Ich in a reef tank

[PAYNR]

I'm really new to the hobby and have started a reef tank. I have some soft corals, sponges invertabrates and some fish. The problem is that my blue tang and powder blue tang have come down with Ich. I was told that it is possible to use Ich-X and it wouldn't hurt anything. I was wondering what others thought. I tried to catch them and give them a fresh water bath but that was pretty much impossible. My tank is 125 gallons and trying to catch a 3" fish isn't easy. Does anyone else know how to remedy this problem.

In trouble

[ScruffyRubicon]

Welcome to TRT!

I know it is difficult to catch them, I have a 125 too, but it really is best to try and treat outside the tank. Here is a thread I started with the treatment I used and it work very well.

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6...t=hyposalinity

[chrischris]

ya hyposalinity worked for me its the best treatment i find

[kwdelre]

sorry to here that. IME if you look at a tang the wrong way they get ick!

[depitch]

Be careful with "ick remedies" in reef.

Most will drop pH, stress corals if not kill them.

If you can't catch them drop salinity slowly, feed garlic or add garlic drops to food and pray for the best outcome.

Doug

[PAYNR]

Thanks for your suggestions to solve my problem. I'm going to try a couple of things and I will let you know how things turn out. The hyposalinity suggestion is out at the moment as I can't afford to buy a digital salinity meter at the moment.(they are quite dear up here in Canada) I'm told by some experienced aquarists that if I can get the fish healthy and then feed them garlic it seems to keep the ich away. I'm going to catch the fish and put them in a hospital tank and treat them for ich at the same time give them doses of garlic with their food. Once their healthy I will put them back into the main tank and see how it goes.

[tellycoleman]

yes you really ned to catch them.
A powder blue tang is very ich sensitive
I like the lights off lights on method for catching tangs and its easy .
when your lights go off in the evening turn off all the lights in the room the tanks in.
Get everything ready with the lights off. At about midnight when all the fishy are sleep, bet a flashlight. (best if you use a red flashlight filter but i have used a regular flashlight) and filnd the fish you want to catch. If he likes to sleep under a rock then have a turkey baster ready as well. when you find him . cut on all your fish tank lights at once. he will be blind for about 20-30 sec while his eyes adjust to the light.
easy catch

[tellycoleman]

Oh yeah DO NOT FW DIP A POWDER BLUE TANG. I think its to much stress and made my problem worse

[Kevin1000]

Ich is easy to kill ... but very difficult and often impossible to do safely in a reef tank environment.

The two common and effective methods of killing ich are copper and hypo salinity .. both are considered lethal to inverts are not recommended for show tanks.

If you want an "ich free" show tank then I suggest you setup a QT tank .. gather every fish (whether they show signs of ich or not) and treat them for ich. This will kill the ich on the fish .. but won't kill the ich within the show tank. Ich need a fish to perpetuate their life cycle and if you leave your show tank without fish for about 5 weeks any ich within the show tank will naturally die off.

In the future .. I suggest you QT all fish before you introduce them to your show tank .. saves a lot of headaches.

[Harry_Y]

Here is the remidy that I found that works well for me.

1. Feed the fish well

2. Take out any food that is still in the tank at night
(no food over night they need to rest)

3. Repeat until ick is gone.

Easy and works.

New fish can get stressed untill they settle in,
having the tank fed well helps to reduce the social stress.

[rantsandraves]

We were able to beat ick in our 155 in about 3 weeks. Daily feedings with garlic soaked food, Melafix for secondary infection, and use a UV sterilizer. Our ick started when we introduced a powder brown into our tank and it was very aggressive. Our blue tang looked really bad as blue tangs often do. They get over it. One of our lfs has a large blue with ick and it got over it without treatment. The big thing is to make sure they continue to eat a healthy diet and water params are good.

[yellow submarine]

IMO:

after being in this hobby for 5 years now, I believe that Tangs should not be put in a reef system (unless you're extremely diligent and ultra-skilled at this hobby).

The longer I own a reef tank the more I believe reef tanks should only house a maximum of 4 small fish -and- nothing larger than the size of your thumb. The more populated your reef becomes with coral the more you have to cut back on the number and SIZE of fish.

I have completely retired from owning Tangs in my coral-packed reef tank after killing off about a half dozen over the course of 3 years...and still to this day feel completely aweful for doing so.

Its not fair to a Tang to put them a tank system that cant be treated with medicine. Tangs are extremely sensitive....and big eaters/grazers and easily polute a tank with their big appetites. If a poluted tank is ignored for as little as just one week, a Tang quickly becomes stressed then ill and before you know it you wake up one day with whitespots all over your Tang....and a week later, its laying flat on the sandbed, dead.

I'm sure there are a ton of people on this board who successful keep Tangs in a reef.... but I'm here to tell ya'.... they're consistantly working their tails off to maintain an unpoluted tank....and put PRISTINE water quality at the TOP of their list.

So in my book, if you want a Tang in a reef, you need to be a very DILIGENT hobbyist by 1) stepping-up water-changes to once a week, 2) monitor your water quality daily and be prepared to do a water change at any given moment, 3) be a mastered-pro at feeding, by providing garlic-soaked food and in small amounts...just enough to keep them happy but not so much that your water quality go bad...its a delicate balance must be maintained 24/7 365 days a year....its all just too much work and too hard for 90% of hobbyists.

If you aren't ready for such a diligent commitment, leave the beautiful Tangs at the LFS where they treat their tanks with medicine constantly and use a much lower salinity to keep them healthy and ready for sale.