Ich - My new Regal Tang has it.

[StephenA]

I've searched the site for ich and have concluded the following:

Slowly raise the temp to 82

Find a UV filter

Make sure he eats.

Have I left out anything? I can't use Meds, it's a reef tank.

[georgeortiz]

Hi,
I would stay away from the medications and try to manage it with a temperature change. When I ran fish only and did not use any type of quarantine regimen I was able to get a repreive from wiping out my tank by raising the temp in the tank. However, you may want to be careful doing this since this may cause your reef enviroment to crash. I believe your best bet would be to setup a temporary tank to isolate your tang.

The tank does not have to be big. Just enough for the specimen to be comfortable. Remember it is temporary.

Just add water from your existing setup. No substrate. Make sure your parameters are a duplicate of the tanks.
Try to create a stress free enviroment for your patient here. A good way to do this is maybe put a couple of pieces of pvc tubing in there for the little guy to hide behind. I would also paint the bottom,sides and back of the tank black so the specimen feels a little more secure.
Once you have your specimen setup in this tank you can go ahead and mess with the temp and if this still does not work then you can medicate.
After you have feel that the ick is cured wait a week or so just observing your tang and then you can return him to the tank.

Next time quarantine your fish to avoid any disasters. I am sure you have made a considerable investment of not only time but, money and all it takes is one bad thing to be introduced to the tank to bring it all down.

[DeletedAccount]

The UV filter is not really a great option....

Regal tangs get this often in response to stress of any kind. Normally they will get over it by themselves if they are given a good environment. Make sure that no one is picking in him, do a water change if you have not done one recently, make sure that you are using garlic or garlic extract to help him keep eating and possibly boost the immune system (still slightly controversial as to the immune benefits) and leave him be for a while. Remember the UV sterilzer is pretty expensive and kills good and bad. This works well in some systems, but is not a good idea in most. If you have a healthy environment for the fish he should get over this himself.

[MikeP]

Neon gobies or cleaner shrimp will help alleviate some of the parasites on the fish. Adding garlic to the food along with a vitamin supplement will not cure the ich but can stimulate appetite and boost immune function. Try thawing some mysis shrimp and soaking it in some vitamin c and garlic for a few hours then feed to the regal.

I've had mine for almost 2 years now and he had a slight outbreak of ich right at the start but none since. As always it's a good idea to quarantine fish but unless you have a suitable size quarantine tank for a large tang it's even more stressful for them to be in a cramped tank - I usually add tangs directly to the tank.

Also just a bit of information, most tangs and surgeons have very dry skin with little in the way of slime coat - this makes them easy prey for cryptocaron to attach. To contrast this look at extremely slimy fish like a moray - I can't say I've ever seen one come down with ich.

[dan]

i agree with matt. regals are the worst for geting ich.

Normally they will get over it by themselves if they are given a good environment.

this is the key. good luck

[StephenA]

I've got 1 very large Cleaner Shrimp, I have a water change planned today, and I'll get some of the Garlic Extreme. My homemade food has some fresh garlic in it. Quarantine will be very hard with this guy. He's huge. I would blame it on the stress of being moved from a persons tank to the LFS then moved to my tank all in 2 days.

Thanks for all the help!

[Instar]

Garlic is thought to have some properties that inhibit viral growth and boost the immune system to build immunities to viruses. Ick doesn't fall into that category. I agree with the above, ick on the Regal should disappear in due time. Its spring and with all the temperature, pressure and humidity changes, the tank is bound to fluctuate at night some. Keep it stable and feed your regal well and he'll get rid of it. All tangs seem to get ick more than any other fish. Regals no more than others. It does seem to be easier to get rid of on the Regals by just keeping the tank stable and feeding them well. Generally speaking with ick, if you have trouble getting rid of it, raising the temp and keeping it flat stable 24/7 will help a lot. I really don't think its necessary with the Regal to do that. I'd hold on the UV and wait to see if food and stability do it. You might bring the temp to 80 or even 81 so that its easier to keep stable day and night. Keeping the temp from drifting is a tough thing to accomplish because the air changes and lights are off at night.

[Tim Marvin]

You don't need garlic extreme. The fresh garlic works, and doesn't cost an arm and leg. Just hit HEB and get frsh garlic in the jar and use that juice.

[hippychic]

I too recently aquired a regal-finally-this last Saturday. I got to the LFS and she had just gotten in and was still in the bag. It was Fri. afternoon about 5pm and I had a couple of things to run do, so they were going to hold here until closing in her bag for me so I could acclimate her to my tank instead of her to theirs then mine. Unfortunately, she was let out, so I picked her up the next day(Sat) and rather slowly acclimated her to my tank. Today(Tues) I noticed a few tiny white spots and had read about the whole freshwater dip thing and was contemplating it. She's swimming around being social and eating, occassionally rubbing her one side with the spot on the rock/sand. Should I wait it out awhile?

[captexas]

Definately go with the garlic. You can add some to the tank itself and add some to the food and let it soak in before feeding. I have had a regal tank for over a year now and that always works for me. Mine usually got ich after something stressful like moving all my live rock around or something weird like that. It hasn't had it in quite awhile though.

[hippychic]

Thanks, I'll try it. I also have a couple of skunk cleaner shrimp that she seems to hang out with...hopefully they will help too.