hippo tang sick??

Sounds like ich to me. Get your qt up as soon as possible. Hippo tangs are ich magnets.

I being a newbie at the time tried a lot of stuff . I will try to explain my course of treatment as exact as I can remember.
Hippo tang was showing classic signs of ich just days after getting him home after further research discovered this was a trait of the hippo tang. The advice that people had to give was varied and not real clear it varied from do nothing to take everything out of the tank let it run empty for 6 weeks while treating all of my fish with something that could kill them too.

The first thing I tried was getting their appetite up feeding well with food soaked in garlic. The idea here was that if you feed the fish food soaked with garlic not only would it stimulate the fishes appetite but it would change the scent that the fish has in the water and make it difficult for the free swimming ich to find the fish. After 2 weeks nothing had changed and I couldn't stand the garlic smell in the house (and I am full blooded italian to illustate how bad this really was) anymore so I decided to try something else.

I went to Epcot to talk with some of the marine biologists at the living seas. They showed me that some of their new Hippo's had the same problem as well. They said to just feed them well and It will eventually go away on its own. They told me I could also try buying a couple of cleaner shrimp to help.

I then stopped by the pet store to talk with the manager who is a friend of mine and asked him what he would do if it were his tank. He said he would try ruby kick-ich. He did not have it but he called around and found it for me.

I got home turned of my skimmer(instructions on the bottle) and started the aggressive treatment on the bottle. I went to the pet store and bought 2 cleaner shrimp, after being acclimated for 1.5 hours went right to work on any fish that would swim by. Biggest problem 2 weeks with no skimmer and really high nitrates as a result. I decided I was going to do a large water change and start a second treatment. I bought a second bottle of kick-ich and it is still sitting in my cabinet. I decided before I was going to start the second treatment that I was going to get my nitrates back into check. So I started doing 20 gallon water changes ever other day and vacuuming the sand. I also ordered a uv sterilizer to help kill off any of the free swimming parasites. After 1 week of every other day vac & waterchange plus feeding , the uv, and the shrimp there were no signs of ich anywhere in my tank. Every once and a while the hippo gets stressed and gets a few little spots but they are usually gone within a day.

So I guess the moral of the story is dont try all that crap on the store shelves. keep your water pristine, you temp stable, add a couple cleaner shrimp, and have a good and varied diet and they will over come it on their own.

50% of people say there is ich in every marine system and there is no way to completely eradicate it. It is usually always dormant but only surfaces when the fishes immune system is lowered due to stress or sickness.

50% of people say it is not there unless we introduce it on an infected fish. We should quarantine any new fish that we get for 6-8 weeks to make sure it does not show any signs of sickness or disease before adding it to our system.

Brack is right. Higher temperatures, good feeding and cleaners are the best things. The ocean doesn't sell kick ich either.

I would really just work on getting your water perfect../Temp @ 82 and get a good quality food. How long have you had him?

From what I read...
The hippo tangs get ich when stressed. Something is causing him to break out in ich. Did you just add him to the tank recently. How do his eyes look? Is he eating well? Honestly I would wait it out a little bit. Reasons... If you were to catch him to put him in qt it will just stress him out more= more ich, if you were able to get him out and into qt, he will just stress out again when you put him back in your display.


Just my 2 cents. I dont know who was stressed out more me or the tang...

D.J. said:

water parms are fine in the tank, the temp is around 80f steady.

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I will stress very highly, that you keep your water parameters Perfect. Fine will not do it when you have an ill fish. Can you do a test and give us some numbers as to what "fine" is? I would always have some algae on the clip for her, or as often as you can. Also if you don't have any coral i would take my temp to 82

if it persists, and what you're trying now doesn't work, drop the Qtank in to hypo

D.J. said:

ive only had him/her for 3 weeks. she is just now starting to venture around in the tank, right now i have her in a 30g which i guess is my main QT right now since she and the shrimp and some hermits are all that is in that tank.

right now she is dartin around in the tank in and out of the caves and all. seems to be healthy,eyes are a nice black no cloudiness or anything on them.


she eats fine, pecks at the algea on the rocks and glass, eats the flakes i put in and i also feed her formula two pellets with garlic and she really loves those. i also add some sea algea leafs on a clip for her twice a week.

water parms are fine in the tank, the temp is around 80f steady.

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A couple of questions. Is the 30g your main tank? Is this the tank the tang was going to live in? If so it is way way to small for regal (hippo) tang.
Garlic is not a good thing to feed marine fish as it can cause long term damage such as heart and liver lesions due to the fish not being able to process the lipids found in the oil.

Jay.B. said:

if it persists, and what you're trying now doesn't work, drop the Qtank in to hypo

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If this is your only tank and you have inverts in there I wouldn't advise this as this will most likely kill them. Hypo should only be used a hospital tank environment.