brown powdered tang

Question
I bought a brown powdered tang last week, she was eating perfectly and was in
perfect condition. Yesterday I noticed white spots on her but they are not itch. I
think they are parasites since when you see her from the side it seems as if the
skin had a little bump. What may I do about this? Do you know any medicine
that
will not harm live corals?

Answer
Hi Juan. I am sorry to hear about your poor tang. But are you sure it is not ich(other wise known as white spot)? Tangs are ich magnets and I always recommend putting them in a quarrentine tank for a few weeks before adding them to a reef tank. Ich IS a parasite. They are tiny creatures that complete their life cycle on the fish host. The only medication that works in treating any parasite in a salt water tank is a copper based one. These can not be used with invertebrates ever. If your fish looks like it was sprinkled with grains of salt it is ich. The only way to treat this fish is to set up a hospital tank and put it in there and treat for a total of thirty days with a copper based medication. The only way to treat the tank(because it is now in your system) is to have yor tank free of any fish host for a total of thirty days. There are alot of additives that claim they can get rid of ich in a reef tank and are safe for corals but they do not work. Basically a parasite is an invertabrate so how any medication can claim that it will kill one invertebrate and not any others does not make any sense to me. You can try lowering your salinity gradually to a specific gravity if 1.020 for a few weeks and raising the temp. slowly to about 82 degrees F during this period. But as long as their is a fish host in your tank even if they look perfectly healthy there will be ich in your tank. Any small stress in your tank( water parameters fluctuating, a bully, improper nutrition and others are all stress factors) can bring out a full blown out break and that is something you don't want to happen