Yellow tang and ich?

So just about 24 hours ago I got a yellow tang from my LFS. I know that they were there at the store for about a week. I inspected it carefully for white spots etc. Nothing. Today when I get home from work, white spots all over the fins and head etc. I immediately got him out of the tank and into a seperate environment. So many questions now. What's the likelyhood that the rest of my tank has got it? How do I get rid of it? Thanks for any help...

 

Oh and one more question, should I be pissed at my lfs?

 

1) prob not your whole tank got it 2) you take out all of the fish put them in a separate tank for 6-8weeks (believe me I didnt want to do it but it worked. 3) Iwouldn't only if they sold it to you if it had ich.

 

bump to fish lover your tank might have it and to make sure pull everyone out then let sit for 6weeks around that. Then hopefully the tank you put them in is a QT tank i like treat with copper and rid-ich kills it right off. Tank always runs copper but the rid-ich only when i am dealing with ich.

 

It could have been in the tank with your other fish. If they develop a partial immunity (the method of combatting ich most people use...), then any fish you put in later on will break out in ich hardcore.

Also, you can't see the ich on your fish for a few days after the parasite ends up embedding itself in the fish, so if it got ich 3 days ago, you wouldn't see the spots till at least todayish.

 

I haven't even had the fish for 24 hours. I took it out tonight and it's in a seperate container. To make matters worse, when I got home from dinner, I found my flame angel dead. I'm so livid tonight. This tank has been up and running for over 2 years with no issues, I add one yellow tang and all he'll breaks loose in 24 hours... Since the spots just appeared today, that means the tank at the store must have it. My flame angel was my favorite fish. Such a depressing evening...... The guy at the store told me to do a non-salt bath for 5 minutes and all the parasites will die. Any truth to this??

 

the ones on the fish should die but with your angel dieing most likely means its in the tank and in 3 of the 4 phases of ich you really can't see. So your best bet is to have a QT tank start dosing meds and let your tank sit fishless for about 4-6weeks

 

The parasites burrowed under the tang's skin won't be affected by a freshwater dip, only ones not-yet underneath.

If ich was in your tank beforehand, it would make sense that when the tang showed up, and stressed the angel, it died from an infection that wouldn't have normally been considered "serious". You can easily have a tank up for 2 years, never see a spot on a single fish, then find out you have lots and lots of ich. Ich likes to live on the gills, and the gills are the most susceptible area of a fish, which means it can hide for long periods of time, and not make itself known.

I agree with hasek, that the best treatment is QT all the fish, use copper to cure them of ich, and let your DT sit for a few weeks fishless to make sure the cysts die off and you don't get a reinfection. Then, QT all new fish for >6 weeks and treat them if they show symptoms; you end up with an ich-free DT this way, guaranteed.

 

+k with blackraven i learned the hard way now all my fish get QT'ed for about 3-5weeks and i always keep the QT running just in case of an out break. Also make sure you are not dumping your LFS's water into your DT the fish might not have had ich but the water could have had it.

 

It looks like QT is the way to go.. I'm just a little shocked that MY tank would be the source of ich considering I have always looked for it and never had trouble with new additions before.. Even investigating the flame angel, I found nothing around gills or anything... Literally yesterday before the tang everything was perfect.. now in 24 hours I'm dealing with this.

QT questions. do i need to set up another system completely? as for my DT, if there are no fish, then ich cant survive? Should I wait a few days to see if any other fish shows signs of ich? Would I leave all the corals etc in the DT while its empty of fish? Thanks for your help.. very frustrating evening....