Regal Tang

[Kieran10]

I have recently purchased a marine aquarium and Iv bought a baby regal tang for it. I was told to get sea weed because it is an important part of its diet but he wont go near it he just takes flake and frozen food. I have also read that they contract ich quite easily and i have noticed that he has started rubbing himself on the rock and the sand does this mean hes got ich??

 

[ox5477]

I don't know if it's the same for marine fish, and I'm not even sure if they get the classic 'ich', but my bala's will rub themselves on things when they start to feel ich coming on. So I just watch their scales and if any are flaked off or scarthed, then I will watch hard for the next few days as they are prob gonna get ich. But this only happened once for me when I stupidly put a fish right from the lfs into my tank without quarentine I'll never do that again

 

[Kieran10]

What can i do to get rid of the ich if it catches it?

 

[Eelzor]

I got algae for my regal and he doesn't seem to go for it either . He eats mysis/brine/krill/angel food/spirulina/flakes/pellets etc but not the vege-food. He seems to nip on algae growing in the tank though.

As for the ich (rubbing on rock as you say), I use Waterlife Sterazin. Can't have some inverts in tank while treating the tank while that is being used though.

 

[Kieran10]

What about my live rock coz iv heard that some treatments kill them??

 

[Eelzor]

Haven't heard of any medication that kills live rock - best read the label on that one. The one I recommended doesn't though.

 

[Kieran10]

ok cheers pal

 

[Kieran10]

That treatment that you recommended will it kill cleaner shrimp?

 

[boshank23]

be carefull of any copper based treatments, it will wipe out your corals.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, if that treatment contains copper, do not put it in any tank that you either now have corals in, or plan to have corals in the future. Copper is exceptionally toxic to corals and other invertebrates and will leech into your silicone seals only to come out again at a later date and kill corals added long after treatment.

 

[Eelzor]

That treatment that you recommended will it kill cleaner shrimp?

Quoted on what it says on the bottle,

Do not use when crustaceans, echinoderms, rays, seawater sharks, pirahna, sturgeon or sterlets and related species are present. In these instances use Waterlife PARAGON.

So yes, it would harm cleaner shrimp - Like I said some inverts can't be in the tank while using it, so Waterlife Paragon seems to be the answer here.

Here's a list of Medications that you might be interested in too -

Aquarium Disease Treatments

(Also as the others have stated make sure the medications are not copper based. Waterlife Paragon is safe for inverts so it obviously doesn't contain any copper )

 

[Kieran10]

Thanks alot. Im also planning to get some more fish for my tank will it be ok to add new fish to it while im treating the tang?? Also is white spot the same as ich??

 

[Eelzor]

Thanks alot. Im also planning to get some more fish for my tank will it be ok to add new fish to it while im treating the tang?? Also is white spot the same as ich??

It'd be best to not add anything during tank treatment to prevent other fish getting it. (Think someone answered that one in another topic of yours) And white spot is indeed the same as ich.

 

[Kieran10]

ok thanks my tang hasnt yet started to get the white spots on him would it still be ok to treat him??

 

[Eelzor]

ok thanks my tang hasnt yet started to get the white spots on him would it still be ok to treat him??

If he's rubbing himself on the rocks a lot then thats usually the early signs of disease. So he can be treated.

On a similar topic, a long time ago I used to own Clown Loaches (Freshwater Tank) and there was an ich outbreak upon failing to quarantine a new Pictus Catfish. When I realised that they had the disease it was almost too late and 2 of the 4 loaches died. (They had quite a bit of white spots on them)

So back to this topic, from my experience, the earlier the better in treatment.