Yello Tang and Black Ich

[azav8ter]

Wow, so much information in these forums and especially in the archives. I need to read more but here is my latest experince with a Yellow Tang that contracted Black Ich....

In panic mode I visit my local marine fish store and tell them (btw...not where I purchase my fish) and the guy says.."Fresh water dip" and then walks away. He was done (but later proved to be correct).

I continue to talk to the other person who sells me on the idea of garlic in the food. Since I am new to marine aquaria I have read tons of stuff on disease so I can detect infestations early on. Garlic will not cure Ich, but it will break the cycle of Ich. The fish carry the parasites on their body. At some point in time, the parasites will burst spraying their larva which settle to the substrate and incubate. When the larva hatch, they find a fish and attach themselves to continue the cycle. With garlic in the fish diet, the newly hatched parasite will not want to attach to a nasty bad garlic breathed fish (ok...actually the garlic is in their system and the parasites dont like it). So they dont attach and die of starvation. Hence, end of cycle, and end of Black Ich.

So I go home and try to catch my Yellow Tang for his dip. The little bugger must have know what was about to happen and hides inside our deco urn...um...along with Jaque (our little shrimp). So I patiently wait and watch as I didnt want to stress the guy out by chasing him all over the tank, thereby stressing out the other inhabitants. I watch as the shrimp jumps all over the Tang, the Tang flops around inside for a while and emerges with more than half of the balck spots gone. (by now the NEMO scene is playing in my head where the shrimp cleans NEMO). This goes on for quite a while and more black spots are missing. If I had a straight jacket for Tangs I would have applied it and left him to the shrimps care, but I was lacking in this apparent essential device. I finally catch the tang and plop him in his prepared fresh water bath. I note the time and immediately extract him in five minutes and return him home. More observation and I note that he is completely clean of black spots and the next day is back to chasing the other inhabitants ensuring they remember that he is "King of the Tank!!"

I have been reading many of the threads throughout about shrimp, garlic, and dips. I have seen the shrimp cleaning the fish, I have seen the dip completely clean the fish (with little stress) but I have not seen the affects of garlic....yet.

I hope this is helpful as the events actually happened and the results are completely satisfactory.

By the way, love these forums.
Thanks for providing such a wealth of info and great people.

[Phishnoob]

Glad you beat the ich. I hate that stuff after it wiped my tank. From now on it is full time UV, smushed up minced garlic from a jar mixed with the frozen food and selco for half an hour, and a few days in the Q tank for new fish. Not sure what works or what does not, but the shotgun approach is it for me.

We have a very aggresive skunk cleaner shrimp too that chases fishies down for their cleaning (poor little yellow watchman goby cant get away from that guy).

I am still afraid of another tang until I get better at this hobby.

Phishnoob

[Junkzoo]

Glad you nipped it in the bud,,,,
One thing you need to do is to check your tang in the morning, b4 lights on or daylight hit the room,,I've noticed that fish will look fine during the day, only to have the "spots" come out in darkness.Try to sneek a peek w/a flashlight or if you have flo' lighting , turn 'em on , and check the tang real fast/good, you have to check it during total darkness,,

Oh , and by the way,,WELCOME!

[Casey]

azav8ter
Welcome to TRT

[azav8ter]

Thank you Thank you Thank you !!

Our tank is new. We have had fresh water for over five years and have always wanted to delve into salt water. As soon as we get our stuff together, we will post in the system spec section. The MRS. has photos on her puter that we can attach.

Thanks again for the awesome welcome !!

[Kevin1000]

You should note that black ich is caused by a flatworm and the "black spots" are nothing but dead flesh caused by the worm.
In order to effectively treat black "ich" you need to treat with either 3 freshwater dips at 3 day intervals or 3 formalin baths with the same interval. The dips/baths kill the parasites on the fish. Multiple dips/baths at 3 day intervals allows you to get the parasites that were not on the fish at the time of the previous dip/bath.

If you only gave the fish one bath - odds are you have not cured your fish.

Hope this helps.

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by azav8ter
...have been reading many of the threads throughout about shrimp, garlic, and dips...

I think Jerel has a good one, he uses sour cream and minced fresh garlic and onion soup mix. Just peel the shrimp, dip them in olive oil and butter, then salt and pepper and grill just long enough to "pink" the shrimp, then dip in the sour cream and garlic, pour your fave Chardonnay, and enjoy.

You'll forget all about the flukes on your tang.




On a more serious note, the fW dips may be repeated, although I am not a big fan of 3 times a day for them. Yu may have to remove all the vertebrates from the infested tank for 30 days to remove the vectors for the worms, after which you should be good to reintroduce your specimens. Many different approaches to the use of formalin and fw dips for thes pests, a few threads in the archives I believe.

I have personally done the FW dips for specimens that were in quarantine without any adverse effects and total resolution of the parasite within 1 week. Jeff is right on the money with the overnight observation as well.

[Kevin1000]

I suppose I should have written that a little better - s/b a freshwater bath once a day - at three day intervals - for a total of three treatments.