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Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
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My Tank Thread
So here's an update. Haven't yet done the freshwater dip due to just a lack of time. I have done a lot of reading about people having success with Ginger, so I figured before I stress the fish out even more by dipping it in freshwater I might as well take a stab at trying ginger. I took 4 cubes of frozen food, defrosted them , added 1/4 tsp of ginger, a little water to make it a liquid mixture and then refroze into cubes. I have now fed this ginger concoction to the fish for the last three days. After the first feeding I noticed all the white spots on the yellow tang are gone and have not returned. The Blue lost some of the white spots, but still has some. He is massively happier though. He is a nice bold blue color and he is swimming around the tank like a mad man. He is no longer scratches on things and he seems like a way happier fish. I think I am going to continue feeding ginger indefinitely because it seems to absolutely help mood and immune system of the fish. I am beginning to think that maybe this isn't Ich since it's been a full three weeks that these spots have been on the fish and they have not fell off. I know that after 3-5 days of the ich parasite being on a fish it is supposed to fall off and then multiply and find a new fish host, but at no point have I really seen anything fall off of the Blue tang until I started feeding ginger. If after this week the Ginger hasn't gotten rid of all the white spots then I will freshwater dip and continue with copper and ginger, but right now he seems much much better.
Just my .02... Ginger is more of a snake oil. It may MAY (I don't have the research on the topic to refute) aid them in coping with ich, but what is really going on is that your fish are building an immunity to the parasite. Which, I suppose is fine to some degree, but if you EVER plan on adding any fragile species in your tank, you will want to treat them in copper (I prefer cupramine @.5-.6 ppm) for 4-5 weeks, or utilize the TTM. Hypo doesn't work on several parasites and is difficult to administer properly for many. Even though I have kept both of these tangs you have in systems with ich for 10+ years, new additions can still succomb to ich, even if they are not fragile. Any fish can be affected. As soon as you put those fish in your display tank (without having completed copper or TTM method properly), your display tank will have ich. Your fish may never show signs, but ALL new additions will be also infected. Some may survive also, some may perish. My hippo tang got ich any time I did anything stressful, and it would go away after a few days to a week. I had her for 5 years before velvet killed her. I am now a proponent of PROPER quarantine procedures in which every fish undergoes TTM, cupramine, or potentially CP (although I have zero experience with it and am reading less than stellar reviews recently).
So understand that while these two may be tough and make it for now, there's really almost no point in utilizing a QT in the future because your display tank will have ich. Ginger does not cure ich, I am completely certain.
I might also add that if you ever plan to add any acantharus tang (Powder blue, powder brown, white cheek/goldrim, achilles, clown, sohal, atlantic blue tang, hybrid PBT, or really anything other than zebrasoma or hippo tangs) you will kill 95% of them in an ich-infested system as they struggle particularly hard with even mild strains of ich.
I have successfully kept achilles tangs in ich-infested systems for up to one year, but they always succomb when something goes out of wack and the parasite takes over. Same with powder blues. This is POOR husbandry. I did keep an Atlantic Blue Tang in a system with ich for a couple years as well, with the same result. Those instances above are HARDLY considered successes. These fish should live 10 years or more in your tank.
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