Hippo tang question

[Bobby89]

i have a small hippo tang in in my 55gal fowlr tank and he seems to be itching himself on the live rock constantly. he will swim just fine and eat just fine and then all of a sudden he with scratch against the rocks. anyone have any idea whats going on? his color seems to be good and has no signs of any sickness. he has been in the tank for about 1 month. and i just noticed this behavior about three days ago.

he shares the tank with
2 clown fish
1 blue damsel
1 valentin puffer (soon to be transfered to another tank)
1 knoby starfish

[quick_murdoc]

What is the temp of your tank? Has it had a big swing in temp in the last few days or week?

[Bobby89]

it is at 78 degrees. it has been that way for a while now. no big swings

[Fish Dude32]

I would say that you have Ich in the early stages. I strongly recommend immediate treatment.

[quick_murdoc]

Yea ich is a big problem with hippos! If you can try to quarintine the fish otherwise keep an eye out for any white spots.

[Bobby89]

what is the best treatment for my tang? i do water changes every two weeks to keep levels stable

[quick_murdoc]

The best thing would be if you could quarintine him and use a copper based medication but if you don't have that option then you might be a little limited on your choices. Do you have any corals in the tank? What about live rock? Before you add any copper to a tank know that it will kill just about everything other then the fish in there.

[Bobby89]

no corals in my tank that was my next step in a couple of months. but i do have about 65 lbs of live rock. where would i get a copper based medication?

[Loverotties]

Put him in your hospital/quarantine tank and feed him garlic soaked food and maybe the copper treatment if it starts to show.

[Doug1]

How big is the tang and what are you feeding it. Is it being harrassed by the other fish?
Low stress and good diet(high veggie content, I suggest nori with Selcon added) are pretty essential to keeping these fish healthy.
They tend to stress easily and require a hi veggie diet as they are primarily herbivores. The Selcon is high in essential amino acids and stuff and works well on tangs and angels esp

[Seamore]

Ich or other parasite, understand that if it is ich all the fish will have it by now even if they do not show symptoms, and the rock will have it too (larval form). Consider moving all the fish out of the tank, treating the fish and keeping up the tank w/no fish to host the ich through it's life cycle. I think it is 6 weeks but others may know better. Copper should be avoided with the live rock it will penetrate porous rock and will make toxic to corals. Good luck.

[collin]

that usually means stress just let give it a few days and see what happens

[bcrum51]

do the garlic food for a few days that should help generally what we do at the store and food food food and garlic