Fish Woes

[tag]

Hi everyone. A few years ago I had a fish tank with a few low light soft corals. A surge protector connected to the tank went out and blew out the lights, ballasts, and heater. I rescued everything that I could and took it in to the LFS. Due to a temporary financial issue I was unable to replace everything at that time. I knew that I eventually wanted to get the tank going again, so I kept the rock, pumps and a spare heater going in the tank and occasionally put a small piece of food in.

About 6 weeks ago, I got a new T5 HO ballast, replaced the crushed coral with 2 in. playsand/live sand mix, and added a few small pieces of cured live rock to the 65 lbs. of rock in the tank. Everything tested great, so a month ago I decided to add some fish.

I added 2 firefish, 1 maroon clown, and 1 coral beauty angel. I realize that may have been too much now. About two weeks later, the maroon clown came down with what I think was clownfish disease. I removed him for treatment, but he didn't make it after a 4 day battle. At the same time, the coral beauty developed what appeared to be ich. I couldn't catch the angel, so I kept a close eye on him and fed garlic soaked food. The spots got better, then a little worse, then better, etc. It always ate well, and acted normal til it died suddenly a few days ago. Throughout this the firefish have looked great, no spots seen on them. There are also some snails and a cleaner shrimp.

Now I'm not too sure what to do. I didn't think of quarantining since there were no fish and I don't have a spare tank (probably a mistake). Will the disease stay in my tank because of the firefish, even though they look fine? When is is ok to add coral or a fish?

This a 50 gal. with a built in wet-dry area used as a refugium (no bioballs). Water has been stable except for nitrate changes over the last month.
Temp 78
pH 8.3
SG 1.024
ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates <10 (rose to about 20 and back down again)
dKh 12
calcium 420

Sorry about the longish post and thanks in advance for any advice

 

[tag]

I guess the post was a bit too long winded. I've read about putting the firefish in a separate container for a couple of months, but don't currently have any place to put them.

What I'd really like to know is when is it safe to add a fish or a coral?

 

[ChrisRD]

Once ich is introduced into the system, as long as there are fish present it can continue its reproductive cycle. Even if the firefish are not showing any outwards signs, it's possible that the parasite is still present at some level.

Personally, I would quarantine my next addition for a minimum of a few weeks. A month or more is better. In the meanwhile, if the firefish have not been infected, it's possible that the parasite's life cycle will be broken. There's really no way to be sure at this point however...

I might also consider trying to eradicate the parasite from the system. I would do this by moving the firefish to a hospital tank and treating them with hyposalinity for 6-8 weeks while the main system remained fishless. I would then quarantine all new arrivals as mentioned above. That would give a reasonable chance of eliminating the parasite all together and keeping it out of the system in the future.

JMO & HTH

 

[tag]

Thanks for the response. I'll see about getting a small tank to quarantine the firefish.

One more question, once nitrates are down to zero is it ok to put a coral in the mean time?

 

[ChrisRD]

Provided its needs are met, you should be fine adding the coral.