regal tang?

[jwils27]

i am considering a regal for my tank. who here has had regal tangs and did they get sick? what did you do and what was the out come? is there any preventative measures i should take before getting one? if you have any other information that would be great. thanks everyone

 

[jessezm]

Got one in from the solomon islands about two months ago. He was a baby--about 2-3 inches (ordered online). I acclimated him for 45 minutes to my tank water, then did a pH/Temp controlled freshwater dip with Paraguard for 30 minutes. He did great through all of that but he still got ich. Best would have been to QT him but I was not set up for that, unfortunately.

The Ich has been minimal, though. Just a light dusting from time to time, as well as some scratching against the rocks that I see from time to time.

He has continued to grow and eats very greedily, and has had no visible signs of ich for the past several days, even though one of the new fairy wrasses does.

What I do, since I cannot catch all the fish and let the tank lie fallow, is soak every meal in Garlic Extreme and Zoecon to try to keep the fish fat and healthy, and so far it seems to be working.

What I would do if I were to do it again would be to try to secure a specimen from someone else's tank, which had been healthy for a long time. And still I would QT it. Any fish that comes in from the wild, though, is going to come in with something, and it's much easier to catch it early and treat it in QT than wait and deal with it in your main tank...

 

[jwils27]

do you guys think UV is a must?

 

[rgzfly]

I have three in my tank and did have ich once. I have alot of corals and treated with chem-marin stop parasites. I've never seen ich again. Its been about a year. I do have a uv, but only turn it on once in a while. They work well with fish only, but I don't really like to use it in the reef. Definately quarantine if you can. You'll want to make sure they are acclimated properly. A good fish, not aggressive, and you can put a couple in the tank together, especially if you put them in at the same time.
Richard

 

[cameron]

After seeing people go round and round with the ick problem, namely Brandon. His fights with it convinced me to go UV. It is strictly a working opinion that could be very wrong, but I am all for running cleaner shrimp and UV to help with the parasite problem. Natural may be the best way to go short of nuking a tank with anti-parasite medication.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Tangs have low immune systems for sure, but good water quality, feed them regularly with lots of seaweed and give them a vitamin supplement and I doubt you will have any real problems out of a typical regal.

 

[FutureInterest]

The regals are definately more prone to ich than other fish. If ich is in your system, the regals will get it and it will multiply readily on that fish. This is why its known as an ich factory. If you don't have ich in your system and you qt the regal with hypo before putting it in your tank then you should be fine.

Personally, at the first sign of ich in my tank 6 months ago I threw on a 40 watt UV and ran it 24/7. I haven't had any sign of ich again. Mind you ich probably exists in my system but I haven't seen any symptoms of it so we're at an acceptable equilibrium. I also use garlic but that's another story...

For more information on ich read this article :