Powder Blue Tang - quarantine conundrum

[Punchanello]

Hi All,

I have just picked up a PBT. I will quarantine him as is best practice. Right now, he shows no symptoms of ich (or anything else for that matter) but as we all know, they are particular susceptible to it and not seeing it doesn't mean it isn't present.

I don't like treating prophylactically and prefer to observe and treat with copper if necessary (not confident with my own abilities using TTM or Hypo). Why subject a fish to distress and shorten its lifespan if it isn't necessary?

This is my first PBT so I asked my LFSs advice and they basically said there's close to 100% chance any PBT will have ich so just treat regardless of symptoms. Do the Reef2Reef brainstrust agree, or am I just prolonging the inevitable by holding off on copper until I observe symptoms?

 

[HotRocks]

My opinion is it's a must with all fish. Heavy emphasis on acanthurus tangs.

 

[Smprc]

TTM is really not that difficult and I've TTM an achilles tang and they do quite fine. I can't think of something that is 100% effective and easy to do. I would strongly consider it. Humblefish has an excellent TTM article. The key is to keep the salinity and temp the exact same when you transfer them, I've never really noticed the fish stress out to be honest. With in 20 min they are perfectly fine. They resume eating and go about their business. I think you can do it! Give it a shot, you really can't mess it up. Good luck!

 

[Maritimer]

At this point, I pretty much assume that any fish I purchase has one or all of the following, all hidden, but present without symptoms, and ready to pounce upon my unsuspecting display:

Ich
Velvet
Brooklynella
Uronema
Flukes
Internal worms
Internal protozoan parasites
Bacterial infections
Lymphocystis

And I wouldn't be surprised by one or three other "oddball" things making an appearance.

The very best way to transmit diseases is to take individuals from distant corners of the globe and confine them closely together for a period of time. It works for fish at wholesalers, and for humans at airports.

~Bruce

 

[Punchanello]

TTM is really not that difficult and I've TTM an achilles tang and they do quite fine. I can't think of something that is 100% effective and easy to do. I would strongly consider it. Humblefish has an excellent TTM article. The key is to keep the salinity and temp the exact same when you transfer them, I've never really noticed the fish stress out to be honest. With in 20 min they are perfectly fine. They resume eating and go about their business. I think you can do it! Give it a shot, you really can't mess it up. Good luck!

You've definitely got me thinking. I'm not set up for it this time around but will consider it for my next fish for sure.

 

[Big G]

With @HotRocks work on using the Hanna HL Copper Checker, the likelihood of injuring your fish with copper is reduced quite a bit. Many of us are having very nice success by using Copper Power and dosing at 1.75 ppm. Those old style color checkers for copper like API, etc. are so unreliable and could be responsible for many overdosing cases and labeling fish as "copper sensitive" to the point where we just didn't use copper out of fear on those fish. Highly recommend chelated copper and the Hanna HL Copper Checker.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Unless you have treated all other fish in your system and held all rock, corals, and inverts without fish for 3 months, you likely have ich in your system at low levels. So proactively treating the PBT without seeing symptoms is likely useless since it will just pick it back up once in your tank.