blue hippo tang help...

beckisguy73

Non-member
ok I have a very small blue hippo tang.. I had it for about 3 weeks and when I first got it he had ick and then it was all gone within about 48hours.. Now he seems to have an itching problem.. He always scratches his left side on the rocks so much he is no longer blue there.. he has a big white spot now..

thank you in advance,

Mike
 
sounds like Ich. Ich does not disappear within 48 Hrs by itself. You need to QT it and treat it with medicine or Hyposalinity if you want to eliminate the ich. What you saw was probably just the spores dropping off the tang, making it look like it was gone.
 
dont high temps kill ich?? for the 48 hours it was there it was really hot in my house and the tank was around 84 DEG.
 
dont high temps kill ich?? for the 48 hours it was there it was really hot in my house and the tank was around 84 DEG.

No. Raising the temp supposedly speeds up the life cycle of the ich but does not get rid of it. It just makes the cycle go quicker. Once you have ich in your tank, it can lie in the sandbed for a while, reinfecting other fish.

In order to get rid of it, you need to move all fish to a QT and let the tank lie fallow for 6-8 weeks. Without a fish host, the ich will eventually die.


If you can't QT your fish, then you can try to control it a bit by feeding your fish well, keeping your water clean and trying to keep them healthy so their immune system can fight them off. Ich will remain in the tank though.

I don't know much about that though because I have always quarantined all fish that get ich and performed hyposalinity.
 
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Yup, what everyone else said....

Increase temps will never kill off ick, just speed the process up a bit.

As far as it disappearing, that's a normal part of the ick life cycle. Cysts hatch out, free swimming stage swims around for a couple of days looking for hosts, free swimmers then attach to fish, then several days later they grow large enough that they are visable on the fish (the white spots), and a couple of days later they drop off >>> and the cycle repeats.

At this point you should consider the tank infected. For now, I would suggest feeding well, doing all you can do to minimize stress (so probably do nothing), and start doing some serious reading on ick and what your options are.

In short, you will either "manage" the ick, or "eradicate" it. Managment approaches include; feeding garlic, using cleaner shrimp/fish, UV serilization, reef safe ick "cures", and generally keeping stress minimal and feeding plentiful. Eradication involves removing and treating ALL the fish with Hyposalinity OR copper, while leaving the display fallow for at least 6-8 weeks. Both approaches have their risks and benifits. You'll have to make the call on what to do. (there should be a good amount of info in the "disease treatment" forum on RC, IMO that's a good place to start reading)
 
I've had excellent results managing Ich by feeding heavy garlic and a UV sterilizer. Using a UV is controversial. Some swear by it and others day it does nothing.

I've had great results using the UV since way back the beginning.

YMMV ...
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If you had a fish with Ich, and he is no longer with you. If none of the other fish get it, will it eventually die off? I have not had any signs of it since the middle of May. Does it lie dormant in the sand bed?
 
There is no %100 certain answer to that question.

In general though, ick can be pretty much dormant indefinately. If just one or two cysts attach, but stay hidden in the gills or elsewhere, the life cycle continues. Also no one really knows (as far as I know at least..) exactly how long a cyst can lay dormant on the substrate.
 
I've had great success w/ the hypo treatment in separate tank and letting display go fallow for the allotted time. I know it's a hassle and takes 2 mos. but really worked well and no chemicals involved. The fish really seemed to like the hypo - very energetic and ate extremely well.
 
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