Fishmama,

I personally never have lost a fish due to ich, as long as they eat, i see not real issue. Mine get it on & off, If i urn on my lights in the middle of the night, most of my tangs will show ich signs for a few days, sometimes they will carry it for a week or so.

As far as treating, most will use copper in a quarantine tank - isolated from the main system , or use a hypo-salinity treatment while in QT for several days/weeks. Salinity should be raised slowly while in QT back to normal after treatment is done.

some links i googles ont he fast:
http://www.bluereefmarine.com/ick.html
http://www.uberfrags.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1242
http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-exclusives/fama/hypo-salinity-vacation-feeding.aspx?cm_sp=InternalClicks-_-RelatedArticles-_-fish-exclusives/fama/hypo-salinity-vacation-feeding

If you have a UV, try adding that tot he tank for a few weeks, and feeding heavy with garlic ... that may assist, or prove to work for you.

Good Luck.

marco

oh .. and Welcome !

I will sort of disagree with Marco on one point. If you use copper, definitely do it in a quarentine tank.

My disagreement,

Tangs are notoriously prone to ich outbreaks as a result of stress. Ich is almost always present in every tank. If you pull the fish to treat, you will only stress the fish more, and thus increase the risk of fish death as a result of ich. Also, if you pull the fish, I can almost guarantee that the ich outbreak will get worse on the fish, before it gets better. If the ich outbreak is minor, I would let it run its course. If it is major, there are reef safe medications for ich.

Personally, UV sterilizer!!!!

OK, I reread Marco's comments. Nothing really to disagree with.

Before I bought my UV Sterilizer, on the rare occasion that I did have an ich outbreak, I lowered the salinity. This was before I was loaded with SPS. I only had softies and a couple of LPS. They did not seem to mind. However, I would not do that now.

Since I have had the UV Sterilizer, I have had no parasitic outbreaks and one bacterial outbreak (in the coral, fish not affected). The bacterial outbreak occured during a 3 month window when my UV sterilizer was not working due to a bad ballast. Went away within a week of fixing the ballast.

Did I mention the UV sterilizer??

Thank you!

Thanks for all of the advice. It is not a bad break out and the fish seems to be doing just fine, so I may keep him where he is for now. If it gets worse, I'll attempt putting him in my quarantine tank and lowering the salinity. I have never had much luck with copper (even in my QT). Talk to me about this UV sterilizer - what's the cost and the benefits. I just graduated from fans to a chiller this year - so I'm still somewhat primitive.

Fishmama,

Nothing wrong with being "low tech" ... I've known of some higher tech tanks that still crashed ...

UV sterilizers aren't too bad. on a 125 Gal system you'd probably be good with a 25 - 30 Watt unit. Most of our local stores carry them ... Rich @ Boardroom, Jeovanni @ Artistik Aquariums ..etc..etc.. as for price .. probably around $100 - $150. Just use a MaxiJet to feed it ...

If it was me ... i'd try the UV & garlic for a while .. if it gets worse .. QT. I've never had to QT a fish due to ich, and have never lost one due to it.
Your milage may vary.

Good Luck.
marco

Here is a link to Marine Depot's UV section:
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_AquariumPage~PageAlias~uv_ultraviolet_sterilizers_ozonizers__index.html