Purple Tang turned white

[sde1500]

To be honest I would have said the same thing if you were right. I don't know why people are so caustic on the internet and I was feeling feisty.

Agreed, everyone makes mistakes, there was no need to have gone to that level of hostility, misreading or otherwise.

@sfin52 ,@ross0201
I need to take my spanking for misread @Purple•Tang first post.
My misread and resulting misunderstand cause me to think that Purple•Tang treatment regiment is highly toxic and not helpful. I suggest that he need to do better research on fish treatment or else not trying to keep fish.
I did apologize to him.

Sorry again to Purple•Tang, and any other reefers who were offended by my comments.

Glass houses, he who is without sin, etc. I'm sure we've all made a mistake that unfortunately resulted in the death of a fish. And as someone else said, if you say you haven't, you're lying. You chose to berate someone asking for help. Literally doing that research you quite rudely suggested they do. Not a good look.

OP, I find Seachem to be a very reputable company. However, I highly doubt ParaGuard treats Ich effectively, and completely. As noted, neither does a freshwater dip really. Is the tang still alive? Did you aerate both the dip and ParaGuard bath? PH match the freshwater dip? I think the biggest takeaway is, ICH isn't an immediate death sentence, so it doesn't require knee jerk reactions to treat. With anything, it is best to formulate a well put together plan of treatment, then execute, rather than trying to react as things come. A separate QT would be most appropriate, and if it is ICH, a fallow tank will be needed.

 

[Purple•Tang]

The tang died around 2am last night, I’m definitely upset about it and was up all night. I did match the ph, I didn’t have any air stones to aerate the bath which is probably where I went wrong, I saw a few YouTube videos where people didn’t have one so I assumed I’d be fine. I woke up this morning to all my other fish also having white spots. I amazon primed a air stone last night and my QT tank is coming Wednesday, my plan is to hopefully move my anemone to that QT tank and treat my display tank with all my fish in it as I only have the one invertebrate. I have metroplex and focus on hand, I will feed in some of the focus as I’m also attempting not to kill my anemone. I will try and get some good pictures of my other fish that seem to have the new white spots.

 

[saltyhog]

I would not treat the DT with copper even if you intend it to be a FOWLR forever. You would not be able to house any inverts in the future. A better course would be to treat the fish outside the tank and maintain the DT fishless for 76 days. If you decide to treat the DT I would recommend using Chloroquine phosphate rather than copper (you may already know this just being safe).

 

[Purple•Tang]

I can’t get a good picture but this clown has one light white/clear spot right in the circled red area it also has one right above it’s left eye if you can see it. That’s where the Tang had one to begin with right in the same spot I circled and then when I went to check on it the full body was covered a few hours later. I’m going to wait it out because it may just be a piece of sand.

 

[Purple•Tang]

I would not treat the DT with copper even if you intend it to be a FOWLR forever. You would not be able to house any inverts in the future. A better course would be to treat the fish outside the tank and maintain the DT fishless for 76 days. If you decide to treat the DT I would recommend using Chloroquine phosphate rather than copper (you may already know this just being safe).

Should I move all the fish to the QT tank and not treat the DT? Is the anemone fine to be left in the DT? All I have left is
1 fire fish
1 starry eyed blenny
2 clowns
1 anemone

 

[lpsouth1978]

Should I move all the fish to the QT tank and not treat the DT? Is the anemone fine to be left in the DT? All I have left is
1 fire fish
1 starry eyed blenny
2 clowns
1 anemone

I would either move them to the QT and treat with one of the proven methods, or manage it in the system. To manage in the system means to provide the best water quality possible, limit stress, and feed high quality nutritious foods. A strong, healthy fish can manage ich and live a long happy life. The downside is that the ich will always be present, and if a stressor comes along the tank can be overrun.

As for everyone ripping on @OrionN, while his comment was a bit harsh, he is one of the most active and helpful people on this forum. He apologized for his comment and is always ready and willing to help.

 

[DHill6]

Ich is a infection where the the protozoa penetrate the skin and gill of the fish. White spots are not the pathogen, rather, these are the result the leaking of "fish stuff" through the wounds.
Internal infections like Ich do not response to fresh water dip. What your did just result in toxic affect to the fish but did nothing to the protozoa.
Fresh water dip only treat SURFACE PARASITES, exposed to fresh water cause damage to marine organism, cause cells to rupture. Marine organism live in about 35 ppt (part per thousand) solution. When they get place in fresh water, essentially 0-10 ppm (part per million in good RO water) their cell get ruptured killing them.
Large animals can withstand the toxic effect of fresh water longer than small/unicellular animals, but not 1 hr.
You caused great damages to you tang but did nothing to the protozoa since they are inside the fish, do not get exposed to fresh water.
Do better research on disease and treatment for your other fish please, or else stop keeping them.

