SEND ICH TO HELL!

[AgentSPS]

Okay...My nerves are at their breaking point. About a month ago I introduced a small Purple Tang as a first fish for my SPS reef. The fish developed ich within a few days and got pretty sick. Knowing that purple tangs almost always get ich, I just did the garlic and Thera A therapy. I also added a pair of cleaner shrimp. The ich clears up after a few days and when I stop garlic, it would comes back. This has been going on for a month now. The fish has colored up wonderfully and my water is prestine (10% water change every other week)! The fish still breaths fast though. Something is stressing these fish out!

Since then I have introduced a Golden Angel and Bellus Angel. The Golden is fine but now the Bellus has ich and I think she is a goner. She too is breathing fast and has now stopped eating and sort of wobbles through the water.

I AM ALL OUT OF IDEAS.

75 Gallon
79-82F
PH 8.1-8.3
Calcium 400-450
400W PFO HQI
DUAL 75 W ACTINICS
Euroreef skimmer
Chiller
Calcium Reactor

 

[Anonymous]

Continue feeding garlic soaked foods. It may be to late of they are already having a hard time breathing.

PT (purple tang) in a 75 is pushing it. I kept one in my 75g for over a year but had to be careful as to what else to put in the tank. PT's are amongst the most belligerant of tangs.

I took mine back to lfs after a year and a half as he became more and more belligerant as time passed.

If all your fish do die (i hope not) wait 6 weeks before adding any new fish to your tank so that ich can run it's course. Then use QT for new fish.

IMHO, most new tanks (..errr hobbyist) have an ich outbreak. You 'll learn what to look for in fish and QT as needed.

HTH

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

unless you want to have an ongoing subclinical infection(meaning that the ich is present on the fish in locations where it isn't visible) possibly going on for a very long time-the best method, is, imho-to remove all of your fish to a quarrantine tank, and treat them with copper sulfate,leaving the tank fish free for at least a month.

copper is the only med that i know of that is 100% effective in removing ich COMPLETELY from fish,100% of the time-and what is left in the tank will die off w/out a host.

fwiw-each fish should automatically be treated w/copper prophylactically before introducing it into your tank, after eliminating the current ich population, or you could be back to square one, all over again.

i don't understand why you introduced new fish when you knew you had an ongoing ich problem already :roll:

 

[naesco]

The ich cycle is 30 days so you must continue the garlic extract treatment for that time even if you see the ich fall off the fish. It will come back as you have seen. Use only garlic soaked foods and feed often.
One more thing. Make sure that if you are putting anything that was in the tank back in again during treatment like a net, you put it in freshwater in between or you will reintroduce ich again in that manner.

I would never recommend the use of copper on a tang.

 

[AgentSPS]

Wow thanks for all the replies...while I cannot say I feel any better about what is going on, I do feel more informed. One person asked why I introduced fish knowing I have ich in the tank. Well in all my years of reefkeeping I treated ich like a cold. Reefs have amazing abilities to cure fish. I have never had ich last more than a week. At the time of introducing the new fish, the purple tangs ich appeared to be cleared up. As for removing fish from the reef....not going to happen. I refuse destroy $1000+ of aquascaping for $200 of fish. I think the Bellus is going to check out today anyway...very labored breathing and she is covered in spots.

 

[Fishdreamr]

Reefer Guy,

This summer I had an ich outbreak, and I had already been using garlic as a preventative. I even use Selcon, a good vitamin additive, and give a varied and healthy diet. But I introduced a fish that was stressed and stressed out my tank, introduced and spread ich, and the garlic wouldn't cure the ich. It was past the point of doing any good.

I do not have a Q. tank, or a sump or anywhere else to remove my fishes, and I have a reef full of inverts: crabs, many corals, snails, shrimps, etc.

I did not want to go the medication route, but my fish were getting worse quickly. Without many other choices, I needed to make a decision. I researched info on reef-safe meds, and read different people's results with Kick-Ich. Some say it didn't help, or crashed their tanks and some say it worked great. It seemed that if you followed the directions carefully, that it would work well for a reef, so I decided to try it at my own risk.

I keep a log of my tank, and I made sure I read and re-read the directions, and I wrote down how much and when I dosed the tank. Kick Ich is not a powder, it is a liquid, and the bottle has measurements on it so you can see how much you're dosing. It took over 2 weeks to work, but it did. I didn't lose anything at all in my tank, and the biological filter was not screwed up either. I didn't have any weird algae outbreaks or anything, and all my fishes got better. They haven't had an outbreak since either. But being a reef-safe product, it took a while to work, and some patience. Plus, it costs a bit of $$. But if you can't use copper cuz you have a reef, and it's not ideal to tear up your tank to remove every fish, (I have 14), and put them in quarantine, etc., then I recommend Kick Ich. But I would only use it (or any med) after you have tried reasonable natural means first, and those don't work, and you're at the point where you need to do something before your fishes get worse.

But it really did work for me, & my reef did not crash.

 

[AgentSPS]

Fishdreamer,

Thank you for that information. I have seen that kick ich stuff before but obviously overlooked it because it was medication. I would certainly like to hear if others have had good results with this stuff (IN A SPS ENVIRONMENT). It is important to keep in mind though that I have an SPS only tank. SPS are so sensative that even the garlic trips the coral out sometimes.

At this point, I have written off the Bellus and to be quite honest with you, the Purple is probably better off out of the tank anyway. It sounds cruel but this Purple is more trouble than it is worth. My buddy suggested that sometimes fish just don't adjust to their new environment. They remain stressed until they catch something and die. Surprisingly, my Golden Angel (the most feeble fish) seems to be fine through all this. It might just be him in the end! I think after this ordeal is over, I will wait some time before putting in anymore fish. Two months or more!

 

[robbinson]

If you have a reef tank and can't catch and remove all your fish and Quarantine them (I could not in my 120g reef), then soak food in garlic (either natural garlic or something like kent garlic extreme), us UV 24/7, add biological cleaners (several cleaner shrimp and consider neon gobbies) and keep water parameters pristine (to relieve stress on the fish). Over time, the problem will go away. Don't add any new fish until there have been no signs of ich in your tank for at least 5 weeks.