my tang has ich

[JKDMan]

my purple tang has ich ?

 

[TheJGMProject]

soak its food in garlic (like kent garlic xtreme) and do so until the ich is gone. This method has worked wonders for others

good luck

 

[Anonymous]

I think a more aggressive approach is indicated. Garlic alone is not a cure per se.
How long has the fish shown symptoms. Are you sure it's ich you're dealing with? Can you describe what it is you're seeing? Are there other fish in the tank? If so, they need to be treated as well. Is it a reef, FOWLR, or FO tank? Do you have a quarantine tank you can use?
Sorry for all the questions but there are proven cures for this parasite, and certain things need to be taken into account.

 

[mr_X]

you can also try purchasing a cleaner wrasse, and cleaner shrimp. sometimes they can help. unfortunately, if and when the ich is gone, you'll need to return the cleaner wrasse, because that is what they live on, and without it present, it will slowly starve to death.
unless this method works for you, you'll need to look into the quarantine tank and medication

 

[Anonymous]

Go UV. This works.

 

[shavo]

first thing what kind of tank is this? is it a reef or fish only? you can medicate a fish only tank with some copper. if it is a reef there is a safe ich medication that I have used in the past but it didn't exactly work too good. I like X's idea with the cleaner wrasse or cleaner shrimp. If you go with the shrimp it won't die off like the wrasse. although i had a cleaner wrasse that was eating blood worms. you should get a QT tank for the future.

 

[Kevin1000]

The problem with ich is that a single ich can generate 100's more .. that ability to rapidly reproduce in a confined tank is what makes ich deadly. While there are lots of products which claim to be effective at eliminating ich within a show tank .. thats marketing BS .. people have been looking for an effective cure for ich within the ST forever and no consistently effective product exists.

If you want to eliminate ich then you need to QT all fish (whether they show signs of ich or not) and treat with either hypo salinity (SG of 1.009)or copper. I think hypo salinity is easier on the fish and much easier to administer. If you leave your show tank without fish for approximately 5 weeks any ich within the show tank will die off .. ich need a fish to perpetuate there life cycle.

Heres a link which discusses marine ich ... worth a read especially the diagram outlining the ich life cycle. The treatment section will have separate links discussing how to perform hypo salinity and copper.

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevo ... neich.html

Hope this helps.

 

[Woods]

Feed him/her live macro. Its kept my Powder Blue Tang alive for the past 2 years :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

soak its food in garlic (like kent garlic xtreme) and do so until the ich is gone. This method has worked wonders for others

there has been no conclusive proof yet that garlic has anything to do with 'curing ich, or making it 'go away' (though i also think garlic has beneficial properties not specific to ich, that may help a fish deal with it better)

you can also try purchasing a cleaner wrasse, and cleaner shrimp. sometimes they can help. unfortunately, if and when the ich is gone, you'll need to return the cleaner wrasse, because that is what they live on, and without it present, it will slowly starve to death.

you know very little about cleaner wrasses - plenty live for years eating pellets and flakes, to say nothing of frozen foods-80% or better of all the cleaners i see arrive weekly are eating pellet foods within 48 hours after arrival -the issue is that if they are sated with good food, they will be less likely to 'hunt' for parasites for a food source-they are also no guarantee of eliminating, or even cleaning up the ich, if they DO eat parasites, and really should not be purchased to begin with

there are a number of methods to deal with ich/cryptocaryon-from hyposalinity, to copper, formalin, fw dip w/formalin or cypropro/prazipro, etc etc

once ich is in your tank-it will be in your tank for quite awhile, unless left fallow of fish for over 2 MONTHS (there are strains/species of ich that go longer than the 'typical cycle of 4 weeks)

fwiw-purple tangs are one of the only tangs i've seen that seem to be ich resistant, and very good at fighting it off, so you're starting with a good fighting chance

 

[mr_X]

you are the only one who says this. everyone else i asked about cleaner wrasses says different.
i guess it's kind of like mandarins...some can get them eating prepared foods, while others can't.

 

[Anonymous]

you are the only one who says this. everyone else i asked about cleaner wrasses says different.
i guess it's kind of like mandarins...some can get them eating prepared foods, while others can't.

how many of those you've asked see hundreds of different cleaners every week ?

 

[mr_X]

well, a few of them were lfs owners. i don't know how many they see each week. if this is true, then great news for me. i would like to purchase a cleaner wrasse the local store calls a "red sea" cleaner wrasse. the one with the blue stripes.

 

[Anonymous]

i would still advise against getting one-they ore one of the species that i believe we should do our utmost to eliminate the consumer demand for

if you are going to purchase one- make sure you see it eat at your lfs

 

[shavo]

hey vitz, hundreds of cleaner wrasses a week? show me a pic of hundreds that come in this week.

