dawgfan1

We recently experienced an ich breakout which wiped out almost all of our fish in our 55g tank, both clowns, coral beauty, pseudo chromis, powder blue tang, it began two weeks ago, and quickly infected everyone, with one exception, the yellow tang. He has no outward signs of the disease, ie. white spots. He continues to eat as normal and is very active. I have noticed that he visits the cleaner shrimp 5 or 6 times a day for a cleaning. I have two questions. First, Is it possible that he has an immunity to ich? Second; having lost the last clown this morning, I realize that it will be atleast 8 weeks for the ich to run its course and die off with out a host, is the yellow clown a host of some kind that will allow the ich to continue to flourish? One last note, my wife began adding garlic to the tank twice a day about a week ago, perhaps this is helping him thrive? Also one more question, as he is the only fish now, what would an appropriate feeding schedule be? Thanks in advance for any feedback.

chadf

Fish who have been around ich before and survive can develop an immunity to the parasite. It is not a full immunity though as it can still be infected. Your tang will probably keep the parasite alive in your tank, but I am not absolutley sure on that. Garlic will help with a fishes immune system so that may be partially the reason for it doing ok. If it were me I would put a dried veggie sheet in there on a clip every day and also feed once daily.

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My 90 gallon reef

Striped bristletooth tang, Coral beauty angelfish, Royal gramma, 2 Occelleris clownfish, Lyretail anthias, Tongue coral, Green frogspawn, Palythoa colony, Orange and green ricordeas, Green striped mushrooms, Crocea clam, About 40 snails of 11 different species, Sand sifting starfish, Emerald crab, 130 lbs live rock, 240 lbs live sand

dawgfan1

Hey Chad, Thanks for the post, I appreciate it. Do you think puting the Tang in quarantine with a treatment is a good idea? We still have all of our inverts, snails, shrimp, crabs and a conch as well as live rock and sand. I don't want to upset the rest of the tank in hopes of maybe adding coral one day. What kind of treatment do you recomend, if any?

hell on wheels

If it was me, and you do have a quarantine tank, I would remove the yellow tang and stick him in there for 6-8 weeks. Without a host in the main tank the ich will run its cycle and die off. That way you are 100% sure your main tank should be ick free when adding more fish, corals or anything else for that matter. Would suck to leave the fish in there, and add somemore goodies, and start seeing spots a few weeks down the road. Mise well deal with it now, and be done and over with it in a few weeks. Just because he is not displaying the white spots, doesn't mean he doesn't already have it. White spots appear towards the last stages of the disease.

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120 Gal Tank - 1 Blue Tang - 1 Foxface Rabbit Fish -1 Clown Fish - 1 Red Spotted Hawkfish - 1 Coral Banded Shrimp - 1 Naso Tang- 1 Cleaner Wrasse - 1 Flame Angel - 4x Peppermint Shrimp - 1 Zoa Colony - 2 BTA's - 2 Hatian's - Misc snails

chadf

I've used a product called cupramine and it worked well for me...in a hospital tank of course. If you are going to treat it leave the display fish free for 6 weeks. Ich dies off in 4 weeks without a host, but 6 weeks is recommended just be be sure.

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My 90 gallon reef

Striped bristletooth tang, Coral beauty angelfish, Royal gramma, 2 Occelleris clownfish, Lyretail anthias, Tongue coral, Green frogspawn, Palythoa colony, Orange and green ricordeas, Green striped mushrooms, Crocea clam, About 40 snails of 11 different species, Sand sifting starfish, Emerald crab, 130 lbs live rock, 240 lbs live sand