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ok I have had this purple tang for a week and this afternoon when I got home from work it was covered in tiny white spots, I dont know if its ich or not, it looks like small grains of salt sprinkled over him.

I have also have 2 clowns, a flame angel and a cleaner shrimp and none of them seem to have it.

I have been told that cleaner shrimp will take care of white spot, I dont know if this is true or not, but I dont think the tang is used to the shrimp, he swims away when the shrimp touches him.

I was also told that I could give him a freash water bath,
is this a good idea? Will the ich drop off right away?

So the point is what should I do?

The LFS only give a 3 day warranty + its like an hour & a half drive away.

Any help would be great

You can turn off the lights,Raise the temp a bit and feed with garlic extract.I battled ich for months and this helped.If it seems to get worse move the sick fish to a QT tank and use the Hypo-salinity treatment on the QT tank.
The most important thing is to keep the fish as stress free as possible.If you can manage that just let the ich run its coarse.
I finally set up two QTs and went fishless in the main tank for 8 weeks to be sure they were gone.6 weeks is supposed to do it.Good luck!

hypo-salinty is one of the best method to remove ich, if you do not have other inverts and if u can move your shrimps during treatment, you can just do it in your main tank...that will cure the fish plus remove free swimming ich

can also try copper treatment (again no inverts and possibly the whole tank will not be suitable for invert ever unless it can be sured that all copper are removed)...but can have negative effects if not dosed properly...need a copper test kid to monitor closely

as fishheadfred mentioned...increase temp. (to about 80F) and reduce light is the first thing you should do

Last edited by Week End at 02-Mar-2005 05:40

A freshwater dip is a good method for removing paracites on SW fish. A QT is a good idea as well. I always do a 15 minute FW dip on all my new arrivals, and QT them for a month. This prevents almost all paracites from entering my show tank. You have to remember, 99% of all SW fish, come from the wild. So you never know what they may be bringing in on them. The FW dip will not physically harm them for the short period of time, but yes it will stress them. I would suggest you FW dip the fish, then QT it and watch it for a few days. If it redevelopes the illness, then treat with copper in the QT tank. I would not stress the other healthy fish with treatments, if they are not showing signs.

Actually though, if you can still do it, I would take it back and go for another fish. Get one that is less stressed. And do the FW dip prior to placing the new fish in the tank.

HTH....

_____________________________________________________________

There is always a bigger fish...

I will try rasing the temp and cutting back on the lights How many hours should I run them for, I only have fluros.

Where can I get garlic extract from? supermarket? LFS?

I have a spare 2 foot tank I could use for QT tank, What equipment would I need?

A LFS will usually have garlic extract.

Setting up a QT is simple, heater,pump,tank,water,lid and lights if you want them, their usually bare bottom tanks so no parasite can live in the substrate.



rabbit :88)

One thing to mention on the Freshwater dip.I read a few articles that state the fish secretes a slime covering over the cyst since it's an irratant.This secretion ends up protecting the cyst during dips. The dips are mentioned to help but QT with HYPO is the only proven method.If I can dig up the article I will post a link.

The garlic is a feeding stimulant and is supposed to make the fish less attractive to the parasite as they are supposed to not like the garlic in the blood of the fish.

I think Dan has used the liquid pill form of garlic in the vitamin section of the grocery.You would have to cut the pills open and use the liquid to soak the food.

I used the garlic vitamin, cut it open and squeized it out on to some nori. It's messy, and takes some time, but if you make a bunch it will last a long time.

Dan


Dan

I will give the garlic a try.

But what do I need in a QT tank?

Same stuff RABBIT mentioned above.I would add something for them to hide in though.The idea is to be as stress free as possible.

It's also a good idea to have the lights be dimmer and on less during the day.

Dan


Dan

I've had the same thing happen w/ my yellow tang. 1 week after purchasing him he was showing some white spots on his tail. I've gone through the ich process before and i've tried fw dips qt tanks hypo salinity raising the temp feeding garlic xtreme and even cutting open the garlic gel pills and putting it on the nori sheets. And the only real cure for me that I have found is Rid-Ich. It's suppose to be reef safe I think and caution w/ inverts. Instead of moving him out of the tank and stressing him more I left him in there and turned the lights out (only turned lights on for feeding) removed the media pads and used the recommended dose. I treated him for 1 week and he cleared up and now 2 months later he's putting on a little more size and eats like a pig. I also did a 15% water change daily while treating. And have 2 cleaner shrimp and 1 of them actually molted during the treatment.

Not saying this will work 100% for you but I've tried everything there is to try and only had success w/ this. I use Rid-Ich in QT my fish now when I purchase them and works like a charm.