Ich-Attack

[h2o]

Fix the water quality in your main tank and your fish wont get ich in the future

 

[Yen]

I don't believe it's the water in my tank, it's cycled with sand and rock from another reefer that got out of the hobby. The water tested ok both by my lfs and myself.

However, I just found out it's the source of my fish. I just found out that the fish in my other 35 G tank also got ick, this yellow tang came from the same source as the hipo tang in the 90G. I should have quarantine them first, but I thought these are the first fish in my tanks, so it'd be the same as QT tank. What I didn't know is unlike fresh water fish, here we have live rocks, coral, inverts, and who knows what else!!!

I just finished with my 90G and also got all the fish from the 35G but a firefish. Can't find him anywhere, all the rocks were taken out, still he's nowhere to be seen!!! Can firefish get under the sand?

I'll post pictures and progress here. What I am concerned now is I didn' plan for too many fish in this 20 G tank, I hope it's ok because the filter is a xena, it's been running with the 90G, already established and is pretty strong.

Yen

Fix the water quality in your main tank and your fish wont get ich in the future

 

[sjsoto]

sometimes not enough hiding places causes stress and become vulnerable to it... treat the illness but you must also treat whats causing it...

 

[sjsoto]

i agree... dont let your fish die without trying to help him/her.

 

[sjsoto]

i have two emperor 400 that will go well with your 20 gal qt tank...

 

[Yen]

Thanks for the offer, the Rena Filstar Xp that I'm using is same size as the Fluval 405, and it's been running in conjunction with my refugium for about a month now. It should be well established.

But tomorrow I'm gong to move all the fish to the 45G, reuse the Rena, and add another wet/dry filter to it. That should be plenty.

I dozed the 20G with a little less than 2ml of Cupramine, for the fish to move to the 45, I need to add another 25 g, that means I have to doze this 25 G with about 2ml of Cupramine thne mox with the water from the 20 G. I think that way as far as medication is concerned, I should be ok. Does anyone see anything wrong with this plan?

Thanks,

i have two emperor 400 that will go well with your 20 gal qt tank...

 

[Bob 1000]

Ich comes from ST.. There is no ich in the wild...

Too many people concentrate on buying new more than buying salt and keeping water temp stable and all pars stable.. If we all cocentrated on water pars we would all be able to keep a limited edition and rare sps reef tank.. That's all I have to say..GOOD WATER PARAMETERS is the key!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[marrone]

Ich is a parasite, it can be in your tank regardless if you have good water condition.

As for Ich being in the wild, it's in the wild and fish do get it. Because fish are always on the move, when the Ich falls of the fish, they don't get reinfected as easy as in a closed tank.

 

[Dre]

Here is my 2 cents.I agree on some of your issues we are not perfect and sometimes sh.. happens we are keeping these animals that sometimes we have very little knowledge on their needs and some of us should leave them alone.Anyway an over sized U.V strilizer can kill the free flouting ick if instaled properly.

 

[Bob 1000]

I really thought there was no ich in the wild... As for god water pars I don't get ich and I have had a little temp swings like 78.5 to 75 at times.. I've even thrown a ich infested fish in my tank and have it fine in the next 2 days with out it give ich to the tankmates.. I was running an under sized uv turbo twist 9x on a 300 gallon total water volume system.. I strongly believe water quality plays a big role in the overall health of a fish... Immune system are weaken by bad water quallity allowing the fish to become suseptable to all kinds of parasites that they naturally have in them.. But that's just my 2 cents..

 

[Avi]

...an over sized U.V strilizer can kill the free flouting ick if instaled properly.

Well, that's the problem with them. I do use one and still have had outbreaks of ick that led to deaths of fish. The issue is how to make them as effective as they have the potential to be and still want to use one. There are severe limitations on that. The fact is that the slower the water passes through the UV-sterilizer, the more effective it will be. Still, a parasite has to pass through the UV-sterilizer in order to be killed and that's one of the significant limitations. In a reef with all of the substrate and rock, some will never pass through the UV-sterilizer before it gets to a fish/host to infect it. Another thing to remember is that if you have your sterilizer plumbed down in a sump, it's even less likely that the parasite will ever make it down there to be brought through the sterilizer to be killed. So, it's a good idea to have the powerhead or water pump that drives a UV-sterilizer in the display tank...but...that's not too nice to look at and that's why they're almost always down in the sump. I guess the bottom line, IMO, is that it isn't a bad idea to have a UV-sterilizer, but don't count on it to be sure thing...or even a probable thing.

 

[Yen]

I totally agree with everyone here about the good water quality and a UV.

