Purple tang with ich...

Took a trip to the LFS last night..it was quite an adventure...mainly because I took my 21 month old grandson, Jake, with me. Oh my!!!! Anyways, I picked up a nice Niger Trigger and a Half Black Angel for my FOWLR. They are doing awesome! I also was given (free) a Purple Tang with a major case of ich. Thank goodness for QT tanks! I have treated him with CopperSafe and I'm slowly lowering the salinity. He seems to be holding his own right now, very active and eating well. Anybody have any good pointers for treating ich...I've been reading up on it and have heard of everything from treating with garlic, ginger and whatever....Is there anything that really does work??

 

Hi Seawillow,
From what experience with ich I had years ago with my fish only tank is that copper works great just fallow the directions and make sure that you treat it for the full time that is recommended. What do you have in your quarantine tank? do you have any crushed coral or live rock? As the copper will be absorbed into it and you will not be able to use it in your reef tank as the copper will leach from the crushed coral and rock into your water ....I hope that helps.... ..... John

 

PS the garlic treated food is more of a preventative measure rather than a cure, From what was told ;D.......... John

 

thanks for the response, John. The only thing in the QT tank is the tang. I've got a cascade filter running with filter floss in it. I've decided to change the filter floss twice daily, not sure if this is necessary, but figured it can't do any harm. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.....

 

You may luck out and get a free fish + you will feel good because you saved it. ;D It may pull threw, Just as long as it's gills are not damaged to badly from the ich .......... John

PS I would think that the filter will be ok with just floss in it.

 

I would feed garlic  as part of his treatment.it helps his appetite and w/the ick.i use it when i notice any signs and its gone in a day or so.

 

Seawillow, Sounds to me like you've done everything correctly and all advise above is good. Wow you should change your name to fish dr.

I agree with above in that Garlic is a preventative med that stimulates appetite and not much else. But healthy eating is an effective way of saying off Ick.

 

a quick update on the tang...so far, so good! He's doing better every day. Still eating, too. I may just get lucky here. I was at another LFS and they had one almost the same size selling for $69.00. Cool deal for me if he makes it. Only problem is...I may need a bigger tank sooner than expected ;D

 

;D [smiley=angel.gif] [smiley=daisy.gif] [smiley=goldfish.gif] [smiley=wave.gif]

Some Karma for your trooper of a fishie

 

A bigger tank is never a problem. And a Growing healthy Tang is the perfect excuse to convince the family

J