Purple tang! Second time with ich

[rubertoe93]

Help! This is the second time my purple tang has developed white spot!
I lost my yellow due to it 5 days ago, it’s been clear of the spots for 3 days now and the 4th day developed it again, I’m using polyp lab medic and turned up the temp! I also think it’s spread to my engineer goby who is hardly ever in its cave for the past 2 days what else can I do?! I’ve reduced my light cycle too

 

[MERKEY]

This possibly could be worse than ich. Looks like velvet perhaps. Let's get some help to confirm.

A time line for the yellow tang before his death would help.

@Jay Hemdal

 

[leewish]

Did you remove it from tank and treat in quarantine with medications? Did you run the display fallow to let the parasite lifecycle die out? If not your going to continue getting it.

 

[rubertoe93]

I added them both on the 9th noticed the white spot the morning after on the 10th, that’s when I stared the treatment, the yellow tang died on the 13th up until yesterday the purple tang had no visible evidence of W/S now on the 17th it’s flared back up along with my eniginer goby too, I haven’t stopped the treatment since I started tho

 

[rubertoe93]

I don’t have a QT nor the space for it, I don’t want to take everything out to risk stressing them more,

 

[rubertoe93]

I’m feeding mysis 3 times a day too, they are all eating, seaweed clip in the tank aswell as a small pinch every so often

 

[MERKEY]

This looks more like velvet to me but I don't want to miss diagnose.

What treatment are you doing?

To get rid of this, unfortunately you will need a quarantine tank to administer medication.

Copper is the main go to for most.

You will also need to let the tank go "fallow" or fish less for a period of time. No less than 76 days to get rid of the parasites.

 

[IKD]

sorry to hear your situation. Marine ich has a life cycle on and off the fish, so it may show a spot, go away, then come back in force later. The only way to treat the fish is to either add copper to the display tank (not recommended) or treat in a hospital/quarantine tank with copper or the tank transfer method. You also have to treat the display tank either with copper (not recommended if you have corals or inverts) or leave it fishless for 76-90 days.

 

[rubertoe93]

I’m using polyp lab medic, 6 scoops Morning and night, have been doing for 8 days now
Yeah I think the only way forward would be that,
However would I stress the fish more in doing so, I have no tank for a QT either, other than the tank that comes with my auto top off on my Red Sea refer,
But even if I did
Would it 100% rid the fish of all ich?

 

[leewish]

Quarantine tank can be small. 10-20 gallons. Heater, hang on back filter and some pvc pipe. Nothing fancy. Does not take up much space. Or find a local friend to qt for you.

ive even done tank transfer method in 5 gallon buckets with heater and air stone. But if it is velvet then tank transfer method won’t help.

 

[rubertoe93]

Yeah I don’t think I’m going to be able to set it up and get it sorted and cycled by the time it completes its life cycle,
When people add garlic and vitamin c to there food, can I buy that from the local supermarket?

 

[leewish]

Yeah I don’t think I’m going to be able to set it up and get it sorted and cycled by the time it completes its life cycle,
When people add garlic and vitamin c to there food, can I buy that from the local supermarket?

Quarantine does not need to be cycled. Just do water changes every other day to keep ammonia in check.

 

[IKD]

Quarantine tank can be small. 10-20 gallons. Heater, hang on back filter and some pvc pipe. Nothing fancy. Does not take up much space. Or find a local friend to qt for you.

ive even done tank transfer method in 5 gallon buckets with heater and air stone. But if it is velvet then tank transfer method won’t help.

Just a correction on your note about velvet and tank transfer method. This link was updated which includes TTM steps that cover velvet also. It’s one extra transfer introduced.

Tank Transfer Method

Tank Transfer Method What It Treats – Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) only. How To Treat – Tank transfer (TTM) is my favorite method for clearing a fish of Marine Ich, but the prevalence (and similarities) of Marine Velvet Disease can make TTM a risky gamble nowadays. To properly execute...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[kenchilada]

Quarantine does not need to be cycled. Just do water changes every other day to keep ammonia in check.

And you can use Prime with Copper Power, which is a huge help.

You can kick start with bottled bacteria in a sponge filter also.

Theres really no excuse not to do it and it’s your best chance.

 

[Rickybobby]

That looks like velvet to me. Is the fish swimming into flow? You need to get those fish out and in copper ASAP and the tank fallow

 

[rubertoe93]

There swimming and eating as normal, not swimming in to flow

 

[leewish]

Just a correction on your note about velvet and tank transfer method. This link was updated which includes TTM steps that cover velvet also. It’s one extra transfer introduced.

Tank Transfer Method

Tank Transfer Method What It Treats – Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) only. How To Treat – Tank transfer (TTM) is my favorite method for clearing a fish of Marine Ich, but the prevalence (and similarities) of Marine Velvet Disease can make TTM a risky gamble nowadays. To properly execute...

www.reef2reef.com

Good to know. Did not know that.

 

[IKD]

Good to know. Did not know that.

I didn’t know that either until recently. Even though it’s a lot of time and water, I really like this method and glad it can cover velvet too.

 

[SamsReef]

From the picture, it is velvet. I am going to give advise that might not be popular here.

Velvet is more on the surface compared to Ich. If you cannot quarantine, I would suggest three things:

1) cleaner shrimp is much more effective on velvet compared to Ich. Please add one
2) add a large UV filter
3) feed quality food with high protein and fat content

i have cleared in my tank using these. I did lose an anthias at the time. Won’t lie but never any zebrasomas. If you don’t do anything, this stuff will consume your tang.

Sam

 

[Zionas]

I don’t know how big is your tank but did you observe any aggression between the two? Both are Zebrasoma so they can be likely to go at it with each other, the stress weakens their immune systems and gives disease a chance.

If you can’t QT, UV, diet and water parameters and hope for the best.