2 survivors!

[kimkissyfish]

Hi,
Ok, this post was inspired by.."how is your tank" Well... I have a problem, ready to put a hammer through my tanks glass.. My 75G that is....
My tank is clear, water perameters are great... BUT.. All my fish get ich and die EXCEPT for my tomato and my yellow tang! They are the kings of the tank....
I took out my small box fish this am to QT him cuz I saw ICH..... Have inverts, LR and many corals. so cant treat the main tank... I have QT;d new arrivals and they looked FINE before I added them to the main tank, then 4 or 5 days leter ICH! Grrrrrrrrrr
what now???
Thanking you kindly. Kim

 

[michaeltx]

one thing you could try is hypo and if possibly leave your tank fishless for a couple of months. ( that is if you can get them out of the ones you have out of the tank) the ich has different stages of life only one is on the fish the others are in the water and floor of the tank (I beileve) so if there are fish in the system the ich will get to a stage that needs the host and your fish have ich again.
hypo will also work on new arrivals marine ich cant live long in the lower salinity. ZI think you lower the salinity to 1.019 and leave it there for a few weeks and then slowly raise it back up.
most healthy fish can fight off ich if they are stressed out of sick the are more suseptable to it.
is there anything in the tank that could be an agreesor that could stressing the fish out?
HTH some
Mike
also ich doesnt effect corals or inverts so that a good thing.

 

[kimkissyfish]

Thanks Michael,
I thought maybe the fish didnt like my arangement of LR, so I rearranged it.. LOLOL what was I thinking? HAHA
I will lower the sal a bit... If i can catch the fish I will put them in QT while my main tank sits for about a month...
Also, the ONLY thing I can think of as a stress would be.. I have surround sound and the speakers are on the wall above the tank, so ONLY when I watch a movie the sound may be blaring through the tank.... Here is where my tanks are in my room... BTW, the seahorse tank on the left has a speaker too and NOONE has ever been sick or died in that tank...
Thanks, Kim

 

[kimkissyfish]

sorry..pic of my fav fish rom...
kim

 

[michelle13]

For hyposalinity to work the salinity must be dropped to 1.009 and maintained for several weeks to kill the ich. You might take a look at the disease and treatment forum, there is awesome information there on how to treat ich. Good Luck!

 

[goldrush]

Just a hunch.How long did you QT them??

 

[kimkissyfish]

Hi,
The new arrivals are usually QT anywhere from 1 week to 3 weeks. It all depends on IF they show signs of anything wrong.. I treat for ich as a preventative treatment. I also then do hypo IF they show any signs for 2 weeks ........ But then if I put them in the main tank and they show signs of disease, back they go.... The problem must be in my main tank now..
OH NO!!! I cant treat my main tank.. LR & inverts! I have used greenex in my main tank beofre (invert and oral safe) It didnt work, obviously.....
I am ready to take down my main tank and start over... I just have beautiful corals and dont want to lose them!
Can corals go through hypo?? I can remove all inverts and LR and do hypo on the main tank???
Thanking you kindly, Kim

 

[michelle13]

I don't think that corals can go through hypo. I would take out my fish and put them in QT and treat them for ich. I would leave your main tank fishless for about 4 to 5 weeks so the ich would die. Then you should be good to go, without having to tear down the tank and start all over! I also think you have to do hypo for longer than two weeks to have it be effective in killing the parasite. I treated mine about 7 months ago and it took a little over 5 weeks. I slowly lowered the salinity over a couple of days and maintained it at 1.009 for four weeks and then it took about five days to raise the salinity back to their normal level. This also gave the ich in my main tank time to die off. Never had any more problems!

 

[ophiura]

Do not use hyposalinity in your main tank, which will definitely kill off all of your invertebrates.
Are you sure there is no aggression being shown to new additions? Both clowns and yellow tangs can be very aggressive. In this case, it does not really matter much what you do to treat the fish. Healthy non stressed fish will be able to fight off ick, but those that are stressed will be prone to getting it. If they are picked on by established fish, this could be the source of trouble. Do the clown and tang not get ick?
What fish have you tried to add that have been lost to this situation?
You could probably remove the clown and tang to a different tank, let the new fish get established in the main tank, and then reintroduce the tang and clown.

 

[foxface402]

I had the same problem with my tomato clown any fish he was bigger than he went after. But I had no luck with hippo tangs they always got ich but all others was fine lfs sold me a big uv and it solved my problem.

