black ich on yellow tang

[CTIERNEY]

If anyone can help me, I'd really appreciate it.

I noticed very tiny blue/black specs on my Yellow Tang yesterday (7 - 10 spots on each side of fish - none on fins). He is acting perfectly normal. The internet research I have done tells me it is black ich. I also have two clown fish a lawnmower blenny and a damsel. They appear fine. I have some button polyps and 3 curlyque anemones. All appear happy.

I am about a year into the Salt Water business (2 months reef) and I have not had any fish diseases until now. In August I upgraded my 32 gallon to a 55 gallon corner unit. There is probably about 75 pounds of live rock in it. I tested the parameters all the time and it never appeared to cycle. I tested them a few days ago as well and they were fine. The one thing I had not tested since the first month of the new tank is the salinity, I have never had the salinity raise before, only gradually drop a bit. Does this happen? This appears to be a big mistake! I tested it today and it is at 1.026. Maybe this caused the stress to the tang which made him susceptible to the ich?


What should I do now? My plan is...

1) set up a quarantine tank with current tank water since he is used to it, bringing down the salinity (or should it be new salt water).

2) Add new salt water to replace water extracted from original tank, bring salinity down to 1.021. (Or...does this need to be done more gradually than in an hour or so?)

3) fresh water dip for the Tang (if I can catch him) I really didn't want to add stress to the other fish if they appear fine. (Or do they need to go through the same measures?)

The new tank had live sand added and new cured live rocks. Did I somehow bring this parasite into the tank that way or is it always present?

How long do I need to quarantine the tang?

Does the freshwater dip make the parasite fall off the fish?

Can I feed him fresh slivers of garlic? Is this a prevention measure and a possible cure? I put a sliver in the tank last night and the clowns and the tang nibbled it down.

Any help or suggestions would be great! - Thanks

 

[Clurin]

1.026 is not a bad Specific Gravity (it is what I keep my tank at, actually), so I doubt that that would be the cause of the problem.

If you can get him easily into a QT tank for treatment, QT is almost always preferred since you don't stress the other inhabitants of your tank.

Gradually lowering the specific gravity in the QT is probably a good idea, since many parasites can't handle the lower SG. If he is not showing any major stress now, don't stress him out too much, or the disease could rapidly multiply. For that reason, I would not personally recommend a freshwater dip, as I think that would be quite stressful (moreso than the move to QT and any medication you decide to use).

Do you have a cleaner shrimp in the tank? If not, that may be a useful addition you may want to consider. They will eat such parasites off the fish.

 

[bfmc]

Just got rid of the ick on my coral beauty by feeing garlic. I has worked for us in the past and continues to do so.

 

[Fingolfin]

Just got rid of the ick on my coral beauty by feeing garlic. I has worked for us in the past and continues to do so.

ick must be related to Vampires.

I bet that without feeding garlic the ich would've gone away.

 

[CTIERNEY]

Thanks for your feedback.

I have a banded coral shrimp, but every time he gets near a fish and puts his claws up they dart off. Are they unaware he will clean them and think he wants to catch them? Is there a better cleaner shrimp I should buy?

I will move the tang to the quarantine tank, slowly lower salinity and feed him garlic with his other food. I can try to put the shrimp in there too. Maybe with less stuff in the tank, the tang will let the shrimp clean him.

 

[Moe_K]

Try a search for tang and black in this forum.
There's a thread where Dong (dzt6i589034-) and I talk about it for a few posts.
I think if you do nothing the "black ich" goes away on its own.

 

[Reefster]

I’ve read that black spots could be an indication of internal parasites. Is that the same thing as black Ick?

 

[Clurin]

Coral Banded Shrimp are not cleaner shrimp. He won't ever clean your fish (unless they're dead, I suppose).

 

[Salty Dog]

The most common cleaner shrimp is a skunk cleaner shrimp.

Here's a picture:

 

[Reefster]

Can A skunk & a peppermint be in the same 75G tank?
Sorry to hijack this thread

 

[CTIERNEY]

That would explain why they all flee whenever he raises his pinchers!

I just read that the Coral Banded Shrimp may attack the cleaners, but I may try a couple and see what happens. I have a lot of nooks and crannies, maybe they can coexist. I also have a teddy bear crab. He seems to keep to himself and I think he is bigger than the cleaner shrimp. Do you think that will be a problem?

 

[Salty Dog]

Skunk and pepps co-exist fine - at least the 8 pepps worked out fine with the cleaner I had for several months - he disappeared a couple weeks ago...

Eric

 

[pillowfish]

Salty Dog:
Try feeding that gigantic brittle star and maybe he wouldn't have such expensive lunches What is that 2 or 3 now?? Amazing he never touches the pepps though(but at a measely $8 or so bucks...why bother

 

[CTIERNEY]

Black Ich Update - Cured?

I think the Ich is cured.

The Garlic didn't seem to reduce the ich. I purchased a cleaner shrimp from the same store that sold me my Tang. The Tang seemed unresponsive to the Shrimp for cleaning. The ich was tripling its attack and I knew I had to do something. The store owner that sold me the Tang and the Cleaner shrimp recommended the Freshwater Dip. He said he doesn't usually recommend it, but it works for the Black Ich and said they fall right off the fish, but the key is to do it for 5 minutes. So I got up the courage to do it. I had the temp and pH matched to the tank. Then I tryed to get my tang used to eating out of the net, also recommended by the owner, which actually worked. When I finally had enough courage, I scooped him up and put him in the bucket. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. He went to his side a lot, but I would put my hand near him and he would start swimming normally. Since he seemed to be doing fine, I went the whole 5 minutes. I put him back in the tank afterwards and thought I saw a few spots still. Then he swam by and I saw none. This was 3 days ago and the spots are still gone and he seems to be acting fine. This seems to have been the way to go. I hope I am not jinxing myself now....if it comes back I will update this thread.

By the way, the Blenny seems to like getting cleaned!

 

[JayM]

Coral Banded Shrimp are not cleaner shrimp. He won't ever clean your fish (unless they're dead, I suppose).

The Coral Banded shrimp I had in my 92 would clean my yellow tang. It would actually put it's claw in the tang's mouth. Ask Moe, he was amazed when he saw it. Unfortunately, the CBS did not survive my Spring tank crash.

Can A skunk & a peppermint be in the same 75G tank?
Sorry to hijack this thread

Skunk cleaners and pepps can be, but I have seen Coral Band shrimp eat peppermints. Ask Tabittha (pillowfish)

Skunk cleaners will also rob food when you try to target feed your corals or anemones.

 

[Clurin]

The Coral Banded shrimp I had in my 92 would clean my yellow tang. It would actually put it's claw in the tang's mouth. Ask Moe, he was amazed when he saw it. Unfortunately, the CBS did not survive my Spring tank crash.

Wow. I will amend my statement to "Coral Banded Shrimp are unreliable cleaners at best" then. You sure the Tang wasn't trying to have shrimp claws for dinner?