Tangs not meant to be or what???

corpusse · #1 01-02-2015, 12:11 PM

Well the other option is to wait for all your fish to die, wait another 72 days then get new fish.

If you have room for a reef tank you have room for a QT tank. You may need a bigger one due to the fact ich made it into your display but you can run it just for this period then sell the tank and get a smaller tank to use when you add one or 2 or 3 fish at a time ect.

Reef Pilot · #2 01-02-2015, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corpusse

Well the other option is to wait for all your fish to die, wait another 72 days then get new fish.

If you have room for a reef tank you have room for a QT tank. You may need a bigger one due to the fact ich made it into your display but you can run it just for this period then sell the tank and get a smaller tank to use when you add one or 2 or 3 fish at a time ect.

People just never learn... I have pretty well given up preaching on this topic. The prevention is so much easier than the cure, and laziness, rationalization and ignorance are all just poor excuses.

Cody · #3 01-02-2015, 02:44 PM

Best operating practices is one discussion, but it should also be mentioned that Tangs are not always the easiest fish to care for. Having a proper QT system, and following procedures previously mentioned isn't going to guarantee results. You could still have aggression problems, nutrition issues, or general water condition problems. I love having tangs, but some are easier than others, and often they can have you pulling your hair out.

DSlater · #4 01-02-2015, 05:20 PM

I know a lot of people don't like UV's but just throwing it out there.

We had some bad ich outbreaks about a year back, our powder blue was just covered with it. Not being reasonable to set up quarantines for all of our fish, I found a good UV system. Took about 6 weeks till there was no visible signs of ich, ran the UV for another 6 weeks to be safe and took it out.
The UV wasn't cheap but cost less that replacing our fish.

Sorry to hear about he loss of your tangs. Have you thought about being patient and waiting for a good healthy one to outgrow another tank locally? Two of our tangs came from other tanks, already a good size and healthy.

Cody · #5 01-02-2015, 05:23 PM

What's the downside of UVs? I wouldn't keep tangs without one.

Aquattro · #6 01-02-2015, 05:45 PM

I wouldn't waste my money on UV. It's not going to stop or prevent ich. ich is always in the tank unless you take measures to remove it as discussed above.

Slyguy00 · #7 01-02-2015, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

People just never learn... I have pretty well given up preaching on this topic. The prevention is so much easier than the cure, and laziness, rationalization and ignorance are all just poor excuses.

+1. Also unless you have a huge tank, mulitple tangs is just going to continue to cause you issues. Tangs are naturally prone to ich, and sticking them in a confined space only makes it way worse. Those fish swim miles a day in the ocean. If you try cramming several in a tank any less then 150, I believe you will not have very good success. Not to say it can't be done, but I personally dont like taking fish out of the ocean and putting them in a tank that isn't suitable for them and then watching them slowly die.

DSlater · #8 01-02-2015, 10:09 PM

From what I read, a lot of people think UV's will kill off the good as well as the bad. Makes sense in theory.

As for effectiveness of UV on ich... maybe my timing was just really good but I went from every cycle of ich being worse than the last to a clean tank in about 6 weeks. Tank has been clear from ich since.

Aquattro · #9 01-02-2015, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSlater

Tank has been clear from ich since.

No, ich just isn't visible and active right now. I'll bet you, if you hit a power outage and temp drops drastically, or some other major stressor, you'll see ich again. Also, I'd bet that without the UV, you would have seen similar results.

Sure, UV can kill (or otherwise impact the ich lifecycle) but it's never going to clear a system of the parasite.

DSlater · #10 01-02-2015, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquattro

No, ich just isn't visible and active right now. I'll bet you, if you hit a power outage and temp drops drastically, or some other major stressor, you'll see ich again. Also, I'd bet that without the UV, you would have seen similar results.

Sure, UV can kill (or otherwise impact the ich lifecycle) but it's never going to clear a system of the parasite.

Fair enough. I have no way of telling if the ich is lying dormant in the tank now.

I have added three decent sized tangs since then. Had to black out the tank for days, add mirrors for distraction, and rework some rock to slow down the fighting.

Having a sample size of one, I really haven't done enough research to say UV's are the answer or not. Just seems to have worked well for me at the time.