Cali Kid Corals

Ich/QT/Vacation

bluprntguy

bluprntguy

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Despite best efforts to keep ich out of the tank, I noticed my clowns rubbing against rocks the last two or three days and last night noticed a few spots on them (of course in the areas that are white and it’s hard to see).

I gave the clowns a freshwater dip and moved them into quarantine last night, but the dottyback, yellowline, and mandarin are completely unaffected so far (and 100 times more difficult to get) so they are still in the main tank.

I’m also out of town soon for a few days Saturday-Tuesday, complicating treatment/quarantine options.

I can keep the clowns in quarantine, but I’m a little uncomfortable in insuring that the QT doesn’t get an ammonia spike while I’m gone.

I could move them back to the display and hope they have now built some immunity to ich and maybe everything will be fine, at least for a few days. I can tackle treatment when I get back.

Ultimately I may need to find someone trustworthy and knowledgeable to check in on everyone. Anyone have recommendations/advice?
 
Coral reefer said:
Any chance you have a spare dosing pump that could add a little prime or other ammonia remover a couple times a day?
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I could probably move my dosing pump over to do that. I don't have enough coral in the main tank that alkalinity is going to drop too much over a few days. I was also considering a new dosing pump, so I could just order that today and it will probably be here Friday.
 
Give Imaginatarium Parasite a try -- can get it at Petco. I kid you not -- that stuff works well.

Had a couple of battles and the stuff have come through every time. I know use it as part of my QT protocol.
 
NanoCrazed said:
I should mention the stuff is reef safe. Just follow instructions.
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Hmmm. I'm generally suspicious of reef safe medications for ich, but trust you if you've had good experiences.

I should probably add that the clowns are doing great in QT this morning. I do see some spots, but other than that they are perfectly healthy and the flashing/rubbing seems to have stopped.
 
NanoCrazed said:
Some natural remedy stuff... smells like orange oil.

But has saved many fish in many tanks. I tried it out of desperation but was shocked how well it worked. Keep it on hand at all times now
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So you don’t know what it is or how it works, but are somehow sure it’s works...
Not sayin. You’re wrong, but I’m quite skeptical.
 
Coral reefer said:
So you don’t know what it is or how it works, but are somehow sure it’s works...
Not sayin. You’re wrong, but I’m quite skeptical.
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That'd be correct. No ingredients list so dunno what's in it exactly. Just marketed as natural remedy that smells like orange oil.

Only thing i can rely on is that it's proven to work empirically. Used it originally because I gave up trying to catch fish in the tank to QT. Had daily fish deaths until i started the treatment

Cured the the fish without impacting my corals. And have successfully used in several times than.
 
NanoCrazed said:
Used it originally because I gave up trying to catch fish in the tank to QT.
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Totally understand that. In order to get the dottyback and yellowline out, I'm sure I'm going to have to take every rock out of my tank, which means I have to take all the sand out as well since the rocks sit on the glass with sand only in between. :(
 
NanoCrazed said:
That'd be correct. No ingredients list so dunno what's in it exactly. Just marketed as natural remedy that smells like orange oil.

Only thing i can rely on is that it's proven to work empirically. Used it originally because I gave up trying to catch fish in the tank to QT. Had daily fish deaths until i started the treatment

Cured the the fish without impacting my corals. And have successfully used in several times than.
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How was it empirically proven. I didn’t think there was anything that was proven.

It’s sounds like ich but I thought clownfish were more resilient to ich. I would have expected your other fish to get it before the clowns.

Also, just curious, how do you think it got in?
 
If you look at the natural ich life cycle, it comes and goes, which make it seem like various "fixes" work well,
when they are really just lining up with the "visually going away" part.
Since people really want fixes to work, they think it is proof.

If there is ever a true reef-safe ich CURE, it will be famous, and whomever comes up with it will be rich.

Fish do have an innate immune system that helps fight it though.

SO

Given that you are out of town, and your DT is already infected, my suggestion:
Put all fish back in DT.
Before you leave, do fresh water dip of any fish showing active outbreak.
Feed well with good frozen food.
Have someone check your tank for dead fish, and remove if needed.
Hope for the best.

If not dead already, they have a good chance of pulling through.
But if one does not, it would be really bad to have it rot, generate ammonia, and kill the others that way.
 
Flagg37 said:
How was it empirically proven. I didn’t think there was anything that was proven.

It’s sounds like ich but I thought clownfish were more resilient to ich. I would have expected your other fish to get it before the clowns.

Also, just curious, how do you think it got in?
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I did an "abbreviated" tank transfer (1 week) and then observation QT (2 weeks) for the mandarin since I had read that they were resistant to ich and I was concerned about keeping her plump through quarantine. She went in about 3-4 weeks ago, so the timeline fits. After more research, it seems like they are very likely to be carriers but usually don't display symptoms. I should have known better.

My clowns are captive bred, so they probably have never had ich and therefore probably less resilient than ones taken from the ocean.

I did consider it being Brooklynella and that's still a possibility. I believe that would be more likely to affect the clowns. In all honesty, I can see that there is something on their skin, but it's so slight that I don't claim that I know exactly what it is. I didn't see any flukes after the dip, so at least I've ruled that one out. They were still alive this morning and seemingly better, so I assume also not velvet. The fact that the freshwater dip helped so much might lead me to believe that brook is more likely than ich.

I'll probably do a formalin bath tonight and then go from there. There is some biomedia and live rock in my coral quarantine that *should* be free of anything at this point, so I could actually just house them in there if needed during vacation. I just pulled a bunch of snails out of there, so it should be fine to handle the load.
 
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rygh said:
Given that you are out of town, and your DT is already infected, my suggestion:
Put all fish back in DT.
Before you leave, do fresh water dip of any fish showing active outbreak.
Feed well with good frozen food.
Have someone check your tank for dead fish, and remove if needed.
Hope for the best.
Click to expand...

Thanks for confirming this is a reasonable approach. It gives me some options. I ordered a camera so I can monitor remotely and don't have to inconvenience friends to come by and check in on the fish.

I'm actually pretty confident that the DT could handle the load should one of them die while I'm gone. They are still pretty young and the CUC would make short work of that I think.
 
Flagg37 said:
How was it empirically proven. I didn’t think there was anything that was proven.

It’s sounds like ich but I thought clownfish were more resilient to ich. I would have expected your other fish to get it before the clowns.

Also, just curious, how do you think it got in?
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Actually, bluprntguy is the one with the clowns with ich.

I had tangs that went ich city... bad enough at one point my clowns were covered too. Also got new fish with ich in QT. I solved my prob with just the treatment without having to do either FW dip or hyposalinity treatments..and no water changes. just 6 days, treating 2X per day, every other day... occasionally, I have to do a second round though.
 
The spots I saw on the clowns weren’t raised, they were more a discoloration. I decided that it’s possible that it’s just flukes (I didn’t see any after the freshwater dip, but white flukes on white I guess would be hard). I treated their quarantine tank with Prazipro as a test before moving on to more toxic “cures”. A few hours later and they are both doing much better. I had to separate them because the female was beating the male to a pulp. Tattered fins and lots of aggression.

I also see a couple of light areas on the dottyback. Again, nothing raised, just a tiny area that’s a little lighter and hazy when the light hits just right.

Luckily this is the one thing I can treat in the tank. Assuming the clowns are still in good shape tomorrow and I don’t see any signs of ich, I’ll treat the tank. That will put the second treatment on the day I get back.

Thanks everyone who helped with all the input. Hopefully all on the road to recovery...
 
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