[villanueva]

There are white spots on one side of my naso tang. Is this most likely ich? It would be the first time i've personally encountered it, and I feel rather helpless as to what to do? Some suggestions please.

[zhenya]

I moved your thread to our fish desease forum so you can get an expert advise from leebca, our fish expert.

In the interim, please look over all of the sticky threads in this Forum as many of your questions may be answered by reading them.

[leebca]

You first want to be sure of the diagnosis. For a person who have never seen it before, it may be a bit tricky to diagnose. The spots have to truly white. They are the size of a grain of salt. They may appear on fins, body and gills (although you can't inspect the gills of a fish in the tank).

You want to surf the Web to find photos of fish with this disease to make sure you are making a proper diagnosis.

Then, if it is Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) you want to read this: Marine Ich - Myths and Facts

These are good articles on the subject, too:
(Part 1):
Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com
(Part 2):
Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part II by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

Move the fish to a hospital tank and treat the fish one of the two most common ways: either with a copper treatment or with hyposalinity. Hyposalinity is easier and kinder to the fish, but harder on the hobbyist. Here is more reading for you on those two:
Copper - Treatment, Use, Problems
and
Hyposalinity Treatment

If you have more than that one fish in the tank/system, then they are all infected and ALL have to be taken out and treated, EVEN if they don't display the spots you now see on your Tang. Leave the main system go fishless for 8 weeks and the parasite will die without a host.

[villanueva]

There is definitely less white spots than many pictures seem to show. And they are also much larger. Some are small, but others I would compare to slightly smaller than a grain of rice. The spots also seem to come and go. The fish also doesn't show any of the other symptoms of ich that I read about (rubbing up against rough objects, swimming near the top etc.) In fact, it's behaviour seems quite normal. Could these spots be a result of stress? Or perhaps malnutrition. I significantly lowered the feeding a while ago since I had a major ammonia problem.

I've actually just found on the internet that white spots appearing on Naso Tangs is a characteristic of the fish. Since I haven't introduced anything to the tank from outside aquariums, does this add up to you?

What are your thoughts on garlic treatments? I was strongly advised by one person to take on this method. This would allow me to keep the fish in its original tank since I don't have a quarantine tank.

Would a quarantine tank require all of the same equipment as the main one?

Thanks a lot for the very informative, and quick respone. More help would be much appreciated.

[leebca]

I hope you like to read. There are posts in Reefland that answers your quarantine questions in much better detail than I can address in this post. Please read:
A Fish Quarantine Process

Tangs under stress (either real or imagined stress) can turn a variety of patterns and colors (dark to light mostly). They may appear mottled with ‘spots’ that are the size of dimes or larger. They may also take on a speckled appearance.

Are the spots you see raised up from the skin level or at or below the skin level. Marine Ich parasite Trophonts (the white spots you see for this parasite) look like they are raised bumps, above the skin level (even though they are actually in the skin).

Malnutrition is usually a slow process, unless the fish is new and hasn’t been eating properly since it was captured, or was not eating properly before capture.

I understand water quality issues, but withholding food from the fish to control water quality is nothing I ever recommend and in fact, am totally against. Many of my peers seem to think this method of water quality control is acceptable. I don’t. It would be to me like withholding food from a baby because I don’t like changing diapers, so want to change diapers less often.

I think in terms of, ‘It’s up to the person who owns the fish to handle water quality without punishing the captive fish.’

The use of garlic is still not totally proven as any kind of cure. Most who swear by it only have anecdotal information. It’s use poses no harm, unless used in excess.

Ask if you have additional questions, after reading. Check out this post which contains links to other subjects you should read through over time:
Table/Contents - Link List