 

[kimkissyfish]

hi,
If you look in my signature.. you will see what I have killed! I am sure there was more, but cant remember... Or maybe I have blocked it out..(kiddin) LOLOLOLOL.........
Mind you that most of these fish I have killed were PRE yellow tang and tomato..... These 2 just seem to be doing well together.
I will try the QT the 2 fish and let my tank sit for 5 weeks. I have a spiny box fish in QT right now.. he was in the tank for a couple days and i pulled him out with signs of ICH.. ALSO,,, catching the 2 fish left is gonna S@#k...
Now, second problem..... my QT is only 15H.. wont the tang and tomato get stressed in such a small tank? There is a trigger in there right now! (small one) If I get another tank,, I am afraid my husband will LEAVE!! LOLOL I have 5 tanks set up now!!!!!!!!!! The box is in a 5 gallon BF tank in the kitchen QT.....
Thanks for all your help guys!, kim
This is my 15H QT with trigger in it... is this OK??

 

[dreeves]

The Ich is probably harbored within your main tank. The two trooper fish you mentioned have probably built an immunity to the ich, so they are able to fight it off themselves.
New fish that you add, after the QT period, are probably ich free until you introduce them to the infected tank. Once introduced, just the stress of the move can lower the immune system.
The hyposalinity will harm (as mentioned before) your inverts.
I had an ich problem similar a year or so ago...sterilized the tank and started from scratch. No ich now.

 

[michaeltx]

if the 2 fish in the tank isnt getting ich they are fighting it off.(probably because they are heathly enough) I would add garlic extrac to there food to boost their ammune system.
what I would do is leave the tank as is with the 2 fish and watch them for signs of ich but not add any other fish to the system for about 5 weeks+ and it should take care of the ich stages in the tank. and then add the new fish to it after they have been hippo-ed in the QT tank. if you see that the original 2 fish are being aggressive move things around in the tank alittle bit and it might help. also after adding leave the lights off for the rest of the day so the fish go to sleep alot of aggression will be offset when you do this.
HTH
Mike

 

[michaeltx]

BTW where is that trigger going after the QT?
Mike

 

[kimkissyfish]

Mike ,
good thought.... Thats the best new I have heard in a long time.. about the fish being ich free for 5 weeks and my tanks being rid of ich.
Well, The trigger came from my sisters tank. She is new to SW AND BOUGHT IT FOR HER SEAHORSE TANK !! oh no.... tHE TRIGGER HAS never SHOWN SIGNS OF ich, HE IS VERY HEALTHY.. But she couldnt keep him and the LFS wouldnt take him back, so I took him and put him in my QT for her... She is in the process of cycling a 75 at her house but didnt have a cycled QT... He is a cool fish, actualy one of my favorite fish..... So, I am just babysitting.!!
I have a spiny box in my other QT tank that will go into my show when it is ready....
Thanking you kindly, Kim

 

[dreeves]

Even though your two fish may not display signs of ich...there seems to be ich in your tank. Regardless of how well a fish fights ich off...they are still probably getting small infestations which they are able to fight themselves and continue on with the ich life cycle.

 

[michaeltx]

I have used that method before with good results.
if you have access to UV iI heard that helps also. 5 weeks is an estimate though. I left mine like that for about 2 months just to make sure it would be gone.but I would supplement your foods with garlic to help the fight it off even more.
I was hoping you was going to say something like that.. my thoughts were trigger in a reef= disaster LOL
just let her know to pick its tankmates carefully LOL. as they get bigger around 4+ inches they start to get a mean streak that its fun. just traded mine back in at the LFS.

 

[kimkissyfish]

Dreeves and Michael,
I run a UV sterilizer on my tank.. dont know if it helps but i had the $$, I was aggrivated and I bought it..
I will shoot for a longer period without adding any fish, but I just hope my box is OK in QT for that long... He should be fine.... He is very small now and my QT has been set up so long, it is fully cycled.. They BEST thing I ever did was set up a QT, maybe not the biggest but certainly get alot of use! lESSON LEARNED about NOT QT new arrivals.. will save alot of headaches and heartaches..
For all newbies here.. here is a photo of my QT, simle yet functional the next one is my bigger QT but YOU NEED IT!@ DO NOT SKIP this step!!! BTW. this doubles as a fry tank when needed so the bowl in the middle IS NOT in while I am QT'ing
Thanking you kindly, Kim

 

[kimkissyfish]

QT

 

[broncofish]

What kind of Boxfish do you have? I only ask because my Yellow Cubicus gets ich ALL THE DAMN TIME. It's irritating, just him 2 clown and a scooter blenny in a 90g, and he always gets ich. I found the key to keeping it away, multiple cleaner shrimps. Now he's always being cleaned and has not had an ich problem, even though he is in my 29g until I move. Don't know if that helped but it fealt good to spout.