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Ich and Sailfin Tang


nhowe

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Anybody had any luck with treating ich on sailfin tangs? Had this tang a couple weeks. He seems fine, I just started noticing a couple ich spots on his fins and a couple on his body. I have been soaking food in garlic. This fish still eats like a pig with or without the garlic soak and is usually picking at the macro and the LR in the tank during the day. He looked a little slower today though, which kinda scares me.

 

Any suggestions would help. Anybody had any luck with any non-copper treatments? I tried a copper treatment and quarantining a powder blue once. Seemed to cause so much stress, it killed the fish faster than the ich.

 

Thanks

Nate

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Upscales has this stuff that is actually two bottles wrapped in one outer wrapper. I can't for the life of me remember what it's called, but it's always worked for me through the years when my blue tang (or any other fish) starts getting ich or looking crappy otherwise. Travis will definitely be able to point it out to you.

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Reduce the light cycle to ease any stress, drop the temp 2 degrees and lower the salinity 2points as this seems to irritate the Ich parasite and they will fall off. These along with adding a cleaner wrasse ( picks and eats the parasites from the fish) have successfully worked for me without adding chemicals.

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I have had a gold rim tang for about 4 months and he had ich from day one. He eats like a hog and visits the cleaner shrimp on a regular basis. Sometimes he looks like he's ich free then 5 minutes later its back, not too sure what causes this. The fish seems and acts perfectly healthy aside from the ich spots.

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I have had a gold rim tang for about 4 months and he had ich from day one. He eats like a hog and visits the cleaner shrimp on a regular basis. Sometimes he looks like he's ich free then 5 minutes later its back' date=' not too sure what causes this. The fish seems and acts perfectly healthy aside from the ich spots.[/quote']

 

That is almost how this ich is acting. Looks like it's clearing up, then it's back on him a couple hours later. I don't have any cleaner shrimp in the tank, but there is a cleaner wrasse that I saw nip something off him the other day. I really hate putting chems in the tank, that's why I was looking for any other options. I'll probably try a salinity drop to 1.022. I just tested at 1.025

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i have a blue tang, and he gets ich from time to time, it seems to be related to stress. i have had fish with ich before, i have taken them out and FW dipped them, treated them with malachite green, formaldehyde, etc. my suggestion would be to take a modest approach, nothing too abrupt or severe. many tangs get ich for the first few weeks when relocated. i would not panic, that is for sure

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Running temp right around 78 with halides on. Lights off' date=' drops to about 76.[/quote']

 

That sounds perfect to me. I asked because in the past I have noticed that if I let my temp get to high my blue tang will get a spot or two.

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Keeping this updated, so if others had ich problems on sailfin tangs. I tried the garlic treatment for about a week and a half. Noticed zero improvement during that time. if anything the tang seemed to be getting more covered in Ich, since it was spreading to the body. None of the tank mates ever showed any signs. Went to LFS and talked about fresh water or even extremely low salinity saltwater dip. Heard that it usually fixes the problem or kills the fish. Decided that was too drastic. Decided on buying a pair of cleaner shrimp on the 4th. I know, everything on the internet says this doesn't help much to cure ich. As soon as I got the shrimp acclimated and released the tang was right near them immediately wanting cleaned. About an hour later the shrimp were all over him cleaning. Today the tang was up and eating right out of my hand (which it normally doesn't do), with no spots on the body and only a two or three on the fins. Hopefully the shrimp take care of the problem.

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Even if the shrimp picks off some on the body they are still on the inside of the fish. Like the gills. I have lost a few fish to ich and it sucks. I have never found anything except to q tank them with copper or low salt. I will never buy a tang again just because they have always got ich with me. Sucks to because I love tangs. All you can do is hope they can fight it away or q tank them. Good luck I hope he lives and you get to enjoy him or her.

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I'm hoping the shrimp will help the ich show up in smaller numbers and let the fish fight it a little easier. Tried the copper before and it was just too much stress on the fish, netting and moving to a new tank, I think caused just as much problems as the ich.

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Try NO-ICH. It is a reef safe in-tank treatment that works. My customers have never had complaints about it.

 

Unfortunately I don't have any in stock at the moment, but it should be easy enough to find.

 

 

Best regards, Ricky Soutas Jr.

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Update. Sailfin is still picking at rocks and macro, seems happy. Not really any spots left on the fins or body. Cleaner shrimp were busy cleaning him for first few days. Now they pretty much leave him alone. Kept garlic mixed with the food and just waited it out. Seems to be doing the trick.

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I treated a desjardini tang for this a few years ago. I removed the fish and treated with cupramine.

 

QT is the only way to go. Eventually it will not live thru the outbreak. It will eventually kill your fish and certainly will lessen its life expectancy. Your fish cannot thrive while it has a parasite/disease, just as you cannot thrive if you have the flu/cancer.

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I treated a desjardini tang for this a few years ago. I removed the fish and treated with cupramine.

 

QT is the only way to go. Eventually it will not live thru the outbreak. It will eventually kill your fish and certainly will lessen its life expectancy. Your fish cannot thrive while it has a parasite/disease, just as you cannot thrive if you have the flu/cancer.

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I quarantine my fish in the frag tank now and the Flame wrasse developed ick. We debated doing hyposalinity , putting him in a tank and treating with cupiramine but in the end we decided to leave it alone. The clownfish got it too but ultimately everyone was able to fight it off and did well. Fortunately it was only like a 2 week ich cycle.

 

We did not use garlic. We did not use a reef safe ich treatment and it just went away on its own.

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