HELP!! Ichy Fish deaths!

[eeyrg]

Well....
I just added a nice pretty new baby yellow tang yesterday. Everything was great, up until about an hour ago when I noticed the fish upside-down and completely covered in what looks like Ich.
Next to the fish is a dead chromis.
I've bought fish for 10+ years. I checked this one over before bringing him home. He looked _fine_ to me.
I treated the tank with an Ich treatment, but I'm very worried about the other tank inhabitants and what this will do to my LR & other growths in the tank.
Can I expect to see relief as fast as the onset of this issue? Is there anything else I can do? (outside of removing the carbon from the filter)
Also, what can I treat equipment with (buckets, nets, hydrometer, etc) that have been contaminated since I have multiple tanks in the house?

 

[wrassecal]

I don't know a whole lot but I'll try to help. You said you treated the tank with an ich treatment. I don't think ich treatments are reef safe and have copper in them so if you have live rock etc that would be bad for your tank. Do you have other fish in the tank? You need to get all fish out of tank and into a hospital tank and do hyposalinity on them ( there is another thread up on how to do that) Your tank has to remain fishless for at least a month so that the ich parasite can go through all it's stages and die out of the tank (not be in some free floating form). Only fish can host ich so any inverts are OK to be in tank...I'm just really wondering what ich treatment you used and if it will damage your tank. I'm sorry for your loss. HTH

 

[eeyrg]

Originally posted by anthem:
<strong>Your other fish have been exposed to ****** and you have a couple of choices. You can let it go for now and see if they develop or are able to fight it off and keep it in detente, or you can treat for it. Treatment is via copper or hyposalinity - both require accurate methods to measure there therapeutic level and maintain it there.
This could be avoided in the future if you quarantine your fish. Even if the fish look good in the store, it is no assurance that the fish are healthy or will remain so after the trip home. . .
Ed</strong><hr></blockquote>
The problem is I don't have room for a quarantine tank. :-(
The original tank mates are looking fine. Nobody outside of that one chromis have died.
I think I'll go with the hyposalinity method, i'm not sure I'd like to continue using copper in my tank.

 

[seaguru]

O.K. I am not going to try to diagnose this one... but I do have a few suggestions...
Q and patience are the two best routes to keeping beautiful healthy fish for a long time. Suggest you search this forum for Quarantine (and Hyposalinity by H2oski if you plan to use) and read and learn all you can. If you do not put a new arrival in Q first, you chance getting into the situation you are in now... in my opinion I would pull all fish out and put them in Q... Based on the info provided and others' posts I think I would definitely use Maricyn2 (make sure you get the one for Saltwater). In conjuction with that I would do Hyposalinity, but ONLY IF YOU HAVE OR PURCHASE A REFRACTOMETER to accurately measure the salinity/SG. Best buy on the net is here $70:
<a href="http://www.***************.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PA&Product_Code=REFRACT-PA&Category_Code=Hydrometer" target="_blank">http://www