How screwed am I?

[Jamie]

I have had my eye on a Powdered Brown Tang for a little while. Well, A few days ago, I pulled the trigger and purchased it. He seemed healthy and active. I acclimated him for a long while then introduced him to my tank. Immediately my yellow tang was irrate. He puffed up and really harrased the newest edition...and the brown is bigger than the yellow. I had over-night duty yesterday and came home to the Powdered Brown covered in ich. I'm sure the combo of moving tanks and then getting harrassed put him over the edge.

I have a QT up and ready...but have been very unsuccessful in capturing the new tang. Is there even a remote chance that this will just "go away"? ...Or are all of my fish going to get ich and kick the bucket?

Any suggestions? FWIW...the tangs are being much nicer to one another now...yellow seems to have won.

I tell ya...SW/Reef keeping is just full of ups and downs...never ending. Just when you think thing are getting on track...something else pops up.R

[Kristy]

Try the search function and check out the numerous articles on ich...

We just went through it a few months ago with adding a powder blue and blue hippo to our tank (already had a yellow and purple tang) when we upgraded. Our advice is to feed, feed, feed. We hung algae all the time and fed 2-3 times a day. Eventually they got over it.

[ErikH]

Try to not stress it anymore. Give it ample hiding places by creating caves with your rockwork, and if possible use some egg crate or something to seperate the two. FEED FEED FEED until it goes away.

[Jonthefishguy]

Simply having Cryptocaryon or Oodinium in your aquarium does not mean that everyone else in your system is going to get it. Simply continue to feed nutritious food and keep everyone's appetite in check so that their immune system will be at its best. You can attach a strip of Romaine lettuce (not iceburg) in the tank so that the tangs can eat it. If your yellow chases off the other, place an additional leaf on the other side so that each have their own feeding station. Raise the temp to about 83 to 84. If you have corals and inverts, keep an eye out for signs of distress due to temp rising. After 7 days, gradually loswer the temp back to its original setting.

[CoryDude]

Everyone's right. Keep feeding them their meat and potatoes, and if you're tank's healthy, then it should go away.

Same thing happened when I introduced my scopas tang, except the harassment from tankmates. Good diet and a healthy aquarium took care of the ich.

[jake]

I would recommend getting the smallest cleaner wrasse you can find asap. I bought one about the size of an inch. Since then, I have yet to lose a fish from ick. I currently four tangs(salfin, yellow, hippo, and powder blue) and a fox face all ick free. I also feed smaller doses of food three times a day soaked in garlic juice and ran a uv.

[drgnbttrfly]

Next time QT before you add the fish so it will be rested and not stressed before hand and can be treated for ich if nec. You don't want to introduce that into a closed system.

[reeferRob]

you can Qt that fish for the next 5years and as soon as you put it in with that yellow, it is highly likely it will get ick. I'm not say you shouldn't QT fish but you didn't so it really is kinda late to worry about doing now. PBs are notoriously a bit on the aggressive side as compared with the yellow, and since the yellow is the smaller of the 2 I am fairly certain once that PB gets accustomed to your tank (a couple weeks or so), the ick will disappear and the yellow will know he is not the ruler of the kingdom. Of course all fish are a little different. Follow the advice above and feed, and let it settle down and I'd bet the yellow will do NO more puffing and harrassing. He will step down. JME


Rob

[Jamie]

Thanks for all of the replies. I'll be sure to keep eveyone well fed. Yeah...I was thinking about the QT thing...I'm fairly certain that the ich was triggered by stress caused by the transfer and the bullying from the yellow...so if I had QT'd him...chances are the end result would be the same as both things would have occured regardless.

I have noticed already that the PB is starting to fend for himself when the yellow challenges him. Although the yellow was being pretty greedy/protective of the seaweed nori yesterday. I'm fairly certain that I will have to set up two seaweed stations for them to graze on.

I have fed pleco's romain lettuce before...but hadn't fed it to the saltwater tank. Is it as good as the sushi nori? Does it provide anything different that it would be worth supplementing every so often?