Frustrated Mermaid Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 hi, I have a baby blue regal tang. He is about the size of a dime. All was fine and then today I saw the tell tale white cysts. I did a freshwater dip for about 2 min (him and the other fish) and then put them back in. I have already done a 25% water change, lowered the sg to 1.021 (which I plan to lower still further) and started to treat with Greenex- a malachite green compound that says it is safe will not harm the bio filter or other inverts. I am also slowly increasing the temp. What would you guys recommend? I guess my question is: will the malachite green rid me of my ich problem if I treat the tank for a while with it, along with carrying out small and frequent water changes and keeping the sg low and the temp a bit higher? I know maybe this sounds basic but the reason for my urgency is that the tang is a BABY and just the cutest little thing you've ever seen. I'd want to slit my throat if I killed it!!! Please help! :*( Link to comment
pyrrhus Posted June 21, 2004 Share Posted June 21, 2004 if you are keeping the fish in a reef type tank i would highly suggest getting the salinity back to at least 1.024, most inverts cannot tolerate hyposalinity which is why it works with ich. i would also advise not to use any sort of medication a reef tank either. your best bet is to set up a quarantine tank for the fish with a lower sg and using as much water from the display tank as possible, if you look at some of the other threads in this forum there are good examples of ways to set this up. the temp will probably raise the metabolism of the crypto causing the infestation to take place at a faster rate. if the fish is not in the tank you could raise the temp SLOWLY to speed up the life cycle of the ich and it will die without a host. the best thing for your tank and the fish is to stop medication in the main tank, get the fish in QT, and wait a month for the crypto to expire without a host. Link to comment
lgreen Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Get that salinity up!!!!!!! low salinity can cause these things sometimes!!!!!!! no lower than 1.022!!!! more like 1.024 like pyrrhus said!!! do not change them temp either i agree with pyrrhus completely. no meds if possible in reef tank. except maybe use Kent Marine Garlic Extreme ( a good natural, non chemical, method for treating ich) just keep the fish eating and hopefully it can get over it. lots of good green algae. Link to comment
WetWilly Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 is this tang in a nano? if it is and it lives, retrun it before it dies, if it dies, dont buy another one, tangs need 50 ga plus to do well in. I wouldnt slit your throat either. Link to comment
Frustrated Mermaid Posted July 4, 2004 Author Share Posted July 4, 2004 He was in a nano only b/c he is 1/2" long but he is destined for my 135 gal tank. He is in a QT and cured now. My throat is still intact. Link to comment
pyrrhus Posted July 8, 2004 Share Posted July 8, 2004 just keep him in that QT for at least 30 days before returning him to the infected tank. this will give the ich time to die without a host assuming there are no other fish in the tank. Link to comment
crat748 Posted July 8, 2004 Share Posted July 8, 2004 I bought a regal tang last week and the next day had white spots on his scales not really on the fins. The spots were there for 2 days and then they were gone. I had him in a 55 with 2 clowns and a yellow tang. i went out and bought a 10g QT and some copper sulfate. I put the regal in there and he made if for about 4 days. He ate some but he just got skinnier and last night when I got home he was gone. It made me sick that he died, one because he looked pretty rough when I left for work and he was $40 too. I just hope my other fish make it now. I don't know what else to do for them. Link to comment
pyrrhus Posted July 10, 2004 Share Posted July 10, 2004 crat, did you use a test kit for the proper dosing of the copper? all copper meds are toxic to fish as well as inverts, and if you od'd the fish with copper that may have led to his demise. that or he was doomed from the beginning. at least now you have a QT to use before adding fish to the main tank, remember to use it for at least 2-3 weeks before introducing a fish to the main tank. longer if disease is present. Link to comment
lgreen Posted July 10, 2004 Share Posted July 10, 2004 they should stop making and selling copper meds. they are worthless and there is new and better stuff. i can't beleive people still put that crap in there tank. Link to comment
pyrrhus Posted July 11, 2004 Share Posted July 11, 2004 really? please tell me what med is more effective than copper for crypto? hypo? not a chance. formalin? way more toxic than copper and not as effective. greenex? that stuff is about as effective as praying for the fish to get better. "reef safe meds"? they arent reef safe and they dont work, period. even Bob Fenner basically says in the new Seascope that copper is the best bet for treating crypto. Link to comment
crat748 Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 did you use a test kit for the proper dosing of the copper? No, I didn't use one. I probably should have had one. I put less than 2 tsp in the tank. Recommended dose was 1 tsp for every 5g. I put about 1.5-1.75 tsp in the tank. I don't know if that is what killed the fish?? When I put my yellow tang in there the next day, he kinda looked the same way at first (skinny and slow moving) but when I put food in the tank, he ate it. I soaked some seaweed in garlic xtreme and put it in the tank and he ate it up. The blue tang ate a little bit and would lay back down on the bottom. I wish I knew what happened to him. Maybe he was just too small and the ich had already taken its toll on him. He looked healthy at the lfs. He did lay on the bottom of the tank a few times when I was watching him before I bought him. The guy at the store said that's what "they" do, nothing out of the ordinary. When I went to another store, I told the owner that I had bought a blue tang the week before. He didn't say anything until I told him that the blue tang had ich. He then told me that those fish are VERY succeptable to ich and he said he would not buy one of those fish because of that reason. Link to comment
pyrrhus Posted July 14, 2004 Share Posted July 14, 2004 tangs in general are indeed ich magnets. Link to comment
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