advice required Tang & possible Ich & ways to stop it

[nightmarepl]

so long story short i dont have a QT tank, petco had an amazing deal on a wild caught yellow tang not those AC tangs with faded colors, the problem is the tang was in a tank with 2 other tangs that had signs of ich " white specs on them " the tang i purchased had no signs but most likely has ich was told all tangs have ich... i dont really have space for QT tank to cure this fish with copper...
The tang is in my Main DT that has corals and fish in currently... so most likely all the other fish will have ich now

so i called my local fish store they have some expert in the store that claims using a product called Kick Ich that itll if i follow the directions properly itll kill off the ich and not harm the corals or invertebrates anyone have any advice or info how to deal with this or if the tang will even get ich?

 

[REEFIN RIOS]

Raise your temp up to 83 degrees for the next week, feed mysis with garlic. The temp will speed the process of ich and hop off the host. I’ve used that herbal crap it diddnt work for me and my dad.

And never buy from petco unless you got a qt set up. the only reason if I buy from petco is cuz I’ll be rescuing fish and re habing them and giving them a better life.

Hope that helps

 

[Hal3134]

With respect to Reefin Rios, I wouldn't do that. Raising the temp is only going to accelerate the life-cycle of the parasite. It won't cure anything. Yes, it will speed up the time for the parasites to leave the fish, but it will also speed up the re-infection time, so in the end you haven't really solved the problem.

There are only three scientifically proven ways to kill ich: copper, hyposalinity, and the tank transfer method. Everything else is anecdotal, which isn't to say that they don't work, but personally I wouldn't trust them.

If you truly don't have room for a QT then you are in a bit of a pickle. If Kick-ich is reef-safe then I suppose you don't have much to lose by trying it.

And no, not all tangs will necessarily have ich. But there's a good chance if one does they all do.

If you can find a way to make space for a QT it would be a VERY good idea. As you stock up your tank with (hopefully) healthy fish, you really don't want to add a new disease or parasite and put all your existing fish at risk. A simple 10g can do the job.

 

[nightmarepl]

With respect to Reefin Rios, I wouldn't do that. Raising the temp is only going to accelerate the life-cycle of the parasite. It won't cure anything. Yes, it will speed up the time for the parasites to leave the fish, but it will also speed up the re-infection time, so in the end you haven't really solved the problem.

There are only three scientifically proven ways to kill ich: copper, hyposalinity, and the tank transfer method. Everything else is anecdotal, which isn't to say that they don't work, but personally I wouldn't trust them.

If you truly don't have room for a QT then you are in a bit of a pickle. If Kick-ich is reef-safe then I suppose you don't have much to lose by trying it.

And no, not all tangs will necessarily have ich. But there's a good chance if one does they all do.

If you can find a way to make space for a QT it would be a VERY good idea. As you stock up your tank with (hopefully) healthy fish, you really don't want to add a new disease or parasite and put all your existing fish at risk. A simple 10g can do the job.

Will this 1-2 inch yellow tang survive in a 10g tank for 60 days tho?

 

[Hal3134]

While it is not ideal, it's also not a death sentence. It's your call, but I'd rather try the 10g than let the ich have its way with it. If you can use a 20L that would be much better, but a 1-2 inch tang should be ok in a 10g.

If you can put in a small powerhead to provide an area of higher flow that will help too. Just make sure there are also areas of lower flow where it can rest.

 

[ca1ore]

If the new tang had ich, your display now has ich. Before doing anything, I would wait to see if symptoms present. Usually thy do, but not always. Many of us have managed tanks with latent ich. If symptoms do present, and they get progressively worse than you will have to do something. There is no reef safe ich medication, so doing something means removing and treating all your fish.

 

[nightmarepl]

If the new tang had ich, your display now has ich. Before doing anything, I would wait to see if symptoms present. Usually thy do, but not always. Many of us have managed tanks with latent ich. If symptoms do present, and they get progressively worse than you will have to do something. There is no reef safe ich medication, so doing something means removing and treating all your fish.

well ive only noticed about 3 spots atm hopefully they go away or get eaten by the cleaner haha ill be feeding nori non stop and mysis hopefully that does the trick if iget my hands on a QT tank maybe ill attempt to move all my fish over and try the copper cure

 

[ca1ore]

Cleaners do not eat ich and diet does not directly affect it either. If your fish are healthy and have thick slime coats they may fight it off …. or they may not. Diet clearly is part of what keeps a fish healthy.

 

[nereefpat]

Increasing temp is for freshwater ich, and it will just stress the fish more while lowering the dissolved oxygen in the tank. Kick ich won't work either. If there was a reef-safe cure, no-one would have to deal with ich.

I like the wait and see approach for now, for you situation. Maybe it's lympho, or maybe it's nothing.

The bummer now is if you have ich in the display, it will have to go fishless for several weeks to get it out. If you are just concerned about ich in the future, you don't need a qt set up. TTM can be done with buckets or rubbermaids.

 

[REEFIN RIOS]

With respect to Reefin Rios, I wouldn't do that. Raising the temp is only going to accelerate the life-cycle of the parasite. It won't cure anything. Yes, it will speed up the time for the parasites to leave the fish, but it will also speed up the re-infection time, so in the end you haven't really solved the problem.

There are only three scientifically proven ways to kill ich: copper, hyposalinity, and the tank transfer method. Everything else is anecdotal, which isn't to say that they don't work, but personally I wouldn't trust them.

If you truly don't have room for a QT then you are in a bit of a pickle. If Kick-ich is reef-safe then I suppose you don't have much to lose by trying it.

And no, not all tangs will necessarily have ich. But there's a good chance if one does they all do.

