Help! sick hippo tang

Timmy77 · 10-02-2006, 09:07 PM

I was working on my new skimmer tonight and I noticed my hippo tang has about 5 white spots on it. I think it's ick. They kind of look like white heads but smaller. I was going to give him a fresh water dip but I can't catch him. What should I do?

pyron88 · 10-02-2006, 09:15 PM

I use liquid garlic. 5 drops every day in a 55g. 60 lbs of live rock so around 40gal of water. Works every time

Casey · 10-02-2006, 09:16 PM

garlic juice in his food and feed him lots of Nori, try to keep him happy good luck sounds lick ich.

Timmy77 · 10-02-2006, 09:20 PM

I just got some frozen food with 2% garlic, will that work?

Casey · 10-02-2006, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timmy77

I just got some frozen food with 2% garlic, will that work?

It sure wont hurt,try it,if you can keep him happy maybe he will fight the ich off.

pballer · 10-02-2006, 09:24 PM

yea sounds like ich and i believe hippos are real suseptible to ich

Timmy77 · 10-02-2006, 09:26 PM

If I can catch him should I dip him in fresh water?

pballer · 10-02-2006, 09:28 PM

be careful when catching him i heard that you have to be careful of the surgical spine or the fish could get really messed up

Casey · 10-02-2006, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timmy77

If I can catch him should I dip him in fresh water?

I doubt you can catch him they are the masters of hiding,and it would probably stress him out even more.

Timmy77 · 10-02-2006, 09:33 PM

OK so mabby I will just let him be and watch him closely.

Mike01z · 10-02-2006, 09:35 PM

probably catching and doing the freshwater dip will stress out the fish more, my tang had ich and I got rid of it by using garlic, keeping water lvl's reallllllyyyy good, a BIG uv sterilizer, and I even used kich ich.

the kick ich worked a little but did not clear it up, the final clear up happened after I got my UV sterilzer, but I got really big one designed for a huge tank and it was kinda expensive but it seemed to do the trick unless the tang was able to fight it off himself at the same time which would be really coincidental.

good luck ich sucks!!

Timmy77 · 10-02-2006, 09:41 PM

Crap I can't aford a UV right now I just baught a new skimmer. My local hardware store has a large uv for sale for $100 thats made for ponds. I think it's made by pondmaster. If this would work I chould get it in a week and a half.

partobe · 10-02-2006, 10:13 PM

I have a Hippo and have had him for almost five yrs now. Every now and then he gets white spots(ick) on him and at first I freaked out. Now I just leave him alone and they go away on their own. I do however feed him additional garlic during an outbreak. I also picked up a cleaner wrass and 2 cleaner shrimp. I've also noticed when he gets an outbreak no other fish in the tank has come down with ick. For right now I would just keep a close eye on him and the other fish. I would also test my water to make sure everything is like it should.

BLEEZY · 10-02-2006, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pballer

be careful when catching him i heard that you have to be careful of the surgical spine or the fish could get really messed up

yeah i saw a bad case of this at an lfs once.
do the fw dip if it persists a day or more, also possibly qt it and run a uv and kick ich. dont use it in the main tank as it will kil your rock and sandbed. dont get an improperly sized uv, a pond uv may not be the right wattage or flow you need, i reccomend checking out with your lfs or the uv website first, geting too large of one is bad.
i reccomend garlic and if it persists a few days fw dip if possible(be sure to put buffer in the fw and make sure it is exactly the same as your main tank but without the salt).
i have a hippo and sailfin that occasionally get ich,i feed garlic food and its never lasted more than a day or so, if it did i would run the uv i never got to plumbing.

BLEEZY · 10-02-2006, 10:25 PM

also i do highly reccomend skunk cleaners, however cleaner wrasses will die as they only eat parasites and are very important to the real reefs.