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Hippo tang with ich or the white spots
- Thread starter jamman
- Start date
Sounds like ich. Hippos are notoriously ich magnets. There really is no reef safe treatment. Some would recommend pulling it from your system and treating it in a hospital tank. The problem with that is that you still have ich in your main system. Once you put the fish back, it would catch it again.
Your best course of action at this point is to lower then sality by .002 to .003 sg points from where you are, lower the temp a couple of degrees slowly over the next few days and suppliment feedings with some sort of garlic product. If the fish is generally healthy and in a relatively stress free environment, it should be able to shake it off.
Your best course of action at this point is to lower then sality by .002 to .003 sg points from where you are, lower the temp a couple of degrees slowly over the next few days and suppliment feedings with some sort of garlic product. If the fish is generally healthy and in a relatively stress free environment, it should be able to shake it off.
I went through the same problem few weeks ago upon my research tank should stay at 78-80 degrees. If you decide to pull your fishes out to treat don't put your fishes back for 48 hours or wait 4 days to be safe so that the ich dies out of your system as long as they don't have a fish to host off of. Do treat all your fish for it you never know. Oh and I didn't have to treat my fishes considering they are healthy they fought it right off garlick supplement to food is a + good luck
Only product I know that's reef safe for ich hope this helps if it comes down to it
http://www.marinedepot.com/Ruby_Ree...e_Medications-Ruby_Reef-RR1111-FIMEPS-vi.html
http://www.marinedepot.com/Ruby_Ree...e_Medications-Ruby_Reef-RR1111-FIMEPS-vi.html
Aceswild said:
Wait 4 days to make sure ich is out of your system.....WOW how about 8 weeks....not 4 days. The life cycle of ich is usually attached to the fish for about 3 days. THen they fall off to reproduce in the sand. Then they enter the water colum and attach the fish again. Ich can live without a host for at least 6 weeks. Thats why most people say to wait at least 8 weeks fishless....BUT the longer the better. I would suggest at least 10 weeks.
Man so many things wrong with this .... OK lets ask some questions.
Give a really brief discription of your tank.
Fish, inverts, corals.
Water parameters amonia, nitrates, salinity etc.
Tank size might help.
Start with what Phyl said maybe there is more or less you can do.
Where did you buy the fish if I may ask?
Give a really brief discription of your tank.
Fish, inverts, corals.
Water parameters amonia, nitrates, salinity etc.
Tank size might help.
Start with what Phyl said maybe there is more or less you can do.
Where did you buy the fish if I may ask?
I am running a 120 tall with some zoos, lta, some other softies. As far as fish I have a yellow, foxface tang, a yellow coris, six line wrasse several shrimp and that hippo tang (with ich) that I purchased at aquatic obsessions during their anniversary sale. The fish acts and looks healthy except for the many white spots. He came with the spots and I asked the guy helping me at the store about the spots and the scratching against the rocks when I purchased him and he said that's normal for tangs. I did not know that I should have passed on the tang. All of my water parameters are normal. I lowered the salinity a bit and added a fan in my sump to lower water temp to 81 degrees. I am feeding the pellets with garlic and the fish are loving them. So far everyone is acting healthy I hope it stays that way without losing any fish.
I've got a Powder Blue Tang I bought several weeks ago from AO that developed Ich. I'm using Kick-Ich and feeding garlic soaked food but no luck yet. It still eats well and all the other fish seem fine. I had an ich outbreak in an old 50g I had years ago. I treated that tank with Malachite Green. It stained the silcone seal of the tank, but it got rid of the ich. I have to admit, I do regret getting the PBT. My tank was doing great before adding the PBT.
I used Ich Attack same company that makes Rid Ich...would guess it is the similar. Ich Attach is really just mega garlic I think from the smell of it :-X. Unfortunately for Hippo Tangs that is standard.
Steps to take then besides what Phyl gave you.
Continue with the garlic, my feeling is it doesn't cure them but it really helps in general health. Selcon too can be added to the food another thing to add.
Keep the salinity a little lower it is easier on the fish. You cannot go down to levels that actually are used to treat it but again is helpful.
Additionally you can get a cleaner shrimp or two if you don't have any. Or cleaner goby but it could be affected to. Some have been helped by adding UV filter.
None of the above is a cure but can help.
Sorry that it happened to you, they shouldn't have been so nonchalant about it.
Steps to take then besides what Phyl gave you.
Continue with the garlic, my feeling is it doesn't cure them but it really helps in general health. Selcon too can be added to the food another thing to add.
Keep the salinity a little lower it is easier on the fish. You cannot go down to levels that actually are used to treat it but again is helpful.
Additionally you can get a cleaner shrimp or two if you don't have any. Or cleaner goby but it could be affected to. Some have been helped by adding UV filter.
None of the above is a cure but can help.
Sorry that it happened to you, they shouldn't have been so nonchalant about it.
