# powder blue tang help



## pjg (Jan 26, 2010)

my uncle bought me a powder blue tang as a present and he is scratching himself against the live rock. i think its ich. i have a 75 gallon comunitty reef tank with 2 clown fish,3 pajama cardinals,1 lawnmower blenny,1blue green reef chroim,1 diamond watchman goby,1 saddleback wrasse,1 anemone,and 1 purple tree coral. so here are some pics of my powder blue tang they are kinda blury but good.


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

I def don't see any ich on that fish, you know what ich looks like right?
Normally scratching is a behavior that has to do with some type of worm they are trying to brush off, like an anchor worm. Im not too sure if thats a common saltwater fish illness though. 
From the picture it looks like a healthy powder blue tang.


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## petlovingfreak (May 8, 2009)

It could very well be ich, just not visible yet, keep an eye on it, i hope you don't get an outbreak of ich, because it can be a pain! I'm guessing you didn't quarentine him first? From the pics he looks good though, nice looking tang


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## pjg (Jan 26, 2010)

thanks this is my first tang. i looked up that powder blue tangs easly get ich.


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## pjg (Jan 26, 2010)

thanks i think he looks good too. he is also a really big eater. :lol:


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

The common nickname for all tangs is "Ick magnet."
Trust me. Is has ick. It's a tang and you didn't quarantine it. It has ick, simple as that.

The tricky part is...WHICH ick does it have? There are many different saltwater "icks' out there. All of them are very bad. Very, very, bad.

You might have gotten lucky so far with all those other fish, but now everything is different. If you don't take immediate steps to get ahold of this situation, it is going to get nasty. I hate to have to scare you like that, but it really is that serious. An infected tang in a 75 gallon tank already full of other fish is the match to start a wildfire, and in a tank like that, ick does indeed spread like wildfire.

There are several options available for treatment, some of them almost easy, some a royal pain. There is a new thing on the market recently called "Herbtana" or somesuch which has a sister product by the same company. I don't remember which one it is that you might want, but one of them is supposed to be easy, safe, and effective. I haven't tried it, though. I offe it as a possibility since you're 11 and probably don't have the extra tanks and money it would take to try something else.

Good luck. You'll need it.
By the way, please ask your well-meaning relatives to not buy you any more fish, since it's important to know about saltwater fish before you buy them. Powder Blues are a notoriously difficult species to keep for very long, which you could have known if you looked it up first, which you might have done if it were you shopping for fish.


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## pjg (Jan 26, 2010)

i research fish at least once every week on some of the fish on liveaquaria.com i know a lot about tangs and i looked at all of the levels in my tank and they are good. my uncle is the one who buys me my aquarium stuff. if you can tell me what to do with out another tank i am up for it.


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## petlovingfreak (May 8, 2009)

I made the mistake of not having a quarentine tank, and the results were devistating, I have since learned my lesson after losing many very beautiful fish. And can you guess what kind of fish I didn't quarentine, yep, a yellow TANG.... gave me ick and it sucked! I hope it isn't as disasterous for you as it was for me, good luck.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

I sent you a PM


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