Tangs and Ich

LionFish47 · Jul 27, 2017

I have a 70 gallon community tank that I am restarting, it has two small clownfish and an anemone that just recently cloned itself into two. The tank has a recurring issue involving macro algae and I found some tangs that should eat it online. My issue is that tangs are so prone to ich that I worry about endangering the rest of the tank. What would be the best way around this? Buy local? Use medicine for treating ich? What type if so?

Barrett · Jul 27, 2017

Quarantine for 30 days min with copper or cp, or use tank transfer method and then observe for at least two weeks to look for signs of velvet.

aykwm · Jul 27, 2017

Quarantine. You should quarantine every fish for few weeks to observe and ensure it is parasite free. During quarantine you can decide whether to add medication or not. I usually quarantine by performing TTM + Prazi, then 2 weeks observation. This will ensure I have no ich or flukes and give me a month to watch for anything else that can pop up during the process and ensure its treated properly before it contaminates the DT.
If you are restarting the tank, I recommend also to perform TTM on the clownfish to ensure they dont carry ich and infect the tangs after quarantine. Even if clowns never shown ich signs, they might still be carriers.
you can read more about TTM here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tank-transfer-method.192655/

Best of luck

Gweeds1980 · Jul 27, 2017

In terms of ich, the best thing is to have a separate QT in which you prophylactically treat all new purchases... treat fish with copper for 30 days and observe corals and inverts whilst leaving fish free for 76 days. If you can, have 2 separate QTs, one for fish and another for the inverts so that there's no risk of copper hanging around (and so you can quarantine fish and inverts at the same time).

Tangs are indeed more prone to ich, but the parasite has to be there in order to infect. If you treat with copper for 30 days this will kill ich, as will being in a fish free environment for 76 days.

There is no other way to ensure you are completely free of ich.

If you do set up a QT, then take the opportunity now to treat the clowns and leave DT fallow for the 76 days, that way you know you're starting with an ich free tank.

Remember to NEVER swap any equipment between your DT and your QT. You will need to QT everything which isn't fish for 76 days fallow before it goes into the DT. This includes rock, sand, everything (except macroalgae as ich can't encyst upon that, just give it a very good rinse in tank water which is then discarded).

On a separate note, no tang is suited to a 70g imo... you might want to look at other algae eaters or make sure you get nutrients (no3 and po4) under control from day 1.

Good luck!