Stores shouldn't sell fish that have any visible signs of a parasite on them. People in these stores are suppose to more knowledgeable than the customer and I can't believe they would tell you what they did. They should treat sick fish and sell them when or if they get better. It's a lot easier for them to do this in their stores. Once many of us put a fish in our tank or reefs you can't get them out. Not to mention the tons of problems it can cause. In my opinion its very ignorant and they're dumping a sick fish on someone who might not know any better, Or someone who is just getting into the hobby and this isn't the way to start. Why do this to someone and them get a bad opinion of your stores? Just to make a sale? Wouldn't you think it's better to be honest with the customers ? This way they'll trust ya and keep coming back.
Honestly we should all QT our fish for a month or two minimum. I agree sort of with you but with hippo tangs you need to get them out of the stressed enviroment as quick as possible I think. Dr Jim is about the only person who I know does a nearly foolproof QT before selling to customers. Second from the store owners point of view a sick fish is actually easier for the customer to treat as most of their tanks are connected if not 100% at least in groups. We actually ran a fish store that they were not connected when I was a kid but most now are connected.
Well I guess I'll preface my comments by saying I spend a lot of time at AO and consider Will, Ethan and Gary as close personal friends. So now everyone knows my personal bias. 
With the exception of JohnS_323 and Rbu1 I have problems with almost every comment on this thread.
There are many threads on this site acknowledging that AO has a reputation for steering people away from sick fish. For some of the veterans to readily accept that AO would say white spots are OK is disappointing. I'm sure there was a misunderstanding of what was asked and or said. I don't think after 3 years of high standards, all of a sudden AO would start dumping sick fish on people intentionally.
Anyone who has spent more than 15 minutes in this hobby knows tangs are prone to ich and that the preferred method of avoiding introducing ich to a system is to quarantine the fish for a minimum of 4-6 weeks without showing any symptoms before introducing them to the main tank. If you do not quarantine, you have a good chance of getting ich and need to be prepared to deal with it. To hold the store responsible is ridiculous.
Anyone who has done any serious research on ich knows that most people believe that it can take 2-3 months or more to appear to get it out of the system. I say appear because I am among the growing minority who accept that it is always present and the best defense is proper conditioning of fish, which may include a period of time in a QT tank to get them well fed.
That someone believes that ich is gone in 4 days based on what they were told emphasizes a point that needs to be made. We need to do critical research and make informed decisions before we act, and we need to accept responsibility for our decisions. If Ace's believed ich is gone in 4 days, that tells me he didn't rely on any books, experienced reefers or well published authorities. Most likely he got his information from a forum like this.
So let me say this about forums:
90% of what is posted on forums at best is someone's personal opinion based on their own limited experiences, and worst case it's a load of crap based on hearsay. And that includes all the crap I post! ;D
So what to do now? Based on my 37 years of limited experience treating marine ich go back and read John's post, do what he says and try adding some live blackworms to the feeding schedule.
With the exception of JohnS_323 and Rbu1 I have problems with almost every comment on this thread.
There are many threads on this site acknowledging that AO has a reputation for steering people away from sick fish. For some of the veterans to readily accept that AO would say white spots are OK is disappointing. I'm sure there was a misunderstanding of what was asked and or said. I don't think after 3 years of high standards, all of a sudden AO would start dumping sick fish on people intentionally.
Anyone who has spent more than 15 minutes in this hobby knows tangs are prone to ich and that the preferred method of avoiding introducing ich to a system is to quarantine the fish for a minimum of 4-6 weeks without showing any symptoms before introducing them to the main tank. If you do not quarantine, you have a good chance of getting ich and need to be prepared to deal with it. To hold the store responsible is ridiculous.
Anyone who has done any serious research on ich knows that most people believe that it can take 2-3 months or more to appear to get it out of the system. I say appear because I am among the growing minority who accept that it is always present and the best defense is proper conditioning of fish, which may include a period of time in a QT tank to get them well fed.
That someone believes that ich is gone in 4 days based on what they were told emphasizes a point that needs to be made. We need to do critical research and make informed decisions before we act, and we need to accept responsibility for our decisions. If Ace's believed ich is gone in 4 days, that tells me he didn't rely on any books, experienced reefers or well published authorities. Most likely he got his information from a forum like this.
So let me say this about forums:
90% of what is posted on forums at best is someone's personal opinion based on their own limited experiences, and worst case it's a load of crap based on hearsay. And that includes all the crap I post! ;D
So what to do now? Based on my 37 years of limited experience treating marine ich go back and read John's post, do what he says and try adding some live blackworms to the feeding schedule.
Thanks for all the feedback. I am fairly new to reefkeeping and I am not looking to make enemies with people on this forum. There is no need to defend AO and the guys that work there, they are a good group of guys, friendly and helpful as you can see from my previous post I never blamed them for this, I was only answering a question. Getting back to the topic at hand I am supplementing food with garlic and the fish are eating and doing fine. This is merely a minor setback and I am sure there could be worse things that can happen to a reef tank.