Help White Dots All Over My White Cheek Tang!!!!

Beal09 · 12-02-2004, 04:49 PM

ok overnight hundreds of little white specks are all over my tang, i dont know what happened. i havent introduced any new fish, so i am puzzled. all perimeters are great. what is this stuff and how in the heck do i get rid of it. just put a mega dose of garlic blender mush in, he is still eating. all the other fish are fine.

Loverotties · 12-02-2004, 05:15 PM

It sounds like ick.is this a reef or fish only.Did you just do a water change?Need more info.

Cosine · 12-02-2004, 05:35 PM

ick looks like salt stuck to your fish
got a cleaner shrimp?
tangs seem to have no problem looking for help from them

JennM · 12-02-2004, 07:37 PM

Was it in the morning? Sometimes fish get "morning ich"... and it goes away by midday. It can be a sign of more trouble but if goes away it's usually not a big problem. Garlic, check for any other stressors... keep feeding well and watch for aggression.

Jenn

Beal09 · 12-02-2004, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loverotties

It sounds like ick.is this a reef or fish only.Did you just do a water change?Need more info.

reef tank, and yes just did a stupid water change. i really try to stay away from them.. im not a beliver in them..

JennM · 12-02-2004, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beal09

reef tank, and yes just did a stupid water change. i really try to stay away from them.. im not a beliver in them..

Then don't use stupid water!

Curious -- why don't you believe in water changes?

Jenn

Loverotties · 12-02-2004, 11:26 PM

Maybe the temp of the new water wasn't the same as the tank.That would do it!So many times thats the case I had it happend to me once.And thats all it took to learn.

JennM · 12-03-2004, 06:52 AM

I respectfully disagree. We don't preheat the water when we do maintenances on some 20+ tanks. If that was the cause I'd have some serious disasters... and I've been doing maintenances (and now my technician does them) for 4 years now.

Jenn

Loverotties · 12-03-2004, 07:13 AM

You probley have u.v. which helps but some fish are easy to have the ick surface like I seen you say have morning ick.Well there you go they shown a case of ick.Most have it you have to kill it in the tank so they don't have babies.And For some reson some get stess and athers don't(like a school of one breed)Maybe one or two mite get it.Beal doesn't say there using UV or ozone.so I assume they don't use either.Which helps,but I bet your store does.

JennM · 12-03-2004, 07:23 AM

I'm not talking about the store. I'm talking about clients' tanks - most of whom do not use UV. In fact I can't recall any of my current clients that has UV.

Yeah I have UV at the shop - shop systems are a whole different animal. Our FO has UV and we also dose with copper from time to time - high volume high stress system.

I'm not referring to the shop system when I talk about "morning ich" either. It's rare, but it's out there.

I believe that almost every system has the *potential* for an ich outbreak. I've seen this theory argued back and forth... the argument being if you want to totally purge ich from the system, it has to be fishless for at least 30 days, the fish removed to a q and treated to eliminate every last organism... but I think the odds of completely eradicating it are slim. The trick is to keep the fish healthy and relaxed enough that they don't let the parasite (or any other disease) catch up with them.

UV is only good for the free-swimming phase of the life cycle of the ich. Since presumably there are numerous organisms at various stages of the life cycle, even though the UV might get some of the free-swimmers, there are still some on the fish, or in the substrate.

UV can be helpful but it's not a "fix". The only true fix, IMO is to identify the source of the stress and eliminate that.

Have you checked your tank for stray voltage? Voltage in the water may not zap you but it can certainly "worry" a fish. Cracked heaters, shorted out pumps, timers, light fixtures, etc., have all caused voltage to leach into tanks. IMO check that out and see what you find.

Jenn

Loverotties · 12-03-2004, 03:59 PM

Beal hows the fish? is it getting better?Let us know.Do any of the other fish look sick also?

drw94 · 12-03-2004, 06:05 PM

Try raising the salinity and temp these seem to help and get cleaner shrimp or two, its their job to remove parasites.
Good Luck!!!!!!!!

Loverotties · 12-04-2004, 08:02 AM

I always thought it was the opposite.freshwater you do that by adding a little salt and temp.And in saltwater you lower the salinity and temp?Well that worked for me.I broat the temp down to 73 and the sal. to 1.017 for 4 days.It worked for me.It mite debpend on the animals you have in there.