Cleaner shrimp and ich

[bluemantr]

Hello
I had a new coral beauty. I got her last week and after couple days she got ich. I read almost all post about ich but i cant run my tank fish less because i dont have any other tank. So i just let her stay in tank and i tried to reduce that may cause a strees to her. But yesterday i saw my cleaner shrimp top of her face and cleaning ich. This morning coral beauty has almost no white spots All cleaner shrimps cleans ich or i am just a lucky?

 

[bang guy]

Removing parasites is what makes Cleaner Shrimps happy. They all do it to some degree.
The Shrimp can only get to the external parasites though so the tank isn't going to be ick free.
The Shrimp can make the fish a lot more comfortable though. If the fish is in a stress free environment and comfortable then its immune system has a good chance of fighting of the Ick invasion and getting the fish healthy again.
Be warned though, if the fish gets stressed again you can expect it to break out in Ick spots a few days later unless you quaranteen the fish and leave the tank idle for a few weeks.

 

[saltn00b]

cleaner shrimps do help, but not all that much. unfortunately that was just the first wave of assualt and she will likely be covered in it by the end of the day. weather or not the shrimp can save her life is in gods hands now. please consider setting up a small QT tank for future additions, to prevent other fish from getting ich, and hopefully this poor angel from getting it AGAIN should she survive this bout.

 

[greenwolf52]

so tell me if i'm correct. ick is almost always caused by new additions to an aquarium. so if i'm done adding to mine, then ick should, for the most part, not be a problem anymore?

 

[reefkprz]

this is one of the few times I will ever reccomend using mark weiss coral vital because it can help the fish battle the ich naturally, (dont over do it though it can pollute your tank quickly) In my expirience (I have done this a few times) between a really clean environment, a cleaner shrimp and some coral vital, a fish can recover just fine, With out hyposalinity. I'm not claiming that coralvital is a treatment for ich but I think it does help the fishes immune system and its ability to repell ich from adhering.
Disclaimer: this is mostly theory, and not backed by any hard scientific data.

 

[saltn00b]

if you dont add anymore fish , then i would tell you 98% chance you wont get it again, IF the system is cleaned of it with a 6 week fishless cycle. if not, many will say you will always have ick in the system until that is done, just in small manageable numbers. if the fish get stressed for whatever reason, then it could likely come back with a vengeance.
the 2% i left was because it could come in on any calcerous material you may add, be it coral, LR , LS

 

[tacks]

A couple of things. Like mentioned above, get yourself a QT tank. It will work wonders and keep your main tank relatively healthy. Also, you can soak your food in garlic as a preventive type thing. Keep your water quality top noch and your tank stress free. Good luck to you.

 

[reefkprz]

ich is caused by ich being present in the water, usually a newly added individual becomes susceptible because of stress and a lowered immune capacity due to stress. older tank mates may get it due to stress from the new individual being introduced messing with the balance that has been reached so far.
What causes marine "Ich"?
Marine "Ich" is caused by a ciliated protozoan called Cryptocaryon irritans Brown 1951. Ciliates (Phylum Ciliophora) are one of the largest groups of protozoans and all posses cilia or compound ciliary structures for food acquisition or locomotion at some point in their life cycle. Of the some 7200 species that have been described, around one third are ecto- and endo- commensals and parasites (Ruppert and Barnes, 1994). C. irritans is an obligate ectoparasite (Dickerson and Clark, 1996) which means that it is an external parasite that needs the fish host to complete its life cycle. The name 'Marine "Ich"' has been coined because it is essentially the marine equivalent on Ichthyophthirius multifiliis Fouquet, 1876, or "Ich" for short. While the two species of ciliates have superficially similar life cycles and signs, they have been found to be only distantly related (Wright and Colorni, 2002) .
The life cycle stages of C. irritans
C. irritans has a four stage life cycle. The parasitic stage (trophonts) is the one that results in the appearance of white spots all over the fish. The trophonts burrow under the skin where they feed on body fluids and tissue debris. When the trophonts first infect the fish they are small but grow as they feed and so the white spots are initially small but get larger as they mature. Once mature, they drop off the fish and sink/swim down to the substrate where they encyst and begin to reproduce. In this stage they are called tomonts. After a number of days in which the tomonts divide, the cyst ruptures, releasing the tomites. Tomites may differentiate into theronts, the infective stage, which actively seek a host to reinfect.

