Need Help with Scopas Tang

[JTN54]

Hi everyone I’m brand new here so bear with me. I currently am trying to treat a scopas tang that had some ich. I’ve had him in quarantine for almost a week now and he has no visible white spots but he is still constantly scratching against the rocks which is something he never did even with the white spots. My copper levels read between 0.25 and 0.5 with cupramine. I’m not really sure what to do anymore so any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Hi everyone I’m brand new here so bear with me. I currently am trying to treat a scopas tang that had some ich. I’ve had him in quarantine for almost a week now and he has no visible white spots but he is still constantly scratching against the rocks which is something he never did even with the white spots. My copper levels read between 0.25 and 0.5 with cupramine. I’m not really sure what to do anymore so any help would be much appreciated.

with marine ich, keep siphon cleaning your QT bottom daily to ensure ich cycle is disrupted. Would you be open to getting a neon blue goby and adding it into QT, then in month or so they can both go into DT?

The neon blue acts as a "nurse". They only have a 2 year lifespan, but I consider essential for my tangs. Currently I have 2 as I needed another 'nurse' for QT ... and I love how in DT 'nurses' pal around. Wondering if copper (or ich you can't see) is irritating your tang, but thinking having the nurse in there will help. NOTE: neon blue gobie nurse will catch the ick. You'll still need to treat nurse with copper. Neon blue gobies don't seem to clean each other even when visible ich... (annoying) just everyone else. Also think having nurse in QT will distract the tang from the more harmful rock scratching with instead the sideways/scoop swimming trying to encourage nurse to jump on and clean.

 

[JTN54]

with marine ich, keep siphon cleaning your QT bottom daily to ensure ich cycle is disrupted. Would you be open to getting a neon blue goby and adding it into QT, then in month or so they can both go into DT?

The neon blue acts as a "nurse". They only have a 2 year lifespan, but I consider essential for my tangs. Currently I have 2 as I needed another 'nurse' for QT ... and I love how in DT 'nurses' pal around. Wondering if copper (or ich you can't see) is irritating your tang, but thinking having the nurse in there will help. NOTE: neon blue gobie nurse will catch the ick. You'll still need to treat nurse with copper. Neon blue gobies don't seem to clean each other even when visible ich... (annoying) just everyone else. Also think having nurse in QT will distract the tang from the more harmful rock scratching with instead the sideways/scoop swimming trying to encourage nurse to jump on and clean.

Thanks so much for taking your time to reply to me! I did not know about this and would certainly not be opposed to getting a neon blue goby! I will look into acquiring one as soon as possible!

 

[vetteguy53081]

When a fish is seen scratching or rubbing on rocks or other objects (even the substrate), it is a sign that the fish's skin is irritated and the fish is trying to remove the irritating material. The material is normally cysts from either Cryptocaryon (marine white spot disease, ich) or amyloodiniosis ( Oodinium , marine velvet, or coral reef fish disease).
Velvet is generally smaller than the ich trophant. some signs of velvet are:

• Reduced or complete loss of appetite.
• Heavy breathing, scratching, flashing, head twitching, erratic swimming behavior (unfortunately velvet shares all these same symptoms with ich & gill flukes.)
• Swimming into the flow of a water pump/wavemaker/powerhead (unique to velvet).
• Acting reclusive (velvet causes fish to be sensitive to light).

My guess is Oodinum. Marine Oodinium (Amyloodinium) is present in a free-swimming and infective form in most ocean environments that wild fish are imported from. The Amyloodinium Dinoflagellate is extremely hardy and can withstand a wide variety of salinity (specific gravity) and temperature fluctuations.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

with marine ich, keep siphon cleaning your QT bottom daily to ensure ich cycle is disrupted. Would you be open to getting a neon blue goby and adding it into QT, then in month or so they can both go into DT?

