PLEASE HELP!!!

[Ibn]

That's really dependent on each and every fish. Their immune system is different from each other (like you and me), so there really isn't a definitively time frame. I would just go by observation - no white spots, no signs of scratching, fish is swimming around energetically, and eating.

I too would leave it alone in the tank and let it try to fight it off on its own. If it's eating, I generally leave most fish alone.

I would also try to improve upon the tank conditions instead...

 

[Reefdad]

Do you guys think I should continue to treat the tank to try and distrupt the pest cycle. or just clean up the system with a WC and keep everyone fed?

 

[tuberider]

Is the tank BB?

 

[Reefdad]

Is the tank BB?

No 1.5 2" SB

 

[tuberider]

Then unless you really siphon out the sand well and regularly water changes are not going to do too much. As Bryan said earlier in the thread purple tangs are very resilient compared to other tangs when it comes to ich, if you feed well and provide a stress free environment then chances are it's going to bounce back after a couple of weeks and IME it make the fish more resilient to future infestations. If you can get the fish out without stressing it too much a formalin dip can help too, especially if there's brook involved, which often times can be the case. A few spots of ich turn into a few stressed areas, which turn into bacterial infections which lead to stress which invites brook to the party.

 

[Reefdad]

What's brook? And should I keep treating the tank with NO-ICH?

 

[Ibn]

Brook is short for Brooknella.

 

[GreshamH]

What's brook? And should I keep treating the tank with NO-ICH?

No-Ich, Ruby Reef, etc all are useless IME. We tried everyone under the sun and none really did that much. If it's reef safe, it's not gonna touch Ich IMO/IME.

 

[Roc]

Eric, It looks like from your tank thread that you lost all your fish to ICH back in Sept, maybe you should try to figure out why you are having this constant issue, maybe it's where you buy them, or your stocking choices???I donno, but it seems rather stange that you get ICH so often.

 

[Reefdad]

Yea tell me about It!!!! I can't seem to figure it out. I keep my WQ as good as I can. In the past I have been buying NSW. but starting with this WC tonight it will all be RO/DI mixed with Seachem Reef salt. So hopefully that change will be positive. Secondly I dont think my stocking load is pretty conservative. All I have is 1 chromis, 1 maroon clown, 1 blemmy, 1 royal gamma, 1 dwarf angle, 1 tang. For a 90 gallon system from what I can tell this is pretty conservative. the only common element is tangs. When I last introduced a tang (blue hippo) it happened got is from Vallejo Aquarium, this time I went with a hardier fish and chose the purple. both times the common factor has been tangs. This time when I pruschased the fish, not from the same LFS, they held the fish for a month in a copper treated tank, and I also QT the fish for about 2 weeks. I dont know that there is much more I could have done. My only thiught is that it is prevelent in my tank and the other fish dont seem to be affected by it. I am at a loss, I am not sure there is much more I could do except change my water source. So that will be the first change today and I will go from there.

 

[tuberider]

A couple of tips from someone who buys a lot of fish and cannot QT them, yet they need to be VERY clean. Most stores are on central systems, if you see any fish with Ich, bacterial infections, or are flashing, do not buy any fish from the system, I don't care how healthy they look. Make sure they eat prior to purchasing, not brine shrimp either, preferably flakes or pellet. Dip your fish prior to introducing them to your system, certain things are fairly easy to remove, like flukes, which if untreated can lead to bacterial infections or stress that can make a couple of little spots turn into a full outbreak.

It's hard to not buy at times when the fish are looking good and one fish in the system looks like hell, but in reality it is the only way I can keep my systems clean.

 

[Euphyllia]

Just my two cents, but if any of your fish get Ich ever again and they are less than $40, not rare, and you don't have a quarantine tank, I would git rid of the fish. Since you have a 90 gallon I wouldn't want to risk the rest of my tank to Ich and the NO-ICH stuff is extremely expensive. As for now, I would treat the pest cycle for a couple of weeks just to be safe, but if this ever happens again in the future you can bring the fish to an LFS and see if they would take it for free and have them deal with the Ich since you gave them the fish for free. Not to put everything off on them, but since you'd be giving it to them for free I think it would be a fair deal. If you can't do that, then I've heard you can cup the fish out in water and put it in the freezer and it will slowly stop its heart rate without it having to go through pain. And since you don't spend a fortune on the NO-ICH you can buy another fish to replace it if you wanted to and you won't have to buy multiple large bottles of the NO-ICH. Again, this is just my opinion. The only time I've had to freeze a fish was when I had a pregnant guppy in my old fresh water tank and you could tell she was about to die... she had given birth every single month for about 6 months and her last batch had been 132 babies. I'm assuming if she had lived there would be about 200+ babies. The other time I had to freeze a fish was when I got one about a year ago and I came home one night and found it still breathing, but lying on its side and it looked like it was dying so I spared it the pain of dieing and froze it. If you ever get Ich again, try and remember this! Good Luck!

 

[Reefdad]

Tonight as I am doing a small WC I have noticed that the cysts have more than doubled. The tang is still active but not nearly as active as last night. I have yet too see a dramatic change in feeding it still is feeding. But strangely it seems to be hiding more. So it is hard to tell if it is swimming less or hiding more. your

I know the cardinal rule is to never trust you LFS but I went and showed them a pic of the fish to try and get some sympathy if the fish dies so I am not out a ton of money. But he is pushing NO-ICH to treat the tank for the next 4-6 weeks. I didn't buy more product and I am going to wait out the time frame but this seems like a slow death to the fish.

