My Tang has Ich, don't have hospital tank

[strendo]

My powder blue tang has got infected overnight with ich. he's pretty covered in it. I don't have a hospital tank. He's in a 150 fowlr with lots of hermits and snails. I don't want to treat the whole tank, can I give him a freshwater dip? Any advice?
Thanks

[howser]

Yep, you can give him a freshwater dip. My advice, if you're commited to the hobby, drob $50 at Petco (or wherever) and pick up a tank you can use as a hospital tank. This won't be the last time you need to treat a sick fish, and you can double it (clean it WELL) as a quarantine tank to prevent breakouts.

[strendo]

thanks, I'll get one tomorrow

[BTTRFLYGRL]

Freshwater dips won't do anything for ich..The parasite is embedded too deep. Get a qt tank ASAP..Remove all fish and treat with either copper or Hypo

[johnnybravo234]

You will definitely need a quarantine tank. In the meantime I wouldnt bother doing fw dips.. you will only stress him out and the ich will come back. Just feed him a lot. Ive used copper to treat tangs and have always had great results. If there are other fish in your main tank they will also need to be treated too to completely eradicate the parasite from the system. The life cycle of ich is about 3 - 6 weeks. If you do not leave your display tank without fish in it the ich will most likely not die off and your tang will become reinfected with ich.

[strendo]

thanks, Ill figure something out. I don't want to kill all my snails and hermits. I have a 35w UV, he looked a little better today.

[tkeracer619]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9037002#post9037002 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by johnnybravo234
Ive used copper to treat tangs and have always had great results.



Tangs have a bacteria in their stomach that breaks down vitamins in their diet. Copper kills this bacteria. IF some survives the copper the tang will be fine, if the bacteria doesn't make it the tang will die from starvation.

Treat ich with hyposalinity in a QT, it is much safer on tangs.

Feed heavily and turn up the temp to 82 to speed things up.

All fish need to be treated and the display left empty of fish for 6-8weeks or ich will come back.