If you can find a way to make space for a QT it would be a VERY good idea. As you stock up your tank with (hopefully) healthy fish, you really don't want to add a new disease or parasite and put all your existing fish at risk. A simple 10g can do the job.

Yea I know the whole point is for that the fish to fight it off on its own. While you raise the temp feed the fish help it get its strength back and it will be able to fight it on its own. How do you think it doesn’t it in the wild( that’s a different debate for a different day) but in the cases where you can’t have a qt or a hospital tank, my method works I do it, my dad does it. And it’s work plenty of time my old hippo tang and other tangs. If your tank has full of healthy fish the ich will die off on its own, just don’t add anymore fish for 3 months or so.

 

[ca1ore]

Increasing temp will just stress the fish more while lowering the dissolved oxygen in the tank.

Exactly! Not recommended. It is also not true that ich will die off in a tank with asymptomatic fish. My system is going on 5 years and the ich will reappear if a 'canary' is added.

 

[REEFIN RIOS]

Exactly! Not recommended. It is also not true that ich will die off in a tank with asymptomatic fish. My system is going on 5 years and the ich will reappear if a 'canary' is added.

Ahahaha he said freshwater ich, and well it’s free and has been working for me for a long time.

 

[Instigate]

Yea I know the whole point is for that the fish to fight it off on its own. While you raise the temp feed the fish help it get its strength back and it will be able to fight it on its own. How do you think it doesn’t it in the wild( that’s a different debate for a different day) but in the cases where you can’t have a qt or a hospital tank, my method works I do it, my dad does it. And it’s work plenty of time my old hippo tang and other tangs. If your tank has full of healthy fish the ich will die off on its own, just don’t add anymore fish for 3 months or so.

Cryptocaryon will not just die off on its own. You have to either interrupt the life cycle by removing fish and treating them or manage it being there like @ca1ore and many others do. IMO your fish would have likely recovered whether you changed the temp and fed garlic or not.

 

[ca1ore]

Ahahaha he said freshwater ich, and well it’s free and has been working for me for a long time.

Maybe you don’t know this, but there’s an inverse relationship between temperature and DO whether the water is fresh or salt LOL.

 

[nightmarepl]

So this may sound weird but today i came home for lunch look at the tang she had 5 spots of so i came back from work and there was none on her eating and swimming crazy noticed her rubbing again the back wall of the tank a few times maybe itchy?

 

[nereefpat]

So this may sound weird but today i came home for lunch look at the tang she had 5 spots of so i came back from work and there was none on her eating and swimming crazy noticed her rubbing again the back wall of the tank a few times maybe itchy?

The spots from ich are the fish's reaction to the feeding stage of the parasite. It is common for ich to look like it is coming and going, but that is just ich going through its life cycle. If it is ich, it will be back again in a few days.

 

[nightmarepl]

The spots from ich are the fish's reaction to the feeding stage of the parasite. It is common for ich to look like it is coming and going, but that is just ich going through its life cycle. If it is ich, it will be back again in a few days.

now is it possible with the right water / feeding / care levels for the fish to actually build such a good immune system that itll kill the paracite off on its own by not allowing to progress through the life cycle or thats an impossible task

 

[Dkeller_nc]

now is it possible with the right water / feeding / care levels for the fish to actually build such a good immune system that itll kill the paracite off on its own by not allowing to progress through the life cycle or thats an impossible task

The answer is "it depends". In my personal experience, introducing ich to a "naive" tank will doom all or most of the fish in the tank about 80% - 90% of the time unless they're all caught, removed and treated in separate tank. There are certainly enough credible reports to suggest that certain fish can build immunity to the parasite, and they don't exhibit visible signs of the infection thereafter. But as ca1ore notes, the infection will return with a vengence if there's a stressor event, such as a power outage, water quality declines, etc...

BTW - You've noted that you don't have room for a QT. For the vast majority of us, that's generally not exactly true - it's just inconvenient because it'll be in the middle of the floor. College students in small dorm rooms excepted, of course. Keep in mind as well that if you want to save your fish all of them must be removed to quarantine, and the reef left fishless for 72 days. A quarantine tank does not have to be an actual tank, btw - it can be large rubbermaid containers, brute trash cans, cattle feeding troughs, etc...

 

[nightmarepl]

The answer is "it depends". In my personal experience, introducing ich to a "naive" tank will doom all or most of the fish in the tank about 80% - 90% of the time unless they're all caught, removed and treated in separate tank. There are certainly enough credible reports to suggest that certain fish can build immunity to the parasite, and they don't exhibit visible signs of the infection thereafter. But as ca1ore notes, the infection will return with a vengence if there's a stressor event, such as a power outage, water quality declines, etc...

BTW - You've noted that you don't have room for a QT. For the vast majority of us, that's generally not exactly true - it's just inconvenient because it'll be in the middle of the floor. College students in small dorm rooms excepted, of course. Keep in mind as well that if you want to save your fish all of them must be removed to quarantine, and the reef left fishless for 72 days. A quarantine tank does not have to be an actual tank, btw - it can be large rubbermaid containers, brute trash cans, cattle feeding troughs, etc...

to setup this QT it requires to be fully cycled aswell correct? and does it require a light? ive also ready online the paracite cant survive past 2 weeks specially if its the temp is 78+ to speed the life cycle no?

 

[nereefpat]

now is it possible with the right water / feeding / care levels for the fish to actually build such a good immune system that itll kill the paracite off on its own by not allowing to progress through the life cycle or thats an impossible task

Some folks get by "managing" ich in the display. Everyone has different qt methods. It's a long conversation. There's a Paul B thread that could keep you busy for a few days. Here it is: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-other-way-to-run-a-reef-tank-no-quarantine.534274/