What would be the obvious signs that the fish isn't going to make it? Just because it has a lot of cyst dose that mean it is worse off or is it a matter of it staying away form its gills? I don't see any obvious changes to its gills or breathing so I can only assume that it hasn't effected them yet.

 

[tuberider]

Erik, if the fish is huffing and puffing and not eating it's not a good outlook. If it is eating and breathing normally, it stands a good chance of rebounding, keep cramming the food down its throat and minimize the light to keep the stress levels down. Do not use the NO-ICH, it does not work, I know this from experience, and by experience I mean more than one tank, way more...

 

[Reefdad]

Erik, if the fish is huffing and puffing and not eating it's not a good outlook. If it is eating and breathing normally, it stands a good chance of rebounding, keep cramming the food down its throat and minimize the light to keep the stress levels down. Do not use the NO-ICH, it does not work, I know this from experience, and by experience I mean more than one tank, way more...

well I will just keep it dark? couple of hours a day of light and leave it at that?

 

[Jbon]

I believe that feeding Spectrum Thera +A food has helped me get rid of it for a powder blue and a kole. It has garlic and copper proteinate that they ingest. I feed it and nori almost exclusively to my tangs.

 

[sfboarders]

I soaked and still soak my food with kents garlic extreme and selcon and zoecon. Good luck with your treatment.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Just my two cents, but if any of your fish get Ich ever again and they are less than $40, not rare, and you don't have a quarantine tank [...]

Rather than the "marine life as disposable goods" approach, it's really not that hard to throw together a quarantine tank to run hypo. Even a large plastic trash can with a heater, sponge filter, and air pump would do.

When I do hypo, I take the s.g. down to 1.009 over a period of several days. This should be in a hospital tank. Corals and other inverts won't survive hypo.

Here are some useful articles:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=83916

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic31173-10-1.aspx

If it is ich, you need to let the main tank run fishless for about 4-6 weeks to break the life cycle of the parasite.

 

[GreshamH]

Just my two cents, but if any of your fish get Ich ever again and they are less than $40, not rare, and you don't have a quarantine tank, I would git rid of the fish. Since you have a 90 gallon I wouldn't want to risk the rest of my tank to Ich and the NO-ICH stuff is extremely expensive. As for now, I would treat the pest cycle for a couple of weeks just to be safe, but if this ever happens again in the future you can bring the fish to an LFS and see if they would take it for free and have them deal with the Ich since you gave them the fish for free. Not to put everything off on them, but since you'd be giving it to them for free I think it would be a fair deal. If you can't do that, then I've heard you can cup the fish out in water and put it in the freezer and it will slowly stop its heart rate without it having to go through pain. And since you don't spend a fortune on the NO-ICH you can buy another fish to replace it if you wanted to and you won't have to buy multiple large bottles of the NO-ICH. Again, this is just my opinion. The only time I've had to freeze a fish was when I had a pregnant guppy in my old fresh water tank and you could tell she was about to die... she had given birth every single month for about 6 months and her last batch had been 132 babies. I'm assuming if she had lived there would be about 200+ babies. The other time I had to freeze a fish was when I got one about a year ago and I came home one night and found it still breathing, but lying on its side and it looked like it was dying so I spared it the pain of dieing and froze it. If you ever get Ich again, try and remember this! Good Luck!

The primary goal of BAR is to promote environmental protection of reefs and ethical treatment of animals.

Matthew that is wrong on so many levels I don't even know what to say. You obviously have a lack of appreciation for living animals that are under $40 or not rare :O . No matter what the price of the animal, it is an obligation YOU chose to take on and simply killing it because you can't take care of it is beyond me and a lot of others around here. Do you even understand what it took to get that fish in your tank? All the fuel, plastic, electricity, etc?

 

[Reefdad]

Just my two cents, but if any of your fish get Ich ever again and they are less than $40, not rare, and you don't have a quarantine tank, I would git rid of the fish. Since you have a 90 gallon I wouldn't want to risk the rest of my tank to Ich and the NO-ICH stuff is extremely expensive. As for now, I would treat the pest cycle for a couple of weeks just to be safe, but if this ever happens again in the future you can bring the fish to an LFS and see if they would take it for free and have them deal with the Ich since you gave them the fish for free. Not to put everything off on them, but since you'd be giving it to them for free I think it would be a fair deal. If you can't do that, then I've heard you can cup the fish out in water and put it in the freezer and it will slowly stop its heart rate without it having to go through pain. And since you don't spend a fortune on the NO-ICH you can buy another fish to replace it if you wanted to and you won't have to buy multiple large bottles of the NO-ICH. Again, this is just my opinion. The only time I've had to freeze a fish was when I had a pregnant guppy in my old fresh water tank and you could tell she was about to die... she had given birth every single month for about 6 months and her last batch had been 132 babies. I'm assuming if she had lived there would be about 200+ babies. The other time I had to freeze a fish was when I got one about a year ago and I came home one night and found it still breathing, but lying on its side and it looked like it was dying so I spared it the pain of dieing and froze it. If you ever get Ich again, try and remember this! Good Luck!

Thanks for your input but, I completely disagree.