Black spots on tang dropped off in one day?

[Aquadude]

Hello,

This is my first post here. I have been keeping a reef tank for more than 7 years now. Two months ago I moved and started a new tank with rock from the old one. I have added some "live sand" from my LFS which I think may hav introduced black ich.
I noticed two black specks on my yellow tang yesterday (they were not there the day before) and now the specks are gone. They looked like grains of black sand only smaller. I thought ich had a life cycle where it has to feed on the host for a period of 3 to 7 days. Could it be that my tang was able to shed them somehow? Could the parasites be dead? I am really paranoid about this because the tang is my favourite fish.

Thanks!

 

[Len]

Black ich is actually different then regular ich (C.irritans). It's caused by a small tubellarian worm. But the life cycle is roughly comparable to C.irritans.

Infected fish can be treated with formalin baths in a seperate treatment tank. Let the display tank sit fishless for a 6-8 weeks (IIRC) and this should prevent any worm reoccurance.

But I should caution that it might not be tubellarian worms at all. I would wait a while to see. It could simply be some other harmless particulate that got kicked up when you added the new sand which got stuck on the tang. Hopefully that's the case

 

[MattM]

Also, tubellarian worms are rarely, if ever, fatal. Doing nothing except making sure the fish is well fed and stress free is usually the safest course of action.

 

[Aquadude]

The good news is this tang is really healthy. He eats very well. I feed him three times a day a combination of "seaweed selects" dried brown macroalgae, OSI marine flake, and a frozen blend of herbivore food mixed with mysis shrimp and crab meat. He eats is all. Then he goes grazing on the rock. When I come to the tank he comes up to the glass thinking I'm going to feed him.
I'm hoping with the good nutrition he's getting and the fact my water parameters are good (RO/DI water and Sea-Chem supplements) that his immune system may have fought off the parasites (if that's what is was). I will keep an eye out for any more of them.

Thanks!