But I don't think good water quality and UV will eliminate Ich entirely. Good water ensures the fish help and its immune system but the ich parasites are still there in your tank, waiting. A UV may kill some of the free floaing parasites but not the ones that stay in the rocks where the fish would hide. There is no other efficient way of using a uv except for not passing the water too fast through it.

I got my fish from a holding tank. My mistake was I assume they had been there for a while and healthy and I thought they will be the first fish in the tank, so in a way I'd be QT them. What I didn't know was unlike fresh water and cannot treat disease in the presence of coral, live rocks, inverts, etc.

Yen

Well, that's the problem with them. I do use one and still have had outbreaks of ick that led to deaths of fish. The issue is how to make them as effective as they have the potential to be and still want to use one. There are severe limitations on that. The fact is that the slower the water passes through the UV-sterilizer, the more effective it will be. Still, a parasite has to pass through the UV-sterilizer in order to be killed and that's one of the significant limitations. In a reef with all of the substrate and rock, some will never pass through the UV-sterilizer before it gets to a fish/host to infect it. Another thing to remember is that if you have your sterilizer plumbed down in a sump, it's even less likely that the parasite will ever make it down there to be brought through the sterilizer to be killed. So, it's a good idea to have the powerhead or water pump that drives a UV-sterilizer in the display tank...but...that's not too nice to look at and that's why they're almost always down in the sump. I guess the bottom line, IMO, is that it isn't a bad idea to have a UV-sterilizer, but don't count on it to be sure thing...or even a probable thing.

 

[Avi]

Another thought...or my experiences, anyway. I find that ick isn't generally a very serious problem in an established reef tank as it is in a FO or even a FOWLR. I've had a series of outbreaks of ick in my FOWLR (on which I do have a UV-sterilizer) and each time it led to serious losses. On the other hand in my reef, when fish do show any signs of ick, it passes completely in a day or two without any lossesand with no treatment at all. I've been doing this for over six years so I think that the pattern is fairly clear because I do maintain the same good water quality measures in both of these tanks. I am inclined to conclude that the coral actually consume the ick in the free-swimming stage and so they can't proliferate in the same measure as they do in the FO. I don't know if this is a matter of fact, or not. It may just be a factor of fish being generally less stressed in an established reef. Still, I would think that the coral have something to do with it since I have a good measure of live rock in my FOWLR. On yet the other hand (That's three hands now, isn't it?) people do get ick outbreaks that are serious in reef tanks....so, I would recommend what I've now concluded (after learning some hard lessons) and that is....quarantine and do it seriously.

 

[Yen]

Yes, definitely QT from now on. That mistake is really costly, fortunately only time this time.

Here is my hospital tank setup. This is going to be changed this afternoon to a 45G to house all the fish. The picture of the hipo tang shows white dots.





Yen

Another thought...or my experiences, anyway. I find that ick isn't generally a very serious problem in an established reef tank as it is in a FO or even a FOWLR. I've had a series of outbreaks of ick in my FOWLR (on which I do have a UV-sterilizer) and each time it led to serious losses. On the other hand in my reef, when fish do show any signs of ick, it passes completely in a day or two without any lossesand with no treatment at all. I've been doing this for over six years so I think that the pattern is fairly clear because I do maintain the same good water quality measures in both of these tanks. I am inclined to conclude that the coral actually consume the ick in the free-swimming stage and so they can't proliferate in the same measure as they do in the FO. I don't know if this is a matter of fact, or not. It may just be a factor of fish being generally less stressed in an established reef. Still, I would think that the coral have something to do with it since I have a good measure of live rock in my FOWLR. On yet the other hand (That's three hands now, isn't it?) people do get ick outbreaks that are serious in reef tanks....so, I would recommend what I've now concluded (after learning some hard lessons) and that is....quarantine and do it seriously.

 

[Dre]

Well we can all put in our 2 cents about causes and cures the same way we talk about the common cold there is no snake oil out there to wipe out ick.You can have polluted water and the fish gets used to it or die from something else besides ick.We can just try our best to keep our animals alive and happy or leave them in the stores or in the oceans.

 

[Yen]

Totally agreed. I'm trying my best to help them recover. I spent the whole day today setting up the 45 G. It's now running with a Rena Filstar canister filter (same size as the fluval 405), a wet/dry filter, medicated with Cupramine.

Yen

Well we can all put in our 2 cents about causes and cures the same way we talk about the common cold there is no snake oil out there to wipe out ick.You can have polluted water and the fish gets used to it or die from something else besides ick.We can just try our best to keep our animals alive and happy or leave them in the stores or in the oceans.

 

[Dre]

Avi
How often do you change your U.V.bulb they have to be changed regularly to be effective just a thought. When i say install properly i mean installing the U.V to the right SPCIFICATIONS.I don't think there is a way to cure ick we can just try to prevent it.