Clown Tang Flashing

[Dilan Patel]

Hey guys so my 6in clown tang has been flashing for a couple weeks now. I know I have ick in my tank but I have yet to see any type of visual cyst or anything on him that I could see. He eats very well and is a healthy weight. I was thinking of catching him and using safety stop to see if that helps? Any Idea of what he could have and what i can do? I have a 10 gallon and a 20 gallon at my dissposal I prefer not to use copper due to the fact I am careless about what goes in what tanks. He has lots of gouges on his sides due to him scraping(flashing on sand, and the back of my tank. Should i leave him be since he is eating and staying at his weight?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hey guys so my 6in clown tang has been flashing for a couple weeks now. I know I have ick in my tank but I have yet to see any type of visual cyst or anything on him that I could see. He eats very well and is a healthy weight. I was thinking of catching him and using safety stop to see if that helps? Any Idea of what he could have and what i can do? I have a 10 gallon and a 20 gallon at my dissposal I prefer not to use copper due to the fact I am careless about what goes in what tanks. He has lots of gouges on his sides due to him scraping(flashing on sand, and the back of my tank. Should i leave him be since he is eating and staying at his weight?

If he's flashing and getting gouges on his sides, then there is something there that is bothering him. Definitely get him into a QT and start treatment. If he's getting gouges on his side you risk those becoming infected as well. Is he the only fish in the tank? If not are any other fish showing any kind of symptoms.

 

[Dilan Patel]

The only two fish that have symptoms are him and the kole which I just now caught and put him in Qt

 

[Dilan Patel]

The Kole I think has ick but is eating like a champ and not flashing at all. the Clown is flashing but no signs of ick

 

[Maritimer]

If there's ich in the system, then any fish can be carrying it at any time - and your rocks are carrying it, in it's encysted form, at _every_ time. Acanthurus tangs happen to be uniquely vulnerable to ich and velvet, as they have a thinner mucus coat than other fish. They just seem to have a much harder time coping with it.

You can (and others have) pull each fish that shows symptoms, as they show symptoms, returning them to the display as they appear to heal - and you could be doing it forever. Once they go back into the display, the next ich theront to stumble across them in the middle of the night is going to have a little celebration, as it burrows into the fish's skin. Your best bet would be to pull _all_ the fish, treat them with copper, Chloroquine Phosphate (CP - available by prescription only, from a veterinarian, in the U.S.) or TTM (Tank Transfer Method - a challenge with a tankful of fish!), and to keep them out of your display for 76 days to starve out the ich population in your tank.

Humblefish has a neat write-up on ich eradication vs. ich management here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-eradication-vs-ich-management.188775/#post-2171424

~Bruce