Orange Shoulder Tang

[mwalker0420]

I recently picked up a orange shoulder tang, he is about 2-2 1/2" long, ive had him for about 4 weeks now. I tried to pick up a yellow tang to go along with him but when i got him home under good lighting i could tell he was just filthy with ick(poor lighting is lfs). The yellow tang died the next morning. That was 1 week ago. Now my orange shoulder( who is still yellow) has dark brown spots on him and is not roaming the tank like he usually does. I have a 125g, i tested all the parameters and everything looks fine, water wise. Is there a chance that the ick was transfered to him in just 24hrs or do i have other problems with the fish? As far as i can tell there isnt any white spots on him but he is also very shy atm. Im open to any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

 

[mal1099]

i have an orange shoulder tang also and when he got ick it looked like brown spots on him. Glad to say he is doing well as are all my fish now. I know alot of people dont like the reef safe medicines but i have used "No sick fish" products in my tank.After the dosing period fish were better looking with no further break outs of ick. None of my inverts or corals seemed to mind the medication also. Good luck with your orange shoulder they look amazing when they get big mine is 8 inches atm.

 

[Scooterman]

What are your Parms? Ammonia, Nitrate & Nitrite? Do a test and a few hours later do them again. What test kits are you using? Anything to cause stress.? How is he eating, are you feeding it some veggies? Yes once exposed to Ick most likely he will get it. What other fish do you have?
Guessing at the issues here but try a few of these, it can't hurt. I'd change out about 30 gallons, make sure temp., salinity is dead on, larger water changes the better, on top of that load up on carbon. If the fish stays stressed then you need to try and determine his symptoms & read through Lee's forums for some sort of id & do this quickly. It may be necessary to QT this fish to give it the best chance of survival. Also lee has some good information on proper feeding, most people take this for granted along thinking their parms are good, two things not easy to do consistently.

 

[baseballkid5]

Do you have any Corals in your tank or is it a fish only? If its is in the tank with others can spread as well. If no Corals a Hyposalinity Treatment will be your best bet.. Pain in the Azz but works 100% of the time..

 

[NC2WA]

For ich to survive it needs a HOST where HOST equals a fish..so most likely it spread to other fish, so I would treat the fish as if it does have ich...there is something called black spot..the treatment is the same as regular ich...Lee Birch has a sticky in his forum on how to treat Ich.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/compldiagnodisease/a/aa041701.htm

 

[mwalker0420]

Thank you everyone for your responses, unfortunately my tang passed away. I believe i made a major newbie mistake, found out the hard way that my hydrometer was broken. I had one of those cheap plastic ones....time for a nice refractometer. After the yellow tang died on me i did a water change, the water change lowered my DT salinity by .003, im guessing that big of a change stressed the orange shoulder out even more and gave him the final KO? I have 2 clownfish, 1 chromie, 2 gobies atm, all of them got the ick but no deaths yet. I have since set up a QT and now have the clowns in there and will hopefuly be putting the other 3 in today...if i could only catch them. lol

 

[Scooterman]

Sounds like you've read up on some of Lee's great threads, I feel the information he developed & posted here is some of the most reliable information regarding fish, you can get. Even though it can be difficult to do or follow through it does provide the necessary information to have a healthier tank full of fish. It can get expensive if you have to learn the hard way, with the resources we have here hopefully it helps many new reefers in all aspects, even though technology changes rapidly in this hobby it still builds a great foundation of knowledge when first starting out.
Hopefully you can recover your all of your remaining & next time you get a new tank mate you'll have what it takes to make it a great home & long life.

 

[NC2WA]

Sorry to hear your loss, but at least you take something positive and learn from this experience (which it sounds you have)..I would it is time to throw away the plastic hydrometer and get a reliable refractometer.. Salinity, temp, and pH needs stability otherwise disease can set in.

 

[ac7av]

Thank you everyone for your responses, unfortunately my tang passed away. I believe i made a major newbie mistake, found out the hard way that my hydrometer was broken. I had one of those cheap plastic ones....time for a nice refractometer. After the yellow tang died on me i did a water change, the water change lowered my DT salinity by .003, im guessing that big of a change stressed the orange shoulder out even more and gave him the final KO? I have 2 clownfish, 1 chromie, 2 gobies atm, all of them got the ick but no deaths yet. I have since set up a QT and now have the clowns in there and will hopefuly be putting the other 3 in today...if i could only catch them. lol

I think the sale at petco is still going on until the 16th on the $1 per gallon sale. You really should go pick up a QT tank for any new fish and for treating any sick fish. After having problems my self at one time with ich I will never never never put a new fish from a fish store directly into my main tank. It’s a good way to train your new fish to eat what you’re feeding and to make sure they are not sick. Lee also has a sticky about QT new fish. It is well worth your time as you can see after loosing some nice fish. I also learned the hard way about newbie mistakes. I lost my entire tank worth the fish. Fish count on that one was
6 yellow tangs
2 lyeartail anthies
1 dotty back
6 damsels
2 clowns
1 kole tang
And that’s never going to happen again.