Too harsh, you should read over it twice before making this kind of statement.

 

[saltyhog]

Should I move all the fish to the QT tank and not treat the DT? Is the anemone fine to be left in the DT? All I have left is
1 fire fish
1 starry eyed blenny
2 clowns
1 anemone

That would be the best thing IMO. Remember the life cycle for Ich though. There will still be tomonts (the part of the life cycle that encysts on hard substrate) that can take as long as 10 weeks to hatch and become infective theronts. If you treat your fish and put them back before they have all hatched and died they will get ich again even though they were ich free when you added them back.

 

[jsvand5]

Did you see any flukes in the FW dip? I bought a regal angel about a year ago. Seemed relatively healthy aside from twitching. I did a 3 minute FW dip and hundreds of flukes popped off. The fish died about 30mins later with similar symptoms as you describe. I believe the flukes just did so much damage to the gills the fish couldn’t survive them all dropping off at once.

 

[ca1ore]

Bummer that it died. Not personally a fan of FW dips. I think they often do more damage than good.

 

[Purple•Tang]

Did you see any flukes in the FW dip? I bought a regal angel about a year ago. Seemed relatively healthy aside from twitching. I did a 3 minute FW dip and hundreds of flukes popped off. The fish died about 30mins later with similar symptoms as you describe. I believe the flukes just did so much damage to the gills the fish couldn’t survive them all dropping off at once.

A few, maybe half fell off.

 

[OrionN]

It is pretty hard to get the tank Ich free. You can but you have to plan it well from the beginning. If you want to have a Ich free tank, you will have at the very least have a long fallow period and then all the fish have to be treat for Ich prior to add into the tank. Everything else that cannot be treat for Ich, also need to have a long period of fish free QT prior to adding into the tank.

Your tank looked brand new. I would not treat the DT with any medication. Many medication absorb into the rock and sand and continue to release back into the tank essentially for ever.

I would get the anemone out and treat your DT with hyposalinity. This will control the Ich and not add any medication that can bind to your sand and rock.

Either that or get a Hospital tank and treat all your fish in there with copper.

 

[sfin52]

It is pretty hard to get the tank Ich free. You can but you have to plan it well from the beginning. If you want to have a Ich free tank, you will have at the very least have a long fallow period and then all the fish have to be treat for Ich prior to add into the tank. Everything else that cannot be treat for Ich, also need to have a long period of fish free QT prior to adding into the tank.

Your tank looked brand new. I would not treat the DT with any medication. Many medication absorb into the rock and sand and continue to release back into the tank essentially for ever.

I would get the anemone out and treat your DT with hyposalinity. This will control the Ich and not add any medication that can bind to your sand and rock.

Either that or get a Hospital tank and treat all your fish in there with copper.

Fully agree.
Question. Would hyposalinty completely kill ich off or is that a long term management.
If above is the case than pull and treat all fish in a different tank is the better way to go.

 

[DarthSimon]

Sorry for your loss. We have all been through it.... This will be a great learning experience for you certainly....
Again sorry you lost the fish. We are always here to help...

 

[lpsouth1978]

Fully agree.
Question. Would hyposalinty completely kill ich off or is that a long term management.
If above is the case than pull and treat all fish in a different tank is the better way to go.

To my knowledge, Hypo is not a 100% guarantee, but is usually VERY effective (like 99%). There is a small chance that a strain may be able to survive below 1.009, though this is just a theory with little evidence to back it up. I can say that I had great success treating my DT with hypo. Hypo, when done properly, can rid your system of ich. IMO a quality ATO is an absolute must for hypo to be effective. Any increase in salinity above 1.009 and it can be wholly ineffective.

 

[saltyhog]

Fully agree.
Question. Would hyposalinty completely kill ich off or is that a long term management.
If above is the case than pull and treat all fish in a different tank is the better way to go.

I used to trust hyposalinity (difficult to do well without an ATO) but there have been some hyposalinity resistant strains identified.

 

[krbnsol]

setup a hospital tank for the remaining fish. treat with whatever meds / approach you are going to use in that hospital tank. keep an eye on the ammonia levels in this hospital tank and let the DT go fallow (and attempt the hypo method)

 

[sfin52]

I used to trust hyposalinity (difficult to do well without an ATO) but there have been some hyposalinity resistant strains identified.

Good thing for mollies

 

[Katrina71]

Big hug @Purple•Tang! These guys are seriously giving you the best advice on moving forward. One loss is not a total loss.

 

[Cutebarra77]

Does anyone have any luck with Polylab's medic against ich? It claims to be reef safe.
It's made of hydro peroxide though.