"Ich"iot Hepatamus

[dbsherwood]

Hi everyone.

In my 650 gal reef tank, my #@$# hepatamus tang has a permanent case of ich. No one else in the tank is affected, and I've been using Kick-Ich to try and help clean him up. He's very plump and healthy otherwise, and I'm tired of having the skimmer off. Any ideas here on how to clean him up? I can't net him as the tank makes it far too difficult to do so.

Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

That's a hell of a large tank. :lol:


I don't know what to do, but I just want to say I think kick ick is a total waste of money.

I recently found out that the active incredient is nothing but a low grade anti-biotic that is in such a low concentration that it doesn't kill your coral or bacteria....and if something doesn't kill your coral and bacteria, I don't see how it can kill ick.


good luck

 

[fyrefysh]

Are you positive that it is truly ich? Are you sure it's not skin flukes or something?

 

[dbsherwood]

Thanks for the posts. Good question on the skin flukes. I should investigate that. Is there an easy way to verify that they are skin flukes? Some of the white spots have definitely been larger than what I've previously considered to be ich.

 

[Anonymous]

Can you snap a pic of the tang?

 

[dbsherwood]

Yes--I'll post them tomorrow.

 

[Mike612]

My first question for you is how long has the tang been in your tank? Second question is has it been eating and what? Third question is is it being picked on or anything by another fish? Forth question is how big is this Hippo Tang? Fifth question is what are your parameters like in the tank?

Tangs are really my specialty above all other fish so I'm hoping I could help you with this guy. In the mean time, if you haven't done so yet, I recommend you feed it nori on a clip. That's the best thing you can give him. If he's not eating the food you're offering, nori is sure to get him started. My tangs love the stuff and always go for it.

 

[dbsherwood]

Thanks Mike for your help. The tang is about 4-5" long and is in good health and does not seemed bothered by his white spots. He's been in the tank about 4 months. He is very thick and meaty, and is an active fish. He is not picked on by the other two tangs (yellow and powder blue), and has a bit of a dominant swagger in the tank. His coloration is good. He and the other tangs get 1-2 sheets of nori per day (which has been the feeding regimen for months), and the sheets are rubbed down with garlic, zoe, and zoecon. He also gets flake and/or frozen 2-3 times per day as well (he is happy to participate in the feeds I do for the anthias, wrasses, and chromis ). He is a hearty eater.

I need to check my parameters as I don't test often. I'm guessing my nitrates are up given that I've had my skimmer off for 2 weeks (just turned it back on), but my anemone, shrimp, sps, and clams are all healthy. Salinity is 1.024-1.025.

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

I've never seen a hippo tang at the shop that didn't have a couple of spots on it.

I've seen a shop full of fish of all kinds with no spots, along with a bunch of hippos that all had ich. Even when it's hippos with a bunch of other fish in the same holding tank, the hippos have ich while the others are fine.


I like the fish, but I don't ever plan on having one...they appear to be poorly adapted to transport or something. :?

 

[Mike612]

Hmm, this is a toughy. I know your tank is a reef but what's your rockwork like? I've noticed that some of the tangs that I keep go into the rockwork at night and some just stay out in the open. From my experience, Hippo Tangs usually like little caves to hide in. If it doesn't have caves to hide in, that might be an issue. Other than that, I've got to sleep on it and think about it. So long as he's eating, swimming, and not being picked on, he should be ok in the mean time. You just need to give me some time to think about it some more. Please don't forget to post your parameters.

Also, if you don't have a Cleaner Shrimp in your tank yet, you should get a few. They would be great at relieving your fish of the ich.

 

[Anonymous]

From:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/ ... /mini4.htm

Biological cleaners

Fish often succumb to cryptocaryonosis despite the presence of biological cleaners such as cleaner shrimp or cleaner wrasse. While cleaners will exhibit their instinctual "cleaning" behaviors, do not assume that they eat trophonts, or eat them in sufficient numbers to affect a cure.

 

[Anonymous]

UV

 

[Anonymous]

From the same source:

Ultra violet sterilizers can help prevent the spread of infection between aquariums in a multi-tank system. When an ultra violet sterilizer is placed in the water flow between tanks in a multi-tank system it can eradicate theronts before they can spread into the next aquarium. However, UV lights are less effective at eliminating infection within a single aquarium. Free-swimming theronts can exit tomonts and infect fish before passing through an ultra violet sterilizer. This means that the parasite will continue its cycle life cycle within that aquarium (Gratzek, et al., 1983).

 

[dbsherwood]

Here's the tang. The spots are whiter than they appear on this picture, but hopefully this gives you the idea.

The tang has a ton of places to hide as the rock goes down the middle of the tank, and there are lots of caves and crevices. Also, there are four cleaner shrimp in the tank.

Thanks to everyone for their help!

 

[Mike612]

Well since everything you're doing seems perfect for the tang, I guess that it's stuck with the ich. So long as it's eating, swimming, and behaving properly, you shouldn't have too much of a problem. If you want the ich to go away, do the impossible (catch him and do a freshwater dip).

 

[Anonymous]

Well since everything you're doing seems perfect for the tang, I guess that it's stuck with the ich. So long as it's eating, swimming, and behaving properly, you shouldn't have too much of a problem. If you want the ich to go away, do the impossible (catch him and do a freshwater dip).

That wouldn't solve it. The ich would still be in the system. They dip would kill the spots on him, but as soon as he went back in the tank, the ich in the tank would attack him again and in a week he'd have more spots.

Even a lengthy quarantine wouldnt' solve it because there are other fish in the main tank to keep the ich alive and waiting for him when he gets back.


Like I said, I've never seen a hippo tang that didn't have a few spots on it. :?


The only way to get rid of it would be to catch every fish in the tank, put them all into tanks without inverts with specific gravity of 1.010 for a month or more and then return them all to the main tank. Then, if you're lucky and you did it right, the ich in the tank would have died off without fish and the ich on the fish would have died off in the low salinity water.

That is way too much trouble though.

 

[dbsherwood]

Maybe my best bet is to give the tang a stern lecture on personal hygiene. Thanks to everyone for their help.

 

[Mike612]

Lol. You never know, it might work. As I'm sure you know tangs are very social with their handlers (that's what I love about them), especially the Hippo Tang, so it might work. If the tang isn't going to the shrimp too often, maybe try and find a way to encourage him.

 

[Anonymous]

From the same source:

Ultra violet sterilizers can help prevent the spread of infection between aquariums in a multi-tank system. When an ultra violet sterilizer is placed in the water flow between tanks in a multi-tank system it can eradicate theronts before they can spread into the next aquarium. However, UV lights are less effective at eliminating infection within a single aquarium. Free-swimming theronts can exit tomonts and infect fish before passing through an ultra violet sterilizer. This means that the parasite will continue its cycle life cycle within that aquarium (Gratzek, et al., 1983).

That's funny, my fish are still living after I installed a UV. I guess you can't believe everything you read.

 

[ChrisRD]

Many fish also recover from ich without the UV so that's not really surprising and not really proof of much... :wink:

Keep in mind that just because you don't see the parasite on the fish doesn't mean it's not still in the system.