regal tang white spot

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ClownieandBilly

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my regal tang had been in my tank for around 4 weeks and looked great, feeding well and looking in good shape.i added 2 new fish into my 130gal and a couple of corals and hey presto within two days the dreaded white patches on the tang.i know they are prone to this and it may have been introduced by one of the new arrivals or caused by the stress of adding the new arrivals.
thats the background but my question is this;some of the white patches have turned into small dark color scratches around2-3mm can anyone tell me what these are??

p.s.sthe tang is still feeding very well and i am adding garlic oil to food so i am hoping he shrugs off this disease himself as i can not treat as it is a reef.
 

kreblak

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The small dark patches could be a couple of things. They could simply be a scab where the Ich parasite fell from it's host, leaving an open wound behind. Or, it could be the healing from "flashing." Flashing is when fish scratch up against things in the aquarium. Ich is itchy to them, so they scratch. Sometimes they overscratch, like people do when they scratch mosquito bites until they bleed.

Keep up the garlic regimen, it is good for the fish's immune systems. I have no scientific proof of this, but there is anecdotal evidence galore. As for treatment, there is a reef safe medication called No-Ich marine available at www.drsfostersmith.com that I have used in a reef tank with great success. It did not harm any of my mobile inverts (hermits, crabs, snails, shrimp, etc), it did not harm either of my anemones, nor did it harm my sponge. Most importantly, it stopped the Ich cold. I had a couple of really sick fish, too! There is a drawback, though. You have to treat for a really long time (I treated for 7 weeks), and the dose of No-Ich is 2 oz per 25 gallons of tank water, every three days. Treating 130 gallons could get expensive. Also, you have to discontinue carbon filtration and skimming during treatment, so you could get a nitrate spike.
 

Guy W

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If you tank doesn't have inverts or corals you could try hyposalinity, that is lowering the salinity in the tank to somewhere around 1.012 to 1.015... That will be too low for the Ich to live in and should kill it off. Lower the salinity slowly or you will stress your fish.

Guy
 

ClownieandBilly

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no,i have shrimps snails and corals so can not try this method.i do not trust medication as i have been told not to as danger to inverts.
tang does not seem to be scratching on rocks at all
any other ideas for the small scratches?
if it is caused by the parasite dropping of the fish then i suppose that could be a good sign(well i am trying to be optimistic)
fish is still feeding well so i still live in hope!!
 

Guy W

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the only thing to do really, if your not willing to medicate the tank, is to pull the aflicted fish and put it in a hospital/quarentine tank. You can medicate or try hyposalinity in that tank and move it back to the display tank when it recovers.

If it is Ick I would highly consider this before other fish become infected. Setting up a 20 gallon tank for a hospital is fairly cheap, and any new additions can be housed there before going to the main tank to make sure it's healthy...

Guy
 

ClownieandBilly

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i have a small 25gal tank set up at the moment which is home to my 5"maroon clown.my intentions were to add my clown to my large tank last(in around 6 months)once all other fish i want to keep are in as she is pretty boisterous.i could put her in know(at a risk)and house the tang in the 25 for treatment but i am scared my clown(perfect condition for last 2 years)will catch the white spot and i am also concerned that i would cause extreme stress to the tang ,trying to catch it in 130 gal tank and then moving to 25gal .what do you think??
 

kreblak

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Catching a fish is very stressful on them. They will run like heck from you out of abject terror. Especially in a 130, you are going to have a really hard time catching the little fellow. Anyway, the Ich falling off the tang is a good thing... for five minutes. The cyst that falls of the tang contains 200-600 new free swimming protozoans that will hatch in the next week, ready to infect new hosts.

Most people treat in a 5 or 10 gallon QT with no substrate or anything, just water and medicine, along with frequent water changes. However, failing that, if you can remove the fish from the aquarium for three weeks, the main tank will be Ich free, and the parasite cannot live without a fish host.
 

ClownieandBilly

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so what you are saying is that all 6 fish in the tank are doomed as i can not put all 6 in my 25 along with my maroon clown(world war 3 comes to mind)i feel like giving up at the moment.
any ideas apart from praying?
 

kreblak

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No, your fish aren't doomed. Ich is part of this hobby. Everyone on these boards has had it at one time or another. In fact, there are those who don't even treat for it, as they consider it a natural part of a marine aquarium.

I am not one of those people. I attack Ich from as many fronts as possible. I have used No-Ich marine with great success and no detrimental side effects to my invertabrates, and I highly recommend it to others. Someone on these boards (I can't remember who, Fish Whisperer maybe) was involved in the clinical testing and trials of Kick-Ich, made by Ruby Reef, and swears by it as effective against SW ich and safe for corals and mobile inverts.

Some people will tell you they don't trust any chemicals in their tank. Maybe they are right. All I can tell you is that before my fish got Ich, I had a number of snails, hermit crabs, a cleaner shrimp, a sponge, and some anemones in the tank. After using No-Ich for 7 weeks, I had all my fish still alive, the snails and hermits were alive and well, the shrimp was fine, the sponge was fine, and the anemones were still swaying in the current.

Ultimately the choice is yours. Definately don't use copper in your tank, and I highly recommend quarantining ALL new additions to a tank to make sure they are not carrying Ich. You can beat this, so don't give up. :cool:
 
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