Powder Blue tang mistake? HELP!!!

farnorth

farnorth

Member
well now I feel stuck!!! I ordered all of the stuff for hypo... but now I think I will also get a UV and a cleaner shrimp (this ich is going to ruin christmas, because I will be broke
), but I all of this will be very beneficial for my tank in the future as well. My PB will not eat!!
I keep soking Nori in garlic and selcon and I put it right next to the "den" he keeps hanging out in, but then I pull it out about every 2 hours and replace it so it does not go all over my tank... but he is not touching it.
I have tried frozen brine, formula 1, formula 2 and I have even put quite a lot in the tank to make sure that it gets to his "den" but he is not interested and I don't want to keep putting too much food in to ruin the water quality. I did another 10 gallon change today and he looks a littel more active, but when I looked at him closely again he has ich all over him that looks like little grains of salt.
I have been leaving the lights off for the past two days to not stress him... just when I feel confident about what to do, these suggestions sound great, but I feel stuck!!
 
farnorth

farnorth

Member
HE IS EATING !!!!!
I never thought I would be so thankful for hair algae, because he is picking on it all over the tank
He also started eating the nori with garlic and selcon on it and he is eating quite a lot of it.
I did another water change last night, I got a cleaner shrimp today, but my peppermint shrimp have been doing a pretty good job on him. My refractometer and 18 watt UV should be here on Wed. For the first time in 3 days I am hopeful he may make it untill I can hypo the tank! I will pull out all the inverts and all the live rock, I am going to put them in a rubber maid with another powerhead I ordered as well. At least if this all works my tank should rule when all is said and done!
 
who dey

who dey

Active Member
Originally Posted by farnorth
HE IS EATING !!!!!
I never thought I would be so thankful for hair algae, because he is picking on it all over the tank
He also started eating the nori with garlic and selcon on it and he is eating quite a lot of it.
I did another water change last night, I got a cleaner shrimp today, but my peppermint shrimp have been doing a pretty good job on him. My refractometer and 18 watt UV should be here on Wed. For the first time in 3 days I am hopeful he may make it untill I can hypo the tank! I will pull out all the inverts and all the live rock, I am going to put them in a rubber maid with another powerhead I ordered as well. At least if this all works my tank should rule when all is said and done!

how the heck did you get ur PB to eat hair alg? When i had it he wouldn't even poop on it??
 
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emeralcrab

Guest
Wonderful to hear he's eating for you. Good luck with hypo, you will love your refractormeter, I was using mine yesterday checking all tanks before I added top off water, and I was thinking about you up there in Alaska, you will find you are using it all of the time.
Do you have your UV yet? You may have it already but if not I would go ahead and hook it up to your DT even in hypo. Everything that will sap those nasty little parasites the better.....
 
farnorth

farnorth

Member
LazyPinoy... I am sorry your PB died. In all of my excitement I forgot to acknowledge it.
I have no idea how or why he started eating the hair algae, but I saw him continuing to pick at one spot, so I put the Nori in right next to it with a ton of vitamins and garlic on it and he went to town. His belly is stuffed and he is still picking on the hair algae now that the Nori is gone. He is also now swimming all of the tank and is not hiding in his "cave". If there was not Ich on him I would think he was in perfect health.
Should I by chance not do hypo? I know this might sound crazy, but if he is eating really well, if I have a cleaner shrimp and have a UV coming I am wondering if I will stress him out again pulling all of the live rock out with the algae on it. I just don't want to do anything to take steps backward. I guess the only reason I am thinking this, is because some people on here have said that they have done hypo, quarintined there fish, etc, etc and their tangs still get ich at times (I think you said this as well EmeralCrab)
 
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emeralcrab

Guest
If it were me I would still hypo, esp. since you say he is pretty covered. My hippo only gets like one or two on it when I do something different in my tank. I think that the UV helps keep the parasite from getting out of hand. I don't think that it would totally kill it all out, but it will get a LOT of the buggers when they are in the water so that they can't get out of control.
I wish I could have a cleaner shrimp but my huma huma and porky pine would make a quick meal of him.
I'm sure it will stress him out by moving the rocks, but I think you still need to hypo. How are your other fish? Any sign of it yet? Water parameters ok?
Well off to work. Good luck.
 
farnorth

farnorth

Member
ok better still hypo then. None of my other fish have any signs of ick that I can see and he is getting less ich. He is still eating very well, he is picking on all of the hair algae and every time I put nori in he goes right after it.
My water quality is perfect, except for PH is a little low at 8.12.
 
farnorth

farnorth

Member
80% of his ich is gone! He is still eating like crazy and now he is swimming all over the tank!!! Just waiting for my refractometer to do hypo... hopefully I will get it today.
 
