Ick problems with hippo tangs. Please Help!!

jrcastro · 04/18/2006, 05:00 PM

I just noticed my 2 large hippo tangs with white spots (almost certain Ick) last night. What should I do? I have about 10 other fish in this tank (135g) will they get infected? The 2 tangs still eat like pigs & it doesn't seem to bother them.

I started to feed them Garlic xtreme from Kent
http://www.kentmarine.com/foods/garlicxtreme.html
Will this help?

Should I do water change?
Quarantine them then treat?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

allen00se · 04/18/2006, 05:17 PM

my hippo used to get ich sporatically but always fought it off without any help from me. I just fed him lots of seaweed..
Best of luck to ya.

JmLee · 04/18/2006, 05:29 PM

hippos are ich magnets, once ich is in your tank all your fish have a chance of getting it, running a UV sterlizer may help, but in the long run i think all you can do is keep your fish in good health with good water quality, and good varied diet.

kypatriot · 04/18/2006, 06:02 PM

I've never owned a hippo, but I have gotten rid of ich a couple times with a diatom filter. (not repeat infestations, but newly acquired fish in QT)

Basically I just freshwater dipped and let the diatom filter run for a few weeks on the QT. It claims to filter out anything larger than 1 micron, which includes the swimming stages of ich.

I was skeptical, but it was worked a couple times. I guess the idea is that your fish fights off the ones already on it, and the filter removes the swimming ones from the tank.

On a 135, it would take a pretty big filter if you didn't want to use a QT, and it would suck out stuff your inverts would need to be eating.

That garlic stuff never worked for me before. I used it with the first fish I had who got ich (yellow tang), and all it did was make my skimmer go nuts. That fish died. I never lost one with the diatom method.

gchuang · 04/18/2006, 07:35 PM

My hippo got ich when I first got him too.

Just keep them well fed and healthy and they should fight it off in no time. The same goes for the rest of the fish in your tank.

I've found that garlic doesn't hurt either and usually see a positive benefit from soaking food in it first.

After the first week, there were no more signs of ich on any of my fish.

04/18/2006, 05:00 PM	#1
jrcastro Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Vancouver, WA. Posts: 456	Ick problems with hippo tangs. Please Help!! I just noticed my 2 large hippo tangs with white spots (almost certain Ick) last night. What should I do? I have about 10 other fish in this tank (135g) will they get infected? The 2 tangs still eat like pigs & it doesn't seem to bother them. I started to feed them Garlic xtreme from Kent http://www.kentmarine.com/foods/garlicxtreme.html Will this help? Should I do water change? Quarantine them then treat? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. TIA

04/18/2006, 05:17 PM	#2
allen00se Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: OKLAHOMA Posts: 172	my hippo used to get ich sporatically but always fought it off without any help from me. I just fed him lots of seaweed.. Best of luck to ya.

04/18/2006, 05:29 PM	#3
JmLee Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Hohensfels, Germany Posts: 1,545	hippos are ich magnets, once ich is in your tank all your fish have a chance of getting it, running a UV sterlizer may help, but in the long run i think all you can do is keep your fish in good health with good water quality, and good varied diet.

04/18/2006, 06:02 PM	#4
kypatriot Premium Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Lexington, KY Posts: 425	I've never owned a hippo, but I have gotten rid of ich a couple times with a diatom filter. (not repeat infestations, but newly acquired fish in QT) Basically I just freshwater dipped and let the diatom filter run for a few weeks on the QT. It claims to filter out anything larger than 1 micron, which includes the swimming stages of ich. I was skeptical, but it was worked a couple times. I guess the idea is that your fish fights off the ones already on it, and the filter removes the swimming ones from the tank. On a 135, it would take a pretty big filter if you didn't want to use a QT, and it would suck out stuff your inverts would need to be eating. That garlic stuff never worked for me before. I used it with the first fish I had who got ich (yellow tang), and all it did was make my skimmer go nuts. That fish died. I never lost one with the diatom method.

04/18/2006, 07:35 PM	#5
gchuang Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: santa clara, CA Posts: 63	My hippo got ich when I first got him too. Just keep them well fed and healthy and they should fight it off in no time. The same goes for the rest of the fish in your tank. I've found that garlic doesn't hurt either and usually see a positive benefit from soaking food in it first. After the first week, there were no more signs of ich on any of my fish.