sick tang

[ttdawg520]

what should i do so i don't hurt any others. i have a 220 with 350 pounds of l. r. having trouble get him out. has a couple white specs, i guess is ick.

[Freed]

OOOH, that's why you should really QT first and then put in the main tank. That way you won't be facing this in the future.

[kevin2000]

Unfortunately most salt water diseases are highly contagious so once a sick fish is introduced into the show tank prudence would dictate that each fish may now be sick. To compound the problem there are few salt water diseases which can be effectively treated in a reef tank ... requiring you to remove all fish to a quarantine tank which can be a real PIA when you have a large tank with lots of fish.

White spots are normally associated with ich which while often deadly isn't as lethal as amylo, brook, and some other diseases.

If you go the Qt route .. I suggest you use hyposalinity which is easier to administer than copper and arguable safer for the fish .. if you leave your ST without fish for 5-6 weeks any ich within the ST should naturally die off.

If you don't go the QT route then I suggest you use the "chicken soup method" ... just keep stress levels low within the tank and feed healthy food ... fish can develop various levels of immunity to ich and your fish may be able to shake off this bout of ich. The downside of this approach is that ich often remains in the tank at a low/unoticable level and may arise in the future .. usually during a stress even (new fish addition, power outage etc).

Good luck.

[kevin2000]

Double posts .. sorry

[stuccodude]

what if i was to purchase a big expensive fish and stick him in a 20 gallon qt tank with a cheap filtration and no uv etc wouldnt that stress the fish out, i believe ich is in all tanks and stresses fish or fish that are prone to stress(powder blue etc) almost always get ich, i have beat ich by keeping the fish eating with garlic etc and i have saved my blue tang with my qt tank only cause it let him be alone and heal and eat, he didnt eat for almost 2 weeks and then bam, i was so happy, now hes doing great and my powder blue got some spots but there gone and everyones happy, good luck y'all

[kevin2000]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10091944#post10091944 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stuccodude
i believe ich is in all tanks and stresses fish or fish that are prone to stress(powder blue etc) almost always get ich,

Thats a common belief but dead wrong. If you have ich its because you placed it into your tank. Ichs just a parasite .. not unlike a tick. Dogs aren't born with ticks and fish aren't born with ich.

Ich is probably the most researched fish disease out there .. about the only thing thats not known about it is how to kill it safely in a reef tank.

[tdchicago]

soak the food in garlic, works for me.

not too expensive, just smelly.