Keeping a powder brown tang long term

[ErikVR]

Hi all,

I've had my power brown tang for three months or so. My fish store sold him with the warning that they are very prone to ich. After the first month he already developed a bad case of it. Luckily I had no corals to speak of. So after some advice from the great people on here, I put my DT trough a month of hyposalinity. He survived the infection (barely!) and is doing great again. Looking healthy and his curious personality is back.

After the infection I've added an smart ATO, sensitive temperature controller and oversized UV that is running at the flow rate for managing ich.

My question is, are people keeping this fish successfully in the long term? Or will I be on constant alert with him?
Right now I'm constantly worrying that he'll get infected again and that he will take the whole tank with him next time. Is that feeling justified or should he be fine after his first infection?

 

[Mau1J1m]

I'm sure others with way more experience/knowledge on the matter than I will chime in as well, but from what I had gathered when researching pretty extensively into possibly caring for one, the answer I had found was unfortunately a yes to all of the questions above. Their "time bomb" status was enough to take it out of the cards for me, even though it is my favorite fish in the hobby.

There are folks who pull it off, but it pretty much never sounds like an easy ride, something you probably should be constantly on the alert with, and justifiable to be concerned over.

The fact that you are already addressing temp/salinity stability and running a uv is a great start, and good on you for doing so! High quality diet & appropriate flow are also important to make sure to provide. Also don't overlook aggression from tank mates as a possible stress event that could be the catalyst for another outbreak.

Ich is definitely not something that it's going to develop a resistance to, and since it's already in the tank, your only real move it to try to keep the overall parasite count as low as possible & manageable for the fish. Glad to hear he made it through the first occurance though, and best of luck keeping that streak running!

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Wait, powder browns are hard fish to keep? That's news to me. I wouldn't say they're any easier or harder than any other tang. The key is a healthy diet and food soaked in vitamins. I add selcon and vitachem to the food and my PB is as healthy as any other fish in the tank.

This was taken yesterday, and I've had him for over 5 years.


I have ich in my tank but it's rare to see signs of it on the fish. Thats accredited to healthy diet.

 

[bluemon]

Since you went through hyposalinity, your tank does not have ich.

As long as QT EVERYTHING from now on, you will most likely not have problems.

And I mean EVERYTHING. from fish to corals to rocks

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Since you went through hyposalinity, your tank does not have ich.

That's not necessarily true. Hyposalinity is a hard way to ensure eradicate ich. There are strains of ich that can survive 1.008.

Although a hyper saline environment is great for the fishes stress level, it's not a sure fire approach.

 

[ErikVR]

Since you went through hyposalinity, your tank does not have ich.

As long as QT EVERYTHING from now on, you will most likely not have problems.

And I mean EVERYTHING. from fish to corals to rocks

I'm on a strict quarantine routine with active treatment when it comes to fish. Corals will be more complicated.

I'm holding off on corals for now because I want to get maintaining the tank down to an art. Still in the learning process. But in a few months I do want to start. Quarantine will be difficult because I would need to setup yet another tank for that. One DT. One QT for fish. One QT for corals.

One thing I was thinking about is adding a small tank (Red Sea Max Nano Peninsula) to my office. If I were to use that as a QT for corals, it will never be able to house any fish, right?

 

[bluemon]

That's not necessarily true. Hyposalinity is a hard way to ensure eradicate ich. There are strains of ich that can survive 1.008.

Although a hyper saline environment is great for the fishes stress level, it's not a sure fire approach.

Do you have a source for this that isn't in a lab environment?

Or is it one of those boogeyman like the "copper resistant ich" that is probably from the oversight of the reefer?

Not accusing you of anything, just wanted to brush up on strengths of hypo

 

[blaxsun]

Wait, powder browns are hard fish to keep? That's news to me. I wouldn't say they're any easier or harder than any other tang. The key is a healthy diet and food soaked in vitamins. I add selcon and vitachem to the food and my PB is as healthy as any other fish in the tank. I have ich in my tank but it's rare to see signs of it on the fish. Thats accredited to healthy diet.

I'd tend to echo the sentiments on "healthy diet". While I haven't had my powder brown for nearly as long, I've had a sailfin for 3 years - and he survived an outbreak of velvet in my tank 2 years ago.

 

[Rwwilli]

I have had my Powder brown for three years now. 90 gallon with not many fish- couple of clown, chromis and a royal beauty angel. He is the only one that has had ich in three years. Recently added some SPS frags and he had a small outbreak, lasted about a week. He stayed swimming and eating the whole time. Added a UV sterilizer very recently going to see if that helps, but I also do not plan on adding anything else for a while. In three years he has had ich 3 times always follows adding something new to the tank.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Do you have a source for this that isn't in a lab environment?

Or is it one of those boogeyman like the "copper resistant ich" that is probably from the oversight of the reefer?

Not accusing you of anything, just wanted to brush up on strengths of hypo

Yes, you can read about it in an article written here on r2r.

