Hawkins Blue and Herbtana

Tomoko Schum · Feb 18, 2011

I am sad to report that I am about to lose my Hawkins Blue colony.

My Powder Blue Tang came down with Ich suddenly two weeks ago after being in my tank for a month. After hearing good things about Herbtana, I started treating my tank with it on Monday evening.

After the first dose on Monday, I was rather shocked at the strong smell of Herbtana coming out of my tank. I used the recommended dosage specified on the label. Zoas reacted to Herbtana and shrunk just like I was told, but they fully recovered by next morning.

I continued the treatment as prescribed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

When I added the usual dose this evening (Thursday) around 8PM, I noticed a small branch of Hawkins Blue was losing its tissue. I broke off that branch and kept an eye on the coral. It's 12:50AM now and my Hawkins Blue look really bad.

It's gone from this:

to this now (sorry about the poor picture quality - best I could do without overhead light):

All the new growth has turned white now. I just added a large portion of GAC and restarted my skimmer to protect the rest of the tank. I've heard that Hawkins Blue is quite sensitive to CoralRX and ReVive treatment although this one was okay when I treated it with ReVIve (could have been with Fluke Tab) before I put it into my tank. I am afraid that this colony will be lost, though. A Turaki colony, which looks identical to Hawkins Blue, seems to be doing okay at the moment.

I don't know if Herbtana is helping my Powder Blue Tang any, but I am pulling the plug on the treatment.

Tomoko Schum · Feb 18, 2011

Hawkins Blue is still hanging in there when I checked it this morning. I will report again after I get home from work this afternoon.

mike_dani · Feb 18, 2011

Tomoko, sorry to hear about the Hawkins. I have found that for ICH the best thing to do is add some METRO and raw garlic to some food and hope for the best. I have tried that Herbtana once and found the SPS dont care for it to the point of RTN. Good luck

beaslbob · Feb 18, 2011

Tomoko

sorry the hear and I hope both will recover.

spscrazy · Feb 18, 2011

that's so sad it is such a pretty piece hope it recovers

Tomoko Schum · Feb 18, 2011

Thank you. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

H@rry · Feb 18, 2011

My Hawkins will RTN if you look at it funny but if you frag all the branches they all survive.

Tomoko Schum · Feb 18, 2011

Harry - If any part of my Hawkins survives, I'd pull out my bone cutter for sure. I have an opposite problem, though. I don't seem to get frags to take - two out of three seem to fail. The part of the problem is I am such a chicken that I cannot frag a large enough piece off the mother colony.

My Hawkins Blue has been very healthy and grown really nicely until this incident. It measures over 4 inches in any direction. When I got it, it was a tiny stub with just three very skinny 1/2 inch sticks. It will be very sad to see it goes.

Mike - Thank you, but I am not brave enough to try Metronidazole at this point. Do you treat your fish food with "garlic and metro" for cryptocaryon? I might consider treating live brine shrimp with it in future.

mike_dani · Feb 18, 2011

Tomoko Schum said:
Mike - Thank you, but I am not brave enough to try Metronidazole at this point. Do you treat your fish food with "garlic and metro" for cryptocaryon? I might consider treating live brine shrimp with it in future.

Tomoko, I have used double the recommended dose into the 300 display more than once will no ill effects. I have been told numerous times that will will kill your bacteria, I have never had an problem with it.

Yes I used the Garlic and Metronidazole to treat common marine ICH (cryptocaryon) it does good for me and I will also up the number off feedings from 2 to 4 during an outbreak. I dont know if the garlic does anything for the fish but I know it works for me and I will continue. As you and NARC know I am stocked with mostly all large tangs so ICH is just a quarterly issue for me.......

Good luck and if you need some Metro let me know I buy it in bulk 500 500MG pills at a time.

Tomoko Schum · Feb 18, 2011

Thank you, Mike. I might take you up on it later.

Here's an update.

A picture taken this afternoon:

With flash:

You can see vaguely that Hawkins Blue is the only coral that shows damage (on the left hand side of my tank) at the moment:

RTN has increased in size, but the center of the coral is still holding up. I am hoping and praying that the coral will survive the ordeal.

Should I go ahead and replace GAC? I put in probably three or so cups of it last night.

joejoe1055 · Feb 18, 2011

i would go ahead and replace, it could not hurt

Tomoko Schum · Feb 18, 2011

Well, the remainder of the coral looked fine until I left for Reilly's birthday dinner. I fragged it before I left. When I came home, I could smell the dying coral in the air. Sure enough the coral looked really bad. I am afraid that fragging it caused more stress than it could handle

.

jason.tammy · Feb 19, 2011

The Hawkins are very touchy.I lost my colony with a slight temp spike.My Ice Fire is doing great and does not seem to be as touchy.As far as the the Metro and Garlic I agree with Mike.I keep a large 500 ct. bottle on hand at all times.I get mine from my vets office.The garlic is good for the fishes immune system rather sick or not.I always add garlic to the food.It helps keep us healthy and seems to do the same for fish.If you are like me if you eat enough garlic it helps keep people from getting to close to you.LOL.
Off topic we finally got another breding pair of Banggi's.The male is about 1.5 weeks in his pregnancy.LOL.I relly enjoy raising these guys.I have two more pairs but they have not started breedind yet.They usually sell before I get to pair them up.Good luck and i hope the powder blue pulls through for you and the Hawkins.
Jason

Alattner · Feb 19, 2011

man thats no good i am really sorry to hear that hopefully some how they will pull through

Tomoko Schum · Feb 19, 2011

My Hawkins Blue is gone now unfortunately. Powder Blue looks okay.

My Hawkins came from Art. It did so well in my tank without any incident until this time. I guess it liked my tank. The transfer from 120 to 180 did not affect it at all. I'd like to get another one. I would also like to try Ice Fire if it is less temperamental. I have a number of Blueberry acro frags, anybody care to trade? I can probably frag Pearlberry, too.

H@rry · Feb 19, 2011

I'll trade you one for a blueberry.

Tomoko Schum · Feb 19, 2011

Harry - I think you have Blueberry Acro since I got mine from the same source that Lori got hers from. I think you have the blue and green version of them. The green version looks just like my Steve Elias Loisettae.

H@rry · Feb 19, 2011

That's fine, one more won't hurt.

Tomoko Schum · Feb 19, 2011

Thanks, Harry. I will call you sometimes this weekend.

Tomoko Schum · Apr 1, 2011

Here's an update!

My tang has recovered nicely and I got a new Hawkins with CRA's help.

Here's the picture of my tang:

Here's the picture of my new Hawkins Blue:

I stopped dosing Herbtana as I mentioned earlier and kept feeding my tang with lots of nori and green food. I found out that he really likes Formula 2 pellets.

What really helped my tang was actually this one:

Yes, I know that I am not supposed to buy a delicate obligate eater fish like Ceaner Wrasse, but he eats frozen food well, too.

It was funny to see all my fish compete to present themselves to the wrasse as soon as I dropped my wrasse into the tank. Only my tang was affected by ick but all other fish asked him to clean them. Amazingly, the wrasse tries to clean my hand everytime I put my hand in the tank just like cleaner shrimp does.

Tomoko