I think that they have a specific diet in the wild and some can adapt and some can not. I had one that tried to eat blood worms and did for a while. other than that i had a few that did there job and died off. my cleaner shrimp are great they do the same job and eat food.

beware you PA fish people look out for atlantis it is coming look out hidden reef and pets plus people who care are here.

 

[Anonymous]

hey vitz, hundreds of cleaner wrasses a week? show me a pic of hundreds that come in this week.

I think that they have a specific diet in the wild and some can adapt and some can not. I had one that tried to eat blood worms and did for a while. other than that i had a few that did there job and died off. my cleaner shrimp are great they do the same job and eat food.

beware you PA fish people look out for atlantis it is coming look out hidden reef and pets plus people who care are here.

dude, if you don't want to believe that i see hundreds of cleaner wrasses arrive weekly (on average) where I work, (a typical shipment can be upwards of 150-200) and that i help care for and feed them-i'm NOT going to try and twist your arm to believe me, I know where I work, and what I do for a living, and have no need or desire to prove it to you
:?

i think, that like most hobbyists-you don't know the scale of amounts of the animals that are imported into this country to the various importers/wholesalers on a weekly basis-they can be mind staggeringly boggling-i know that i was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of ONE importer's volume of fish amounts when i was a wholesale noob, to say nothing of what must by extrapolation be coming into this country as a whole



cleaner wrasses eat copepods, among other things, on their own as part of their natural behavior (personal observation)-i don't think they live exclusively on parasites-if your tank's conditions are proper and healthy, and the cleaner is in reasonably good health to start, getting it to eat should take you no more than 48 hours, IME.

blood worms aren't remotely found anywhere near cleaners in their environment, and they will not sustain sw fish indefinitely-in fact, they may actually do damage to sw fish-and yet you had a cleaner that ate them!! what does that in itself say about how difficult they should be to get eating?

when i was working at a retail store in new hampshire some moons ago, we had cleaners eating flake foods that were phat, happy and healthy, and completely ignored the other fish regardless of solicitation events, heh


over the course of talking to customers for well over a decade of combined years retail experience, and a year working large scale wholesale husbandry-this seems to be the pattern most experience-cleaners that switch over to prepared/offered foods stop cleaning

they do not take well/react poorly to shipping conditions, (most arrive emaciated/very stressed when they get here, and there are environmental reasons why i think they should be left alone to the ocean and not collected/sold-they serve a far more valuable purpose in the wild than they do in our tanks

but if you wish to buy one-by all means do so-just verify that you see it eating in the lfs's tank(s)

 

[Anonymous]

From all I've ever heard, read, and seen, Vitz is right on about the cleaner wrasses. They should be left in the ocean for quite a few reasons.

As to the JKDMan's problem. If you're unwilling/unable to QT and do an aggressive treatment, then the best you can do is improve your tank conditions. Improve water conditions=increase skimming, water changes, O3, carbon, Uv any or all of the above. If conditions are good and the tang was healthy to begin with, then she'll get over it.

How large is the tank, what's in it and how long have you had the tang?

 

[shavo]

relax vitz, it's cool, i believe you see hundreds of cleaner wrasses. but if you say it is easy for them to get eating foods why do you recomend not keeping them?

 

[Anonymous]

For one thing, it's been shown that when a cleaner wrasse is removed from a reef, many other species suffer.

 

[Anonymous]

relax vitz, it's cool, i believe you see hundreds of cleaner wrasses. but if you say it is easy for them to get eating foods why do you recomend not keeping them?

they serve a far more valuable purpose in the wild than they do in our tanks

and:

they are NOT effective as a cleaner in the typical 'forced re-infecting' environment a closed system represents

the main reason a cleaner IS effective in the wild is that it's actually very difficult for prasites to re-infect a fish once they start to reproduce-given the large distances they need to travel to re-infect their host, or a new host-most fish that get infected with cryptocaryon do not get a massive infestation to begin with-unless they're already old/infirm from other causes

a cleaner will not spend a huge amount of time cleaning a 'patient', but rather covers alot of patients, with 'touch up jobs' on each one (i'm sure there's an exception here and there)

closed systems are basically a re-circulating bath for anything and everything-in the wild, when a cyst hatches off a fish, the fish is usually already a greater distance away from the swimming parasite than the parasite can travel (also due to current directions, etc) to re-infect the host

 

[mr_X]

lets face it: all fish are better off in their natural habitat than in our tanks. imo i think it's rediculous to say a tang, for instance, is ok to take from the wild and place it in a tiny cube shaped world for our own amusement, and a cleaner wrasse isn't.
my original point, which still stands and has not been disproved is:
a cleaner wrasse can help with the ich issue. all this other stuff is best for a new thread.