Blue Tang Ick Treatment

Letterkenny · Oct 31, 2020

It’s looking like my blue tang has ick as I’ve noticed a couple white spots appear. None of the other tank mates seem to have it but it is quite disappointing to see since I have QT’d everything in the DT for 6 weeks of 2.25 CP, metro, GC, and GC food so I thought I wouldn’t have had any ick in there. Must have come through a frag or CUC. Currently, it’s pretty mild. Should I immediately pull it and put in QT with CP? Given that I can’t remove all my fish, it’s still going to exist in the DT so curious if taking an ick management approach would be better? I started soaking my food in selcon again and can get some garlic mysis shrimp. Thoughts on direct treatment vs management?

xxkenny90xx · Oct 31, 2020

I do ick management and the only fish that's ever had an issue is my powder blue tang. Here he is now! Seems happy enough

Jay Hemdal · Oct 31, 2020

First thing to determine is if you are 100% certain it is ich. I'd ask for a picture, but the spots probably won't show up well enough for me to say for sure. Map out where the spots are and see if they change location or increase/decrease in number over 24 to 36 hours. If they are variable, it is probably ich. If they remain unchanged, it may not be ich.

While you can certainly try to manage ich, you should be prepared to pull severely ill fish back to your QT if-needed. If you size it correctly (for wattage and flow) a good UV sterilizer wouldn't hurt (but don't expect it to cure things!). Selcon has no empirical evidence for controlling ich, and garlic, although highly touted has mainly been studied in vitro. One thing that has helped is to vacuum the aquarium substrate daily to try and remove tomonts. I believe that is most effective in the later afternoon.

How long did you run copper power? I'm very suspicious of CUC or frags serving as vectors for ich.

Jay

Letterkenny · Oct 31, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
First thing to determine is if you are 100% certain it is ich. I'd ask for a picture, but the spots probably won't show up well enough for me to say for sure. Map out where the spots are and see if they change location or increase/decrease in number over 24 to 36 hours. If they are variable, it is probably ich. If they remain unchanged, it may not be ich.

While you can certainly try to manage ich, you should be prepared to pull severely ill fish back to your QT if-needed. If you size it correctly (for wattage and flow) a good UV sterilizer wouldn't hurt (but don't expect it to cure things!). Selcon has no empirical evidence for controlling ich, and garlic, although highly touted has mainly been studied in vitro. One thing that has helped is to vacuum the aquarium substrate daily to try and remove tomonts. I believe that is most effective in the later afternoon.

How long did you run copper power? I'm very suspicious of CUC or frags serving as vectors for ich.

Jay

I followed Hublefish’s QT guide. I did a little over 30 days of copper power at 2.25 (checked almost daily with Hanna copper checker) plus full metro and general cure including food with general cure. Followed this with 2 week observation. I do this for all my fish in my main DT. Tank mates include a purple tang, Midas Blenny, and clown pair. They have all been in there since July and haven’t seen any issues until now. I dip all corals but my CUC I just float, catch, and drop in. No parameter issues and all my Euphyllia and SPS are fine so don’t think there is a parameter issue. Still a strong appetite. Is there anything else it could be? Doesn’t look like HLLE.

face · Oct 31, 2020

xxkenny90xx said:
I do ick management and the only fish that's ever had an issue is my powder blue tang. Here he is now! Seems happy enough

Ive had fish for decades with just ick management. Its one pathogen that really only comes if there is something wrong with your tank or too many fish.

Letterkenny · Oct 31, 2020

face said:
Ive had fish for decades with just ick management. Its one pathogen that really only comes if there is something wrong with your tank or too many fish.

Like I said, not sure what is wrong and I don’t believe it is overcrowded. It is a new development after a couple months being in there and I was trying to practice ick eradication. Not really sure what happened to get it in there after all the QT I did.

For those doing management, if you noticed a fish with early stage ick, would you take it out and treat it or would you keep it in there with good nutrition?

xxkenny90xx · Oct 31, 2020

Letterkenny said:
Like I said, not sure what is wrong and I don’t believe it is overcrowded. It is a new development after a couple months being in there and I was trying to practice ick eradication. Not really sure what happened to get it in there after all the QT I did.

For those doing management, if you noticed a fish with early stage ick, would you take it out and treat it or would you keep it in there with good nutrition?

Pulling the fish out is so stressful. I just leave them be if they get spots. It's happened a few times over the years to the powder blue and always gone away quickly

face · Oct 31, 2020

Letterkenny said:
Like I said, not sure what is wrong and I don’t believe it is overcrowded. It is a new development after a couple months being in there and I was trying to practice ick eradication. Not really sure what happened to get it in there after all the QT I did.

For those doing management, if you noticed a fish with early stage ick, would you take it out and treat it or would you keep it in there with good nutrition?

Feed a ton And varied diet, No lie soaking in garlic helps, It probably does boost immune system a bit. I’d just try that first.

face · Oct 31, 2020

Also some other things. Absolutely ZERO ammonia in the tank. Maybe try some carbon just to polish It. Second, Ive found boosting O2 with Chemiclean will help them beat it as well. High O2 saturation helps fish fish all diseases.

Letterkenny · Oct 31, 2020

face said:
Also some other things. Absolutely ZERO ammonia in the tank. Maybe try some carbon just to polish It. Second, Ive found boosting O2 with Chemiclean will help them beat it as well. High O2 saturation helps fish fish all diseases.

I’ll feed heavy. I’m not worried about parameters. All my Acros are fine and typically have low nitrates and phosphates. I’m not sure the cause outside the larger purple tang being aggressive. If it gets worse I’ll likely pull it for copper power treatment. For selcon, do I need to use focus to bind it to the food?

Jon Fishman · Oct 31, 2020

May as well keep feeding well in the tank, and add UV if you don’t have it...... Taking the fish out to treat, and put back will only give it to him again, since the tank now has ich.

I run UV and feed well..... I don’t quarantine and see no illness in my fish, but I’m sure ich is in there

Letterkenny · Oct 31, 2020

See attached for photos. Sorry for the blue, couldn’t find my gel filters. I’m just partially annoyed that I did so much QT and it still got in there with no real trigger as to getting it.

Jon Fishman · Oct 31, 2020

Tangs especially are just tough with it.

You can run a clean tank for years, (this is my theory) where you quarantine etc. and a tang can get stressed from something.... even a multi-year tank-mate showing aggression etc, and next thing you know, you have ich

Again, I don’t quarantine, but for those adding a lot of fish, I would at least be very cautious of my source if adding to a well established reef...... ich is no big deal in my opinion, but velvet will get ya....

Jay Hemdal · Oct 31, 2020

Letterkenny said:
See attached for photos. Sorry for the blue, couldn’t find my gel filters. I’m just partially annoyed that I did so much QT and it still got in there with no real trigger as to getting it.

So - those 3 spots on the black stripe look large and have diffuse halos around them, may be an artifact of the blue light, or it may not be ich.
Jay

Letterkenny · Oct 31, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
So - those 3 spots on the black stripe look large and have diffuse halos around them, may be an artifact of the blue light, or it may not be ich.
Jay

No I believe what you said I’d accurate. If not ick, what do you think?

Jay Hemdal · Nov 1, 2020

Just watch to ensure those spots don't come and go. Ich will look more like grains of salt on the fins and body. Also observe the fish's breathing rate and watch for any rapid breathing or gasping.

If these spots are not ich, they may just be bumps/knocks, with the fish reacting by producing extra mucus. They could also be Lymphocystis, a simple viral disease (but that really isn't the normal location on the fish for that). Flukes are another possibility, but they generally cannot be seen, and the GC would have helped with that...

Jay