EMERGENCY! SICK FISH! please help

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bellaNmatt

AC Members
Nov 15, 2008
13
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36
i have a 30 gallon sw tank an 3 fish...a blue hippo tang and two clowns
today i noticed the tang has what appears to be a white dusting on it
i dont know what it is or how to get rid of it and i dont want the fish to die so im doing a water change as we speak
if anyone has any tips or anything that could help it would be greatly appreciated!
thanks!
 

Booyaababe

Toni
Dec 13, 2008
175
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Camden, Tn.
a white dusting? more detail..is it like white specks or a ..hmm...white filmy type looking fungas?
 

Ace25

www.centralcoastreefclub. com
Oct 3, 2005
5,753
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www.centralcoastreefclub.com
Ich? Since that is what those fish are famous for. Much too small of a tank for that fish and the stress of being in that size probably brought on ich. You can put him in a hospital tank with copper and hope for the best or an extreme measure, do a freshwater dip and most of the parasites should fall off within 60 seconds. The stress of doing that may be too much for the fish though so it is a risky thing to do and won't kill off the parasites inside the fish.
 

bellaNmatt

AC Members
Nov 15, 2008
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it is a very tiny tang not like a full grown or anything...the fish store said i would have 6months to a year to upgrade before running into size issues...
it is just some white dots kinda all over it and it just came on today
im affraid that the dip will kill it though
 

redfishblewfish

Ignorance Specialist
Nov 19, 2008
313
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Central New Jersey
A hippo tang needs to be in a 75g minimum. That said, as one site that discusses tangs stated, “if you look at them funny, they will come down with ich.” Tangs are known to be very susceptible to ich. I personally would not go the copper route…I’d be more inclined to go the hypo-salinity route, albeit a longer route to a “clean” fish. The only problem is that if you have any inverts in the tank, they will die. (Actually true with copper as well).

Let me just review…You now have a tank that has ich. You can either treat the whole tank or remove the fish to a hospital tank and treat them while letting the tank sit. Since it is only a 30g, I’d treat the whole tank (it’s like a hospital tank).

Search treatment of ich by hypo-salinity for the details…you lower over a weeks period…let it sit for four weeks or so…slowly raise back up to normal salinity over a weeks period. (if you have inverts, remove them to a holding tank while you are treating…they don’t get ich, so they are safe).
 

skene

AC Members
Mar 8, 2008
69
0
0
Try raising the temp a bit. What you may also want to incorporate into the diet is garlic. What garlic will do is it should help with strengthen the fish's resistance to diseases. The clowns may not even contract ich as they are less susceptible as opposed to the tang.
Hippo tangs stress too easily, so it should be noted that these parasites will consistently be something you will see if he pulls through.
You may want to introduce a cleaner shrimp as it will help remove and will eat the ich parasite from fish.
 
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