Blue tang from Petco with ich and Herbtana product killed invertebrates

[ZKAqua23]

Hi all,
I got a blue tang from Petco before I did research on their "fish problem", it ended up with ich. Since I have shrimp and snails, I was recommended Herbtana for an alternative to copper. Two doses in (following all instructions) and my shrimp and snails are dead. I am extremely frustrated because I have read that for some people this product randomly doesn't work or has adverse effects for 5% or so of users. I have one clown and the tang left, should I do a large water change to get this Herbvana garbage out or will they be alright? I have switched to looking at copper related treatments but I don't want to medicate the tank to the point it destroys it. Any help would be great, thanks.

ZK

 

[MaxTremors]

Hi all,
I got a blue tang from Petco before I did research on their "fish problem", it ended up with ich. Since I have shrimp and snails, I was recommended Herbtana for an alternative to copper. Two doses in (following all instructions) and my shrimp and snails are dead. I am extremely frustrated because I have read that for some people this product randomly doesn't work or has adverse effects for 5% or so of users. I have one clown and the tang left, should I do a large water change to get this Herbvana garbage out or will they be alright? I have switched to looking at copper related treatments but I don't want to medicate the tank to the point it destroys it. Any help would be great, thanks.

ZK

Don’t put copper in your display tank, it will make it so you will never be able to keep invertebrates in it (or at the very least make it very difficult). Do you have a hospital tank or can you set one up? I would definitely do a water change on your DT. In the future, do research (ask here) before putting any additive or medication (anything really) into your tank.

 

[ZKAqua23]

Don’t put copper in your display tank, it will make it so you will never be able to keep invertebrates in it (or at the very least make it very difficult). Do you have a hospital tank or can you set one up? I would definitely do a water change on your DT. In the future, do research (ask here) before putting any additive or medication (anything really) into your tank.were doing water c

Don’t put copper in your display tank, it will make it so you will never be able to keep invertebrates in it (or at the very least make it very difficult). Do you have a hospital tank or can you set one up? I would definitely do a water change on your DT. In the future, do research (ask here) before putting any additive or medication (anything really) into your tank.

No we're not willing to do copper treatment unless it's an absolute last resort in a QT. All the information I get from message boards and other places around the internet all seem to have conflicting answers. This was straight up recommended to us as all organic and reef safe. We're doing hyposalinty and bumpong the temperature up

 

[blaxsun]

Polyp Lab Medic is reef-safe, and not copper-based. I’ve used it a few times in my DT and it works to treat ich and velvet.

 

[Stv]

I had the same problem early on with my tank as well. How big is your tank? These tangs get ick in the blink of an eye if they’re stressed. I was able to QT the tang and feed the rest of my DT an elevated healthy diet and the QT tank had no other issues at all. Is there any reason your tang would be stressed as it might be the root of the issue and for me, it wasn’t too hard to solve.

 

[Tamberav]

Just FYI, ich is not a Petco problem. You can get it from almost any supplier/store unless they do a full quarantine on fish (not just run low dose copper in their holding tanks, that’s not true QT).

These fish are from the wild where there are parasites and they are shipped and stressed and mixed with tons of other fish at a wholesaler and exposed to disease before again shipped to a pet store. Then you add in stress, new tank, poor diet and so on and you have a recipe for outbreak.

Petco is not allowed to run low dose copper like many LFS. The low dose copper hides disease. So if anything the fish at Petco are just showing what is already there. The LFS fish, it is hidden until later after you add it to your tank and it gets sick weeks later.

 

[Stv]

How big is the tank? Pet co won’t ask you this but it’s probs the best question for seeing if a tang is right for your tank. The question really is what caused the ick and what you can do about it. So let’s start with tank size. If it’s not 100+ gallons, stress probably caused the ick and hopefully it stays isolated to him and doesn’t affect your clown. These things need room to swim and if they don’t get it, they stress and ick pops up right away. I have first hand experience with exactly what you’re going through. Happy to share how I solved it if you’re interested.

 

[ZKAqua23]

How big is the tank? Pet co won’t ask you this but it’s probs the best question for seeing if a tang is right for your tank. The question really is what caused the ick and what you can do about it. So let’s start with tank size. If it’s not 100+ gallons, stress probably caused the ick and hopefully it stays isolated to him and doesn’t affect your clown. These things need room to swim and if they don’t get it, they stress and ick pops up right away. I have first hand experience with exactly what you’re going through. Happy to share how I solved it if you’re interested.

Okay so you're saying I would need a 100+ gallon tank for one tang? None of the other stores I've been to have had that, along with like 7 other fish in the tank with them. My problem is I've used this Herbtana product that nuked my invertebrates and now I'm worried about whether its seemed into my live rock and toxified the tank

 

[ZKAqua23]

Just FYI, ich is not a Petco problem. You can get it from almost any supplier/store unless they do a full quarantine on fish (not just run low dose copper in their holding tanks, that’s not true QT).

These fish are from the wild where there are parasites and they are shipped and stressed and mixed with tons of other fish at a wholesaler and exposed to disease before again shipped to a pet store. Then you add in stress, new tank, poor diet and so on and you have a recipe for outbreak.

Petco is not allowed to run low dose copper like many LFS. The low dose copper hides disease. So if anything the fish at Petco are just showing what is already there. The LFS fish, it is hidden until later after you add it to your tank and it gets sick weeks later.

I've seen lots of articles to the contrary, just like every other question we've had with this hobby so far. What you're describing is what it in fact looks like after we got her from Petco which had her in maybe a 50 gallon tank with 11 other fish in there. We've been very attentive to her dietary needs as well as the clown and shrimps, we completed water changes and checked levels and temps but we still got this problem and this Herbtana product seems to have stacked another one on us. Especially since calling the local aquarium and they told me "that's weird".

