Jestersix

Another Ich Thread, Sorry

yellojello

yellojello

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I've been quite stubborn each and every day, hoping my fishies can "live" with Ich... (so far it seems like it so I tell myself)

My info:

120G 4x2x2

(listed in order by introduction date to tank)
Between February 2010 to April 2010
4 chromies
1 midas blenny
1 purple firefish
2 saddleback clowns (only 1 now, tank overflow killed one)
1 helfrichi firefish
1 yellow clown goby (died, couldn't get it to eat)
1 radiant wrasse
1 lyretail anthia male (planning 2 more females maybe, but probably overstocked as it is)

May 11th 2010
Added 2.5" Yellow Tang and 4" Achilles

Being the noob I am, the Achilles "looked healthy", but it was diving into the sand which I thought was "normal" but obviously, it was scratching in the sand because of ich.

Being the noob I am, after 3 hour drip acclimation, straight into the main display tank without QT.

I'm not sure if I'm lucky, or that I have a larger tank, but it seems like people with Ich have their fish wiped out in weeks. So far, its been 2 months now. Achilles has Ich all over, but eats and swims just fine (which I thought I could beat Ich still). Only others that show scratching is the clown and midas blenny, who have been itching for weeks too, but no signs of white dots. Helfrichi had Ich, fought it off, but now has white specks.

I've read that people have had their fish "live" with Ich and build immunity to it. But I've also read that Ich will kill all the fish eventually. I was thinking of trying to "live" with it. I'm not sure if I am somewhat successful, or I'm just in denial. Also, since the Achilles seems healthy, throwing it into QT will just stress it out more leading to death.

Feeding Nori soaked twice a day, Pellets (used to once a day, now try 2-3 a week), Rods Food and Mysis (once a week), Cyclopeeze Freezedried (1-2 times a week), ALL soaked in Brightwell Aquatics Garlic Power. and Reef Chili (1-2 times a week) for the corals

Truly, deep in my heart, I want to do Hyposalinity for 12 weeks, but I'm scared I will mess up. So I should start taking some action now, so here I am. Here are some questions I have.

I have at my disposal a 13g tall (thanks yardartist), a 25g cube (VietNR1's future tank), and another 25 g cube (friend's future tank). I'm scared that these are not big enough for a QT for my tangs plus other fish. If I run multiple tanks, I have more work to do and more margin of error. Should I find a larger tank to do all fish in one like a 30-40 gallon, or what size you recommend? Perhaps if I do a QT with sump, with can keep some fish in QT sump, and one in QT? I could use a 20 gallon bucket or Brute as sump.

I have a lot of live rock in my sump ready to go. I don't have any hang-on back filters or hang-on back overflows, but may need to buy one for QT.

Is it possible to do Hyposalinity in my main DT, and throw all corals and inverts in a QT instead? Will hypo affect my live rock beneficial living things at all?

I was down in So Cal visiting yesterday, and Age of Aquariums (i find them to be a pretty good LFS) and they recommended me to use Seachem Metronidazole and Focus in the food. I bought some, but have been researching more and getting mixed results, haven't used it yet. They said they use it on all of their stock they get in the store.

Also, I saw that Lucky Goldfish (the one in SJ) was babysitting a bunch of fish for a customer (dunno if it was QT, or just moving locations). I don't know if LFS do QT for customers, but I don't think I'm that "valuable" of a customer yet for any LFS to do QT for me.

I guess the final question is, would I need sand in my QT for my Radiant Wrasse to keep him happy?

This has been a mental struggle every day! I'm guessing the best way is to do hypo in a large tank... so does anyone have any large QT setup I can borrow or for sale for cheap? Sorry for the wordiness and thanks in advance for advice. =)
 
am I too late? or can he pull through?

P1010222-vi.jpg
 
You could do hypo in the display but I'd do QT with meds. I've used quick cure with success in the past but there are lots of things out there I'm sure people will refer you to. If the fish is still swimming around semi-normally, you have a good chance IMO...Otherwise, if listless or other...Probably too late.

Btw, 3 hr drip acclimation is pretty long.. Even with the most delicate of fish, I max out at an hour/hour and a half
 
i just battled through ick.... its not that bad i used garlic and PE mysis shrimp and used lots of garlic seaweed and and they all pulled through..

