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My new regal tang (aka ich magnet) has only been in the tank for 3 days and today is covered in whitespot. Several other fish have it but most go to the two cleanershimps to get cleaned, however the regal tang and clownfish don't go to get cleaned.
What would people suggest I do?
I have UV, ozone, a very powerful skimmer, the water conditions are very good (0 amonia/nitrite, about 8ppm nitrates, SG 1.024, temp about 25.0C, ph 8.4).
The tank is 60"x20"x20" with a 36"x12"x15" sump and eheim wet/dry filter.
Most of the fish show some sign of whitespot, but some get cleaned by the cleaner shrimp or cleaner wrasse.
I can't use copper because of shrimp, anenomies and my banded bamboo shark (baby).
What do people reccomend? I've tried Kent Marine RXP in the past and found it was good at controlling it, but not stopping it (even following the exact instructions and using it over a matter of months in my old 3ft tank), and when the treatment stopped after 2 months it came back quickly.
What should I try? Increase ozone? medications (which one?) lower the specific gravity (shark is better off with higher SG), fresh water dips?
The regal tang doesn't look poorly yet, so should be ok in a fresh water dip (can ph adjust and use RO/DI water), maybe with kent marine rxp in.
Any ideas would be helpful, I want to do something soon (maybe a fresh water dip on some of the fish in the next hour or two)
It will be hard to get some of the fish out of the tank (big tank, lots of hiding spaces, glass braces across the top make it hard to chase fish etc.)
I'd rather do things naturally (also medication for a 130gal or so tank will cost a lot) or through water changes.
I use RO/DI water from my own filter that comes out to about 20ppm on my meter, and then mix the Tropic Marin salt and leave it mixing with a power head for several hours, and heat it up, then pump it slowly into the sump.
I do small (about 5-10%) once a week and top up at the same time (use more water with less salt), none of the levels I check change much at all.
Thanks for any help.
Tom.

[span class="edited"][Edited by worley 2004-07-04 14:59][/span]

I've got two regal tangs, when they got ich I fresh water bathed them for 5 minutes each and never saw a bad side effect and the ich never came back. There are some great instruction on how to do it in a previous issue of www.reefkeeper.com can't remeber exact issue sorry/

Well, I bit the bullet and dunked her in a freshwater dip for 4 minutes (she looked really bad after about 3 min and didn't want to risk it any longer). I had PH buffered it to 8.4 and got the temp within 0.2 C of the tank temp. I also put the dip dosage of Kent Marine RXP.
Unfortunately, it was really hard to get her out of the tank, and I think netting her was more stressfull than the dip itself =(.
I've learnt that even the smallest of fish (she's not much larger than the baby clowns I have) need BIG nets, it was so much easier with a huge net.
After the dip she was on the bottom of the sand on her side gilling rapidly, I thought she had died at one point and it was just the current moving her, until a cleaner shrimp came to....... errr.. eat?.. her and she twiched.
I kept an eye on her over a few hours until about 4am when I had to get some sleep lol, and was worried when I couldn't find her this morning....
To find her attached to the skimmer input filter... where I went to look and she saw me and flew off around the tank!
She looks almost her normal self (That I've seen over the last few days), however she's still covered in whitespot.
There's not as much but there is still easily 50+ cysts on her body, and yesterday I did see her go up to the cleanershrimp and be completely ignored.
Do cleanershrimp ignore smaller fish? I've seen them go for my blue green chromis before (which don't let them clean them, but never seem to break out in whitespot), but both just ignored the regal tang, and shortly after go for the bannerfish without a problem.
Well, I guess I did help her, but she's still covered, so anything else you can suggest? Maybe another dip when she's recovered a bit in another day?
Thanks again.
Tom.

Just leave her alone, the more stress you cause, netting her, dropping her in a FW dip, netting her again, will all make things worse. Keep them fed, have the lights on less during the day. In many cases they will fight the ick on on there own, with no meds or other intervention.

Dan

Thanks, to be honest, I had thought that might be the best thing to do, just leave her alone and keep the water quality as high as possible.
She's swimming about, but looks like she's have a little trouble (not too much), and not eating much, even with a drop or two of garlic in the water.
I've got bits of green seaweed on a clip in the tank, which the yellow tang and cleaner wrasse are eating up, and I'm putting in the frozen veggie diet food (looks like bits of chopped green veggies/algae and seaweed). Is there anything else regal tangs particularly like?

With regards to the treatment, my advice would be to 'leave alone' too. You seem to have everything covered set-up wise. Regals are very e to ich and I've found with mine that keeping them well fed with frozen..anything(especially mysis and krill). I know they are primarily vegetarian but the meat supplement seems to work wonders too) really helps. 'Touch wood' my regal appears to 'be over the worst' and hasn't had any white spot in months.... and that includes my Powder Blue too so, hope it helps.

Well, I'm happy to report that the regal tang is now letting the cleaner wrasse clean her, and there is visibly less whitespot on her (at least all the large ones are gone and just smaller ones left, at least half the amount).
I think she may be a little small to eat mysis or krill at the moment (I have both, and brine shrimp, octopus, daphnia, blood worm, veggie diet etc etc.)
She looks more lively already!

start soaking your food in garlic and vitamin supplements. This will help ALOT. I personally feed Kent Garlic Xtreme and Vita-chem with every feeding.

An otherwise healthy fish that is still eating should be able to pull out of it on its own using the garlic, vitamins, and excellent water quality......given that the illness wasnt cause by another fish picking on it.

[span class="edited"][Edited by DarkRealm Overlord 2004-07-05 19:41][/span]

worley, thats great news and after our chat in the chatroom, im glad you have been helped out and that things are improving.

All the best mate and keep us updated on your progress with this

p.l.u.r
Matt

Cake > Pie

I did soak the food yesterday in Kent Marine Garlic Extreme, and fed a cotail of differnet foods (red plankton, veggies, krill, brine shrimp etc.) and the regal tang didn't seem to eat anything
I've done a very thoroughor clean of the tank and filters/skimmer/pumps (got two filters running side by side, and only cleaned the big one, so it should help)
Any ideas what I can do to get her eating again? There are lots of fish in the tank, but there is enough food for her to eat that floats by that she just ignored

Well.... the tang looks better, less ich visible, and does appear to be eating some hair algae from the glass and some floating by at feeding, swimming around a little better too (even scared the shark as I'm writing this post!)
However....
now one of my two baby (true) percula clowns is looking quite bad, has a fair bit of small ich on it's body and has been sitting on the sand flapping a bit to keep upright for the last few hours, and breathing very rapidly...
Not sure if I should dip him in salt water + kent marine rxp, or fresh water dip? (I think the salt dip + rxp would be less stressfull)
I think I'm going to leave him tonight and turn the lights off early again (everything's been fed, but he's not eaten...)

[span class="edited"][Edited by worley 2004-07-07 16:51][/span]