Hyposalinity for treating Cryptocaryon Irritans (Marine Ich)

This is my first article on this forum so I hope you enjoy it and benefit from it. One of the most common diseases in saltwater that we usually face is Cryptocaryon Irritans or commonly known as Marine Ich. There are few treatments that pop to mind, Copper, Chloroquine phosphate (CP), Tank...

www.reef2reef.com

Although debated, best case scenario, treating for ich using hyposalinity is tricky. First off, the salt level has to be consistent, slight fluctuations can render the treatment a failure. And you have to be certain that you're holding the salt level at the correct spot. You have to be sure that youre actually hitting the target salinity. I dont know if you could trust a calibration fluid that calibrates to 35ppt or 1.026. You'd probably want to measure out and mix a known 1.009 sodium chloride solution to bump up against what you're using to measure (refreactometer, conductivity probe, hydrometer, etc).

I personally think that hypo offers a therapeutic stress relief for the fish and kills a majority of ich which provides the time needed for the fish to get used to its new environment and build back its immune system.

I haven't QT'd a fish in long time but when I did, my go to was hypo. Although if and when I need to get new fish, I think the tank transfer method will be my go to.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I'd tend to echo the sentiments on "healthy diet". While I haven't had my powder brown for nearly as long, I've had a sailfin for 3 years - and he survived an outbreak of velvet in my tank 2 years ago.

Powder Brown longevity in captivity is news to me. It makes me wonder if there's something else going on with this particular fish. Perhaps they're caught with cyanide?? Or poor husbandry by the caretaker.

@Mau1J1m What sort of stuff are you reading?

 

[blaxsun]

Powder Brown longevity in captivity is news to me. It makes me wonder if there's something else going on with this particular fish. Perhaps they're caught with cyanide?? Or poor husbandry by the caretaker.

@Mau1J1m What sort of stuff are you reading?

Could be.

 

[Mau1J1m]

Powder Brown longevity in captivity is news to me. It makes me wonder if there's something else going on with this particular fish. Perhaps they're caught with cyanide?? Or poor husbandry by the caretaker.

@Mau1J1m What sort of stuff are you reading?

@Sisterlimonpot Bulk of the info I'd heard wasn't necessarily targeted at powder brown's specifically, rather speaking to the Acanthurus genus as a whole being more disease-prone than most fish, or even other tangs such as Zebrasoma. Wish I could provide some direct references, but a large majority of my info soaking comes from podcasts I let roll while working. I want to say Elliot from Marine Collector's touched on the topic at some point.

 

[jda]

These are plenty hardy fish once acclimated.

IMO, tangs are generalized to be more disease prone because of the care that they get. Too many only feed them nori thinking that they are vegetarians, don't give them enough space in small tanks and often do not give them places to fully get away and hide in stacked up rock since they don't do well with caves and arches that humans like to make. Any of these things can make them skittish and disease prone.

I had a PBT for8-10 years and it is still living in another tank. NLS pellets in autofeed, NLS pellets, flake food, Caribbean Mix from Brine Shrimp Direct and some other pellets along the way like Formula 2, PE Pellets, etc. I do not feed nori. I do introduce fish, but do not QT them like to eradicate ich and stuff - they do not have disease problems for me.

Feed them enough to grow and inch a year and this will help a lot.

 

[Pickle_soup]

Fish don't just get it. Personally, I have zero faith in UV sterilizers, because ich can live in the gills of your fish. For years, I had issues with it. One day, I said enough, and I solved it forever. I took all the fish out, and let the tank sit there for 70 days with no fish. Meanwhile, the fish in qt went through copper treatments twice during this time. Ich is gone forever as long as you qt your fish from now on.

 

[EugeneVan]

I have a Power Brown and a Power Blue in my 210 gal. I have them for over 2 years. They are babies when I have them and now they are big and chubby. Like the others said, you have to provide them with variety of food to keep them healthy. I only feed them nori may be once a month but they have 5 different food on their lunch, dinner menu. Also tangs like lot of open water for swimming. They are very fast swimmer and they likes strong water flow just like SPS

 

[EugeneVan]

These are plenty hardy fish once acclimated.

IMO, tangs are generalized to be more disease prone because of the care that they get. Too many only feed them nori thinking that they are vegetarians, don't give them enough space in small tanks and often do not give them places to fully get away and hide in stacked up rock since they don't do well with caves and arches that humans like to make. Any of these things can make them skittish and disease prone.

I had a PBT for8-10 years and it is still living in another tank. NLS pellets in autofeed, NLS pellets, flake food, Caribbean Mix from Brine Shrimp Direct and some other pellets along the way like Formula 2, PE Pellets, etc. I do not feed nori. I do introduce fish, but do not QT them like to eradicate ich and stuff - they do not have disease problems for me.

Feed them enough to grow and inch a year and this will help a lot.

Can't agree more

 

[jda]

Regardless of what you do for QT, acclimation or whatever, if your tank has caves and arches, then you are likely going to have a hard time with some fish. If you can see the fish from any side, they probably need to feel more secure... and so would any of us.