1 blue
1 yellow
1 kole..... 5-6 weeks but we all look great now

selcon(?) and galic guard works good
 
Jimmy, I have a 55 gallon truvu and HOB filter you can borrow. You just have to swing up to SSF to pick up. :) If interested I have some quinine sulphate which you can use. Much better than hypo or copper IMO.

I used it as a QT myself. I've done hyposalinity and QT my new fish but I still came up with ich. Is that a cloudy eye I see on the tang? Getting those guys out of the tank will be a PITA and risk killing them IMO. Personally, I would feed your fish frozen everyday.
 
I would bite the bullet and isolate the fishes and treat them. You don't need a tank, rubber maid containers work great. 6 weeks sounds like a long time, but once it's done, it's DONE.
 
yellojello said:
Feeding Nori soaked twice a day, Pellets (used to once a day, now try 2-3 a week), Rods Food and Mysis (once a week), Cyclopeeze Freezedried (1-2 times a week), ALL soaked in Brightwell Aquatics Garlic Power. and Reef Chili (1-2 times a week) for the corals
Click to expand...

Is this correct? Nori 2x a day and other diets a few times a week? Only a handful of the fish on your list are probably eating a bunch of nori. While your fish look sick enough that they'll need more than just nutrition to kick this, they ALL need to be fed high-quality food at least once a day to get through something like this. Something along the lines of Rod's Food, or a mix of PE Mysis / Mini mysis / Cyclops daily until they're healthy - at which point you can reevaluate how much food they need to stay healthy w/o fouling your tank too quickly. Keeping your water quality up via water changes / aggressive skimming / etc will be important as well.
 
all i know were mine we are pretty bad even my kole before he decided to commit to overflow suicide..... and i only did meaty food with garlic(all ate the mysis) omega one flakes with garlic, seaweed with garlic and skimmer,waterchanges and sifted and vaccumed the sand bed

it took awhile but if you dont have means to QT you can still kick it
 
treylane said:
yellojello said:
Feeding Nori soaked twice a day, Pellets (used to once a day, now try 2-3 a week), Rods Food and Mysis (once a week), Cyclopeeze Freezedried (1-2 times a week), ALL soaked in Brightwell Aquatics Garlic Power. and Reef Chili (1-2 times a week) for the corals
Click to expand...

Is this correct? Nori 2x a day and other diets a few times a week? Only a handful of the fish on your list are probably eating a bunch of nori. While your fish look sick enough that they'll need more than just nutrition to kick this, they ALL need to be fed high-quality food at least once a day to get through something like this. Something along the lines of Rod's Food, or a mix of PE Mysis / Mini mysis / Cyclops daily until they're healthy - at which point you can reevaluate how much food they need to stay healthy w/o fouling your tank too quickly. Keeping your water quality up via water changes / aggressive skimming / etc will be important as well.
Click to expand...


Excellent advice!
 
Remember ich can live without a host for ~month. I also would try a sharknose goby to eat off the cysts. If none of the medicines or methods work pull all the fish out dip them and move them to a different tank for about a month then put them back in your main tank.
 
nudibranch said:
Remember ich can live without a host for ~month. I also would try a sharknose goby to eat off the cysts. If none of the medicines or methods work pull all the fish out dip them and move them to a different tank for about a month then put them back in your main tank.
Click to expand...

that cycle period can make it a pain.... thats why i sent pm
 
Thanks all for the advice, and John, if i need to go to last resort, i will hit you up for the qt thanks!

I'm pretty sure I can keep them healthy and fight it off. For the first month, I was feeding garlic nori twice a day, and pellet with garlic twice a day. After the first month, I was sketching out about feeding too much and algae blooms, so I cut it less. But now I see that I should feed a lot until they get healthy. I will do garlic soaked nori twice a day, and garlic soaked P.E. Mysis twice a day.

The algae mistake was that I haven't changed my GFO for like 2 months. Time flies! Plus my sediment and carbon for RO/DI is right passed the 6 month mark. Replacements coming. Currently at 1-2 TDS.

I've been doing 20% water changes every week, but now I'll kick it up to twice a week.

If I'm doing this method of fighting it out, should I care about raising the temp to speed up life cycle or just let it be? I currently keep at 77-77.5 F. I usually keep my salinity at 1.0255, but now brought it down to 1.0225. Should be more comfortable for the fish? All my corals still looking good.
 
Personally I wouldn't worry about raising your temp. Salinity at 1.022 won't do much if anything to kill ich. You can probably raise it slowly if you like. Also soaking your food in selcon/zoecon helps too.
 
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