YELLOW TANG - NEED HELP

[NTidd]

I just bought a yellow Hawain tang two days ago. Today I am noticing whitish film and white spots on his fins and body. It kind of looks like ich to me, but I'm not sure. The tank finished cycling 6 days ago. The pH is a little low. I have already done a partial water change and added Ultra Sheild by Mardel. What is this and what can I do to treat it? Please help!

 

[NTidd]

Oh by the way, I have invertebrates. I have a cleaner shrimp, a peppermint shrimp, and three scarlet hermit crabs.

 

[dattack]

Figure out why it is stressed and it does appear that it has ich.

If the tank is too small, or poor water chemistry, or have other fish that are territorial you have to do what is necessary.

If you can't find the stressor, then make sure it eat, especially some greens such as seaweed with garlic, zelcon (vitamins).

 

[NTidd]

It is eating some sort of plant that I have that doesn't have any roots (perhaps green wild tang) and some dried seaweed, and also peas. It is probably stressed because the ph is too low. What is the best way to treat this?

 

[wayne at home]

Sounds like it has ich. Move it to a quarantine tank (don't worry about cycling this), and treat for ich with a freshwater dip, plus a recomended ich cure - see wetwebmedia for what does or doesn't work. The fish stays in the QT tank for at least 4 weeks. Sort out the pH and make sure it has algae or dried seaweed to eat 4 plus times a day in small amounts.
Don't put any more fish in the tank for a month - you have to let the disease run it's full course and die out. No fish. No cures either - they'll trash your live rock and inverts. Any other way is wasting your time
Sort out your pH - if it's still dropping a lot it might be your cycle is still settling out. What's the pH, and wy do you think it's that way?

 

[NTidd]

New Problem

All of the other fish seem fine, and the ph seems to be at about 8.2 now. No nitrites or ammonia, and a very small trace of nitrates. I added 2 1/2 pound of live rock the other day to help the ph and it has seemed to. The tang fought of the ich himself, I just did a partial water change, and added some skin shield. A couple days later he began getting really small black specks on him. Anyone know what this is? He is still eating romain lettuce, and grazing on the live rock, but with those black specs it doesn't seem healthy. Anyone know what this is and how to fix it? Thanks!

 

[wayne]

They're another ich like parasite, but I don't remember the name - it's a parasitic flatworm I believe.
Is this in your reef tank - how much live rock have you got in there, and what other fish. If your conditions are really good, you might not be bothered with ich again, but it's more likely that it's in it's cyst stage now, and will reappear in 2 weeks. Do you have a quarantine/hospital tank yet? Remember you can't really add any effective treatments to your reef or you'll nuke your inverts and live rock.

 

[NTidd]

No it's not in my reef tank. This tank has only 2 1/2 pounds of live rock, 3 damsels, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 peppermint shrimp, 3 scarlet hermit crabs, 1 bicolor blenny. I don't have a quarintine tank, some at the pet shop told me to remove the fish a place it in a bucket and treat the bucket leave him in for 5 minutes every day to cure it. That worked for ick after 1 treatment but a day after he got these black spots.

 

[toodles]

If the black spots look like flat pinpoints they are commonly called black ich. To be honest, I wouldn't do a thing. The parasite may look bad, but in reality does little damage and cannot reproduce in the aquarium. They have an unusual life cycle involving fish eating birds (definitive host) where they live in the birds intestines, they are then shed in the birds droppings, then the eggs hatch into free swimming larvae where they then invade snails (first intermediate host) after that, they multiply and develop further, they leave the snail and seek out their final host, a fish (second intermediate host) which is then in turn eaten by the bird, .......so...... unless you are keeping seagulls in your house, I wouldn't worry about it. They will eventually fall off and die. Or your cleaner shrimp will make a meal of them!

 

[NTidd]

Ok, thanks!

 

[wayne at home]

Well the bucket will work as a dip but I don't believe it will cure your problem. Your problem is that you'll have ich resident in your tank, probably including cysts in your substrate and rock. The ich present on the fish will be killed, but you put the fish back in the tank and bang , it has ich again in a couple of days. If you don't do something, I would worry that pretty soon every fish in your tank will have it. Do you want to dip every one of your fish every day
I don't know of an effective ich cure that will get rid of the ich in a tank without killing the inverts. Hows your reef - can you put the rock and inverts in yet? If so, that's what I'd do, then I'd effectively use the current tank as a QT tank, and lay waste with an ich cure. Keep the fish there for a month. This wil be enough time to get rid of any lurking ich on the live rock in the reef tank by starving it to death. If your fish are ich free then , and have been for a few weeks, move them to the reef.
If you have a reef and no QT you are asking for trouble, because once something like ich is in there, you can't do a thing.

Sorry to be so depressing. I've made a similar mistake on a tank, and I won't again (goodbye 200$ of fish!)

 

[wayne]

Oh sorry, my mistake, I mixed you up with someone who is building a reef tank. That's a shame, as 1) I'm sure you'd like a reef , I know I would, and 2) it means you'll need to set up a separate tank anyway to keep the fish in while you treat them.

 

[NTidd]

We'll have to wait and see what happens.

 

[NTidd]

Seems to be ok now, but we will see if it comes back in a couple of weeks, invertabrates can get ick to, I presume.

 

[wayne]

No I don't think inverts do get ich. If you have got rid of it, I would think you very, very lucky.