The neon blue acts as a "nurse". They only have a 2 year lifespan, but I consider essential for my tangs. Currently I have 2 as I needed another 'nurse' for QT ... and I love how in DT 'nurses' pal around. Wondering if copper (or ich you can't see) is irritating your tang, but thinking having the nurse in there will help. NOTE: neon blue gobie nurse will catch the ick. You'll still need to treat nurse with copper. Neon blue gobies don't seem to clean each other even when visible ich... (annoying) just everyone else. Also think having nurse in QT will distract the tang from the more harmful rock scratching with instead the sideways/scoop swimming trying to encourage nurse to jump on and clean.

you probably know this, but copper will have soaked into your QT rocks, so never put those rocks in your DT as they will harm any shrimp or other inverts. Also can't use cleaner shrimp in copper (but my experience with cleaner shrimp says blue gobies are much better 'nurses' than cleaner shrimp... despite names!

 

[JTN54]

When a fish is seen scratching or rubbing on rocks or other objects (even the substrate), it is a sign that the fish's skin is irritated and the fish is trying to remove the irritating material. The material is normally cysts from either Cryptocaryon (marine white spot disease, ich) or amyloodiniosis ( Oodinium , marine velvet, or coral reef fish disease).
Velvet is generally smaller than the ich trophant. some signs of velvet are:

• Reduced or complete loss of appetite.
• Heavy breathing, scratching, flashing, head twitching, erratic swimming behavior (unfortunately velvet shares all these same symptoms with ich & gill flukes.)
• Swimming into the flow of a water pump/wavemaker/powerhead (unique to velvet).
• Acting reclusive (velvet causes fish to be sensitive to light).

My guess is Oodinum. Marine Oodinium (Amyloodinium) is present in a free-swimming and infective form in most ocean environments that wild fish are imported from. The Amyloodinium Dinoflagellate is extremely hardy and can withstand a wide variety of salinity (specific gravity) and temperature fluctuations.

Thank goodness it’s not velvet as I’ve been down that road before . My Tang has great color and no more white spots and Is eating. I’m going to continue my copper treatment for another week or two and see what happens. LFS said that scratching can be a part of the process or the free swimming stage of the life cycle but I check my parameters daily and copper twice a day!

 

[JTN54]

you probably know this, but copper will have soaked into your QT rocks, so never put those rocks in your DT as they will harm any shrimp or other inverts. Also can't use cleaner shrimp in copper (but my experience with cleaner shrimp says blue gobies are much better 'nurses' than cleaner shrimp... despite names!

Yes! My QT only has the tang as I’ve made this mistake once before lol

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Thank goodness it’s not velvet as I’ve been down that road before . My Tang has great color and no more white spots and Is eating. I’m going to continue my copper treatment for another week or two and see what happens. LFS said that scratching can be a part of the process or the free swimming stage of the life cycle but I check my parameters daily and copper twice a day!

The completion of ich entire life cycle can be between 9 and 40 days and is temperature dependent, so don't prematurely take out your tang (and neon blue gobie nurse, if you get one). Don't freak out if white spots reappear. They'll be less each time they reappear. Keep siphoning cleaning bottom of QT daily to break cycle. Since there is actual rock in there, pay special attention to crevices, etc. FYI I use PVC in my QT.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank goodness it’s not velvet as I’ve been down that road before . My Tang has great color and no more white spots and Is eating. I’m going to continue my copper treatment for another week or two and see what happens. LFS said that scratching can be a part of the process or the free swimming stage of the life cycle but I check my parameters daily and copper twice a day!

yes- the trophants can live another 14 to 21 days

 

[Sam816]

you should wait another week before any move/change. keep copper level stable. the scratching (acc to my experience) lasts 2 weeks as least. also keep an eye on what part of its body is it scratching. with ich it could be head or other body area but with flukes the fish usually scratch gills area. if its the gill area then fresh water dip might help. what i'll do in that case is mix fresh saltwater in a bucket and add cupermine to current level and raise its temp to current level too. then give the fish a fresh water dip. if its not laying flat or breathing slow (fast breathing is normal) then i would do a 5 min dip, move the fish to freshly mixed water bucket and check for flukes. discard this water.
remove the water from QT. move freshly mixed saltwater and fish to QT.