 

[jt8791]

Those fish are in the store temporarily and they typically try to sell them fast as possible. Even 100+ is a low number for them, blue tangs are supposed to be in a 180 gallon tank, in other words a 6’ wide tank. What size tank did you put it in? Considering they are available captive bred I don’t see why anyone would buy a wild one, wild blue tangs should be left in the ocean.

Edit: Haven’t seen captive bred blue tangs in stock in a while from Biota but still worth the wait. Yeah I’ve had bad luck with the herbtana as well, I threw it in the trash and let nature take its course. Right environment and good diet and things should work out but if a big fish is cramped in a small tank no treatment will help.

 

[Tired]

Pet stores aren't an example of how to permanently house fish. They have juveniles in short-term, temporary enclosures, and often those enclosures aren't good even for the short amount of time the fish are in. Tangs are large, active fish (she's going to get a foot or so long), and need a huge amount of space to even begin to have a decent quality of life. They're very prone to ich in aquariums, which may be partly due to the stress of being in too small of a tank. A 6-foot-long tank is the bare minimum at which a blue tang /might/ have an acceptable quality of life.

 

[Stv]

I think what we are all trying to say is regardless of what you do, the tang is going to stay stressed and disease prone always if it’s in a smaller tank which will cause you to chase this forever if he doesn’t find a new home soon. Chances are if you get him out, your clown will be fine and you can treat the other issues with water changes and not keep having multiples that you won’t be able to solve. I know it’s hard to hear but it’s the same thing I went through early on and was the only way to save the rest of the reef from getting the ick.

 

[Brymac1]

The best method for curing ich is to place the fish in a separate QT system and treat with either copper or hyposalinity.

 

[Stv]

I think what we are all trying to say is regardless of what you do, the tang is going to stay stressed and disease prone always if it’s in a smaller tank which will cause you to chase this forever if he doesn’t find a new home soon. Chances are if you get him out, your clown will be fine and you can treat the other issues with water changes and not keep having multiples that you won’t be able to solve. I know it’s hard to hear but it’s the same thing I went through early on and was the only way to save the rest of the reef from getting the ick.

This issue alone started me really doing a lot of research on what I added to my tank before I bought anything. LFS tanks get restocked and sold out within a week or so normally so never look at their set up and think it’s going to work in yours. Do in depth research on everything before you add it.

 

[ZKAqua23]

Pet stores aren't an example of how to permanently house fish. They have juveniles in short-term, temporary enclosures, and often those enclosures aren't good even for the short amount of time the fish are in. Tangs are large, active fish (she's going to get a foot or so long), and need a huge amount of space to even begin to have a decent quality of life. They're very prone to ich in aquariums, which may be partly due to the stress of being in too small of a tank. A 6-foot-long tank is the bare minimum at which a blue tang /might/ have an acceptable quality of life.

The tang we got was in the Tank with all the other fish for probably a good month and a half to two months as we had seen her there when we first got started. We have a 30 gallon with one clown in it, which I did google "best 30 gallon saltwater fish" and tangs are on the list so we thought it was fine. The petco rep also asked about the size and said it wouldn't be a problem? Im noticing it's hard to nail down concrete answers as every source seems to have conflicting information. Same deal with this Herbtana stuff

 

[Stv]

I’d suggest getting the tang out immediately into a cheap QT tank. Seperate your two problems and deal with them independently. You’ll be fine pretty quickly.

 

[ZKAqua23]

The tang we got was in the Tank with all the other fish for probably a good month and a half to two months as we had seen her there when we first got started. We have a 30 gallon with one clown in it, which I did google "best 30 gallon saltwater fish" and tangs are on the list so we thought it was fine. The petco rep also asked about the size and said it wouldn't be a problem? Im noticing it's hard to nail down concrete answers as every source seems to have conflicting information. I was really just going for only these 2 fish in the tank, and the clown had zero problems so I didn't think having her in there would be either. This Herbtana stuff is still concerning however, and every review is either 5 star and swears by it or is 1 star and says it does damage?

 

[Stv]

The tang we got was in the Tank with all the other fish for probably a good month and a half to two months as we had seen her there when we first got started. We have a 30 gallon with one clown in it, which I did google "best 30 gallon saltwater fish" and tangs are on the list so we thought it was fine. The petco rep also asked about the size and said it wouldn't be a problem? Im noticing it's hard to nail down concrete answers as every source seems to have conflicting information. Same deal with this Herbtana stuff

Mine was a 30 gallon too. Mine was in for the same amount of time as yours too before the same thing happened. This is exactly what I went thru. The advise here from the pros saved my tank and yes it cost me a tang but I saved the rest of my tank and learned so much from it. A tang will not make it in your tank and will decease the rest of it if you don’t get it out quickly. All your problems will go away once you do.

 

[Brymac1]

The tang we got was in the Tank with all the other fish for probably a good month and a half to two months as we had seen her there when we first got started. We have a 30 gallon with one clown in it, which I did google "best 30 gallon saltwater fish" and tangs are on the list so we thought it was fine. The petco rep also asked about the size and said it wouldn't be a problem? Im noticing it's hard to nail down concrete answers as every source seems to have conflicting information. Same deal with this Herbtana stuff

You will find a lot of conflicting and confusing information and advice online. It’s best to stick to what is almost universally agreed upon. Any tang will need a tank larger than a 30 gallon long term. And most “herbal” or “natural” ich remedies are not effective.

 

[Stv]

Nemi will work but Dori won’t work unless she has room to “just keep swimming, just keep swimming”.