Can I Let Nature Take It's Course? Ich...

[mlwoods007]

I recently tried to pair a little Osc Clown with the one that came with my 125gal. It didn't work, died, and then my original one came down with ICH from being so stressed out. It seems to be doing better, but that's not my problem now. This past Friday, I came across a good deal on a Blonde Naso that I just couldn't pass up. I put him in and he seemed to be doing fine, but then I noticed that he too is coming down with ICH and is acting funny. I don't know if he got really stressed when i did a water change yesterday or what, but he's showing the beginner signs. All my other fish are/and have been perfectly fine though (diamond back goby, 7 chromis, black tank, and damsil). My question is, must I quarantine him, or will he eventually pull through? What are my chances of him pulling through on his own? 50/50,70/30/, 90/10...? My parameters are fine, have prob 2500-3000gph, 300lbs LR, and 3 cleaner shrimp.

 

[earlybird]

By letting nature take its course I'd gamble on the ich to win. 100% I don't believe that ich exists in every fish and stress causes it to come out. Ich has a life cycle and needs a host. You are in for a world of hurt if you don't QT your fish before introducing to DT.

 

[m0nk]

Here's what I've learned by personal experience. I hope it helps:
Short story is that ich lives in several stages in your tank. If it appears on a fish, then goes away, it'll be back, with a vengeance. The problem here is that if you had a fish with ich in your DT and didn't remove and QT that fish for treatment, and keep your DT fishless for 6 weeks, the ich will be present and attach to any new fish. Even if you QT incoming fish, if ich exists in your tank you need to deal with it. The best solution here is to follow Beth's write-up on Hyposalinity. This is in the following sticky thread:
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/127007/faqs-fish-diseases-treatments-quarantine-health-info
That's the best solution to getting ich out of your tank. You'll need a QT setup to treat all the fish you have in your DT and the DT will need to be fishless for 6 weeks.
Trust me, those "reef-safe" medications don't work. Best case is that ich will go away for a short while, then come back worse. Worst case scenario is that something will go wrong and make matters worse in some way.
I tried using kick-ich and during the long process of using that the ich didn't go away and only got worse. I'm still trying to save my fish, so as a word of advice, don't let nature take it's course in this case, cause you'll end up with a bunch of dead fish. Hope that helps.

 

[mlwoods007]

thanks for the help

 

[mlwoods007]

wow, I got home from work and he was on his side pinned between some rocks, not movin. Luckily, I had a 10gal, and hob filter laying around, so I quickly set up quar. I added a little ro//di water to drop the salinity a little and threw him in. Obviously he went straight to the bottom, and wasn't even moving his fins. I could see gills and his eye moving (watching me) so I knew he wasn't a complete gonner yet. Just checked on him, and he's upright! Defin not swimming anywhere though. Sure it's a too early to tell, but looks like he just might make it. Dang he's in rough shape though.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by mlwoods007
wow, I got home from work and he was on his side pinned between some rocks, not movin. Luckily, I had a 10gal, and hob filter laying around, so I quickly set up quar. I added a little ro//di water to drop the salinity a little and threw him in. Obviously he went straight to the bottom, and wasn't even moving his fins. I could see gills and his eye moving (watching me) so I knew he wasn't a complete gonner yet. Just checked on him, and he's upright! Defin not swimming anywhere though. Sure it's a too early to tell, but looks like he just might make it. Dang he's in rough shape though.
You should not have "thrown him in". Especially after lowering the SG first. Please read the proper way to do hyposalinity and read about acclimation. You will have to treat ALL of the fish in your display, not just those showing signs of ich, as earlybird and mOnk pointed out.

 

[lesleybird]

Likely your fish in the tank that survived the ich have some immunity and are not sick but there will always be a low level of ich in the tank that these fish keep alive with an ocasional spot or two and when ever you put a new fish in it will come down with ich from your tank even if it does not have it going in. Put only the tang in the quarenteen tank and get him ich free again and he will get it again when you put him in the display unless you take all the fish out and let it go fishless for 6 weeks so that the ich has no host and will die off completely. I think that there are a lot of fish with heavy scales that can survive and recover from ich like large angelfish and damsels....unfortunately tangs are not ones that usually survive the attack unless treated and placed in a totally ich free environment as their skin does not have the heavy scales. My large angelfish only get ich on their fins and probably in the soft tissues of the gills where one cannot see it. I have a pair of clowns that did not even get ich that one could see when most of the other fish in the tank had it. Good luck, Lesley