 

[bluemantr]

I dont have any other choice right now. I dont have any other tank to take angel to the other tank. I have only 2 percs and coral beauty, Clowns has no sign of ick. Only thinkg i could do ask my LFS to keep them for me But it will cause more strees to the fishes right? Take them there and take it back. So if fish strees cause ick then big chance of getting ick on coral beauty again. Am i wrong?

 

[greenwolf52]

i have in heard in some instances that ick can cause blindness in some fish. even after a fish has been "cured" of it, they can still remain blind and will inevitably die as they can not even see food in front of their face.

 

[bluemantr]

I started soaking their food with fresh garlic. And trying to reduce as much strees i can reduce. I am not sure what else i could do.

 

[saltn00b]

they can go blind from secondary infections caused by an advanced case of ich.
if i were, you i would either try to ride it out and pray, or set up a a qt tank and continue doing water changes to keep it from cycling. i would set up a QT regardless, for anything in the future.

 

[bluemantr]

I have skimmer running 24/7, I just test the water Amonia, Nitrite, nitrate 0 , SG 1.026

 

[f14peter]

Originally Posted by Bluemantr
I dont have any other choice right now. I dont have any other tank to take angel to the other tank. I have only 2 percs and coral beauty, Clowns has no sign of ick. Only thinkg i could do ask my LFS to keep them for me But it will cause more strees to the fishes right? Take them there and take it back. So if fish strees cause ick then big chance of getting ick on coral beauty again. Am i wrong?
A QT needn't be elaborate, nor expensive. In fact it shouldn't be as all you need is a small tank (10g would do) with some form of filtration (Simple HOB works), a heater, and maybe some aeration (probably the only time an airstone and airpump would be used by a pure marine aquarist).
A simple and very inexpensive "Starter pack" aquarium would do, available darn near anywhere like Target, Wal-Mart, even franchise pet stores as they come with virtually everything you need in one box.
Considering the cost of setting up a simple QTwould be about what you'd pay for a couple of typical fish, very worth it.

 

[halo_frk03]

i got a cleaner shrimp, actually 2, in attempt to clean my fish of ich... but neither of them touched my fish?

 

[saltn00b]

sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you dont. if the shrimp were new to the system they might not have felt comfortable yet.

 

[bluemantr]

Originally Posted by f14peter
A QT needn't be elaborate, nor expensive. In fact it shouldn't be as all you need is a small tank (10g would do) with some form of filtration (Simple HOB works), a heater, and maybe some aeration (probably the only time an airstone and airpump would be used by a pure marine aquarist).
A simple and very inexpensive "Starter pack" aquarium would do, available darn near anywhere like Target, Wal-Mart, even franchise pet stores as they come with virtually everything you need in one box.
Considering the cost of setting up a simple QTwould be about what you'd pay for a couple of typical fish, very worth it.

Well the problem is how can i keep Coral beauty in 10g tank for 6 weeks?

 

[ccg24]

I had the same problem w/ my coral beauty! some days she showed ich some she looked fine and the behavior never changed she eventually died but I blamed my self because I freaked out because I tried a fresh water dip and that worked for a couple of days and then I put her in a QT but that just stressed her out more and she died... what size tank is she in?

 

[bluemantr]

Originally Posted by ccg24
I had the same problem w/ my coral beauty! some days she showed ich some she looked fine and the behavior never changed she eventually died but I blamed my self because I freaked out because I tried a fresh water dip and that worked for a couple of days and then I put her in a QT but that just stressed her out more and she died... what size tank is she in?
Now 30 gallon

 

[saltn00b]

30 gallon is a bit small for a coral beauty to start with so that is not helping the stress.
heres what i would suggest, set up a proper QT tank. you need one weather you put the CB in there or not. if you have access to alot of water, i would suggest catch the CB and put her in the uncycled QT. if you keep up with 40% water changes every 2 days or so, that should keep it from cycling... BUT you would have to do that for 6 weeks. a) to do hypo on it while in QT and then b) so the ich dies out of your DT.