ick! it's ich!

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spooky_doomdom

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 10, 2005
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Wisconsin
About three weeks ago I noticed my hippo tang (Paracanthurus hepatus had ich. I treated it with Ich-X and nothing happened, so I switched to Coppersafe. No results yet. I've already tried raising the temperature and lowering the salinity as well as nightly 10% water changes. I've also tried freshwater dipping. Now the tang also has black dots that are the size of the white ich dots on him. These spots are flat, though. He also has raw sores on his sides where his side-fins hit his body. (The tang is currently housed in a 20 gallon (long) tank with no invertebrates, a cleaner goby (that has ich) and three ocellaris clowns.

Any suggestions? I don't want to lose my tang!
 
Is that tank the permenant home for the tang? I was under the impression that most tangs would enjoy some swimming space, not to mention clownfish can bully other fish around. I am thinking he could possibly be under a great amount of stress which is not letting him fight off infection..
 
That is a semi-permanent home for the tang, he will be in a bigger tank once the ich and everything is under control. My clownfish don't bother the tang. They all seem to enjoy hanging around the fake anemone and not bothering any of the other inhabitants. The tang is hangs around his favourite rock and out in the open. I've had all these fish for at least six months and have never had a problem with any aggression, or illness of any type.
 
According to what I have been reading there are only 2 sure treatments for Marine ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) neither is safe for inverts. One is a copper treatment sometimes with methyline blue as well, follow the directions on the package, the other is hyposalinity, it takes a long time.
They suggest you lower your SG from 1.025 down to 1.009 but that you do so gradually over 2 days, leave the temp at your normal setting but keep the low salt level for at least 4 weeks, preferably 6 weeks. The salt dips only get rid of unestablished tophonts and the tank is still infested so treating the whole tank long enough to kill all the organisms is required. Good luck
 
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