farnorth

farnorth

Member
Ok... I pulled out all of my live rock and put it into a rubbermaid with a heater and a powerhead, I put about 10 cup fulls of sand into my qt tank with all of my inverts and I have brought the water down to 1.015 within the past 24 hours. My fish look STRESSED, but I left 4 smaller pieces of live rock in there with no life on them and put in some plastic pipe... so I hope this goes ok!! :notsure:
 
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emeralcrab

Guest
Good luck, just make sure to go slowly when you bring down your salinity. How is your tang doing?
 
farnorth

farnorth

Member
UUuuuggghh! My Powder Blue has ICH EVERYWHERE!!! As soon as I started moving out the rocks he started getting it and now it is on almost every part of his body including his eyes. I have gone from 1.021 to 1.010 within the last 54 hours and it is still on him. How long untill the ich starts to die off of the fish from hypo? I hope he makes it!!! I have my UV running on the tank as well now. Don't know what else I can do now instead of waiting. He is not eating now either. None of my other fish have it and all my water quality is perfect. My PH actually went up to almost 8.24 since I have been doing water changes, instead of down... hope that is ok as well.
 
punky34

punky34

New Member
Your story of the PB sounds exactly like mine. First 3 days ich appears then subsides, PB begins to eat around 4th day, looks good for a day or two then ich comes back with a vengence, PB hides then stressed breathing by 5th or 6th day, likes to be near heavy water flow, near 7th day on it's side with labored breathing less or no eating, mouth stays open. By 8th to 12th day mortal end. I also have 90 gals of water flowing with a thriving reef SPS, LPS, softies. Other fish are thriving-growing (hippo tang, yellow tang, P clown, green chrom., cleaner shrimps & 3 damsels) all get along very well.
The things I've tried:
Hypo
Heavily Increased water flow
That awful reef friendly Ich medicine that costs $50 bucks (be careful don't over use it, it will slowly kill off your coral)
UV
Water Changes
QT
Garlic
Better Filter media that filters at Micron level
Prayer
I've only seen 3 places where powder blue was thriving and alive:
In a forum photo with SPS coral 250gals
Aquarium of the pacific in long beach, Ca 1000s of gals
Fish store in Gardena, CA 300+ gal reef tank (I've been to many fish stores and I haven't seen a PB thriving anywhere else so far)
and of couse in the Ocean
PB needs a HUGE fish tank anything under 200 gallons will NOT DO.
I only have photos of mine with me to remind me not to buy one until I set up a 300g tank. Even in death their colors remain stunning.
 
punky34

punky34

New Member
Your story of the PB sounds exactly like mine. First 3 days ich appears then subsides, PB begins to eat around 4th day, looks good for a day or two then ich comes back with a vengence, PB hides then stressed breathing by 5th or 6th day, likes to be near heavy water flow, near 7th day on it's side with labored breathing less or no eating, mouth stays open. By 8th to 12th day mortal end. I also have 90 gals of water flowing with a thriving reef SPS, LPS, softies. Other fish are thriving-growing (hippo tang, yellow tang, P clown, green chrom., cleaner shrimps & 3 damsels) all get along very well.
The things I've tried:
Hypo
Heavily Increased water flow
That awful reef friendly Ich medicine that costs $50 bucks (be careful don't over use it, it will slowly kill off your coral)
UV
Water Changes
QT
Garlic
Better Filter media that filters at Micron level
Prayer
I've only seen 3 places where powder blue was thriving and alive:
In a forum photo with SPS coral 250gals
Aquarium of the pacific in long beach, Ca 1000s of gals
Fish store in Gardena, CA 300+ gal reef tank (I've been to many fish stores and I haven't seen a PB thriving anywhere else so far)
and of couse in the Ocean
PB needs a HUGE fish tank anything under 150 gallons will NOT DO.
I only have photos of mine with me to remind me not to buy one until I set up a 300g tank. Even in death their colors remain stunning.
 
farnorth

farnorth

Member
Hey guys thanks for asking and following up on the thread! HE IS EATING AGAIN!!! I can't believe it !! :cheer:
For about the last 3 days I have just been hoping he would pass on to fish heaven, because he looked so terrible and it has been hard to watch. He had not eaten for a week, he was not coming out of the plastic pipes I put in there and he was covered in ich from head to toe (or head to fin).
Last night I put some nori in (as usual) and he started eating it. Today he can't get enough of it. He looks disoriented and is still having trouble grabbing it at times, but he looks MUCH better then he did yesterday and 1000 times better then earlier this week. He looks like a war vet with light spots everywhere the ich was, but is out and swimming around.
I think there is a chance he will make it! If he does I will name him rocky or something for making it through the bout!
I am on my 7th day of hypo and the ich is almost completely off of him, so I guess I have about 3 more weeks to go untill I start raising up the salinity again? Can they go 4 or 5 weeks in hypo?
 
farnorth

farnorth

Member
Even though my tang is eating again, the only thing I can get him to eat is Nori. I am soaking it in vitamins and with garlic, he is eating like crazy again, but is this enough for him to live on?
 
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