum.

 

[midasblenn]

Specks are not staying in the same place. There are 6 or 8 random specks and they seem to be in slightly different places each day. Dont move a long way but enough to notice. They are tiny. About the size of this period(.)
It was my understanding that ich is more like a fungas that spreads over the fish as it grows and mulitplies.
Have not had any contact or experiance with ich so far (thank goodness) so dont know for sure wether its ich or not.

 

[midasblenn]

Ok, after doing a search and reading a few articles, it appears that I may have Ich. Evidently the Ich paracites drop off after a certain period of time which will account for the changing locations.
The reported life cycle of ich is only 30 - 45 days so I dont know how I got it because everything has been quaranteened before entry. But it appears that I do.
Now my question is what to do. From what I read, all fish have to be quaranteened. I only have a 20 gallon QT and I have a Gold Stripe, a Purple, a Sailfin, a Flame and a Midas Blenny. I dont think that they will all fit!
The other option is to treat the tank. That will destroy my Clam, LTA, 9 Mexican Turbos, Arrow, 4 Emeralds, 20 Astreas, 40 blue legs, 30 scarlets and blue linkia. I could put the clam and LTA in my 90 but that might transfer the Ich to there!
Any suggestions?

 

[beth]

Did you look in the Diseased Fish thread at those pics of fish with ich?
Do you have corals? Live rock? Aside from what you mentioned what else is in your tank? And you have 2 tanks?

 

[midasblenn]

Here it is.
75 Gal
120 Lbs of LS
100 Lbs of LR
70 Hermits
29 Snails
1 Blue Linkia Starfish
4 Emerald Crabs
1 Arrow Crab
2 Cleaner Shrimp
1 Squamosa Clam
2 Flame Scallops
1 LTA
No corals yet. Was going to start adding them this week.
1 Purple Tang (w/ ich)
1 Sailfin Tang (w/ ich)
1 Gold Stripe Maroon Clown
1 Flame Angel
1 Midas Blenny
Everything was QT'd for 30+ days prior to entry.
The last entry was the Flame about 3 weeks ago.
I also have a 90 Gal reef with similar set-up minus the clam and scallops. It was started a year ago and has been complete for about 6 months with no new entries. It has more rock and several corals. Fish are 2 False Percs, 1 Blue Hippo, 1 Yellow, 1 Coral Beauty and 1 Red Lip Blenny.
I have access to a 45 Gal tall from my Brother-in-law that I can set up for QT but will that be large enough for 5 fish for 45 days?
Dont I have to cycle it first?
Do I have enough time to cycle it or will I start losing fish before its done?
Thanks for the help.

 

[beth]

You'll have to treat all the fish in the 45. Look at the posts on QT in the FAQ Thread for advise on emergency QT.
Post back if you have questions.
If you can seed any filters in your display while setting up, that would help. You may need to a a piece or 2 "sacrificial" LR to the QT for seeding.

 

[midasblenn]

Ok, once the QT is set up and cycled. I take all the fish out of the display and put them in the QT.
Gold Stripe Maroon Clown
Purple Tang
Sailfin Tang
Midas Blenny
Flame Angel
1) Even the Flame? I read somewhere not to treat an Angel.
2) What do you reccomend for treatment of the fish in QT?

[hr]
3) Also, just leaving the display empty for 6 weeks will kill the ICH right?
4) What about its inhabitants?
Squamosa Clam
LTA
Flame Scallops
Blue Linkia
Cleaner Shrimp
Arrow Crab
Hermits
Snails
4b) Will they be ok to leave in the display or will the ICH feed off of any of them?
Thanks!

 

[beth]

You have to treat all fish exposed to ich, even if they do not have symptoms. Also, leave the tank fishless for 30 days.
Be sure to seed your Qt with substrate, use 100% display water, etc.
Ick is strickly a fish diseases. Inverts won't get it.

 

[midasblenn]

What is the best medication to treat the fish in QT? I read about hypo but with my work schedule (60+) hours weekly I dont know if I will be available to monitor the process closely enough to do hypo.

 

[beth]

Both copper and hyposaliny need to be monitored. The real busy part with hypo is getting the salinity down and then up again. That does take time. However, hypo is safer for the fish. I would use it. Just dow water changes after you get home from work to get the salinity down. You should have a refractometer, however.
Copper will wipe out your biofilter so you will also need to keeping an eye out for ammonia, nitrite. Read the ICH post in the FAQ, both procedures are explained and if you decide to go with copper, the best copper product is suggested there as well.

 

[yellowtail]

sorry dont want to hijack this thread but how is it possible to get ich after a 30 day qt?just interested.

 

[midasblenn]

Good question! I wish I knew!
All of my fish were quaranteened. The only thing I can figure is that the angel somehow had it when he went into quaranteen and showed no signs of it at all during QT. I didnt medicat in QT bewcause didnt see any reason to. Didnt see any ICH or anything else wrong with him but must have had something because less than 3 weeks in the display and my Purple is covered!
Going forward, any fish I buy will be treated with hypo in QT even if it looks perfectly healthy!

 

[beth]

I find that a good magnifying glass and saved me many a fish and much aggrevation.