blue tang been in qt for over a month. should i add him ?

[Candymancan]

I have a blue tang i rescued from petco a month ago.. horrible case of ich.   I did tank transfer on him for 13 days.. changing the containers every 24hrs with fresh air stones.  after 9 days he cleard up and looked much better but i kep going for 13.   i decided to also do hyposalinity just in case as i noticed he had grey patchs on his skin.

 

Not raised.. deff not ich from what i could tell not flukes either..  Anyway hes been in hypo for 14 days now.. still no ich. Flukes would be long dead being in hypo..  Deff no velvet, brookylnella i dunno i doubt..  Pretty sure hed be dead from that too. And i see no slime coat or raise slimey areas.   its just  grey patchs..  Like he lost pigment in those areas.

 

I just took him out of the qt and put him in a small cup to observe him better with a light..  i see absolutetly nothing on him.. cept those paths still.

 

Maybe bacterial ?  Or stress i dunno.

 

Here is a picture.  What do you guys think ?   He is eating but very very veryyyyy timid.. and hides 24.7 in qt..   Its a 5g tank hes barely 2 inchs.  But hes getting a pinched stomach and i try not to feed the tank too much due to ammonia.. since i just set this qt tank up a month ago plus its in hypo which reduces BB bacteria count .

 

Im thinking of raising salinity and putting him in my main tank...   i really dont think he has ich anymore..  not after tank transfer for 2 weeks and hypo for 2 weeks.

 

Ive done hypo many times but i usually do it for 4-6 weeks minimum..   i dunno.

 

I feel these blotchs are not parasitic but bacterial or stress related and i feel he needs to go in the main tank.

 

What do you guys think ?  Id sure hate to bring ich in my ich free 150 and yes its ich free.. after it being in hypo for 2 months ive not introduced fish or corals from tabks with fish in 5 months

[Tired]

I'd say a 2-inch blue tang in a 5gal tank is very stressed, yes. Even at that size, they need vastly more room. 

If he's not eating, that's not going to help at all. Quarantine tanks need to be cycled so you can feed properly. The thinner he gets, the harder it's going to be to get him to recover. Do you have a larger tank you could put him in? Maybe with some cycled media? 

 

It doesn't look like ich. If he's badly stressed, and there was ich, it would probably surface. Put the salinity back to normal for a few days, see if any ich reappears. If not, he can be reasonably expected not to have ich.

[Candymancan]

I had a fist sized tang inthis tank at hypo for 4 weeks. Who is now in my 150g with no ich.. the tank is fine is fine for temp treatment in emergencies but i agree hes stressed in it..  i have a 20g QT tank but it had 3 fish in with ich that cant handle hypo wrasses.. so i couldnt use it.  So i had no choice but to pull out ny 5g i put in rock and sand from my main tank in it and let it run for 2 weeks while i did tank transfer.  I have no room for a larger qt tank then my 20g in my bedroom.   but it was occupied as i said

 

But yea im thinking its stress or bacteria maybe..  Im already raising salinity now.  Ill raise it over a few days and watch him as i do.. but once salinity is back to normal ima just put him in my main tank.  Also he eats.. i just dont feed lioe 3x a day.. just once

 

I really dont think he has ich anymore.. like you said it looks nothing like it.  So ima just toss him in when i get salinity back up

[RedCrow]

Hypo does weird things to fish. I hypo treated a pair of clowns years ago and both of them had a very think coating of mucus by the end. I actually did the treatment right in my display tank and strangely enough my corals FLOURISHED at a specific gravity of 1.018. I had a hammer that nearly doubled in size during that time. 

[Candymancan]

1.018 isnt true hypo..  i was at 1.007 to 1.009

 

 

[RedCrow]

True it is only partial hypo, but I wouldn’t bring a tank full of coral down that low. 

[Candymancan]

Anyway i put him in my main tank today.. hes been swiming in it all evening.. no hiding like he was in my 5g qt.

 

Hes eating alot too.  Looks healthy.. glad i saved him from being parasite infested from petco

 

 

[Tired]

He's a nice fish, and I hope he does well, but buying him only encourages that Petco to order more tangs. Tangs that are going to get sick in their sale tanks, and then, if they don't die, will probably go into far-too-small tanks because they tell their customers it's fine. 

[Candymancan]

Doesnt matter petco doesnt track their deaths anymore..  So if a fish dies or not they still order them

[Tired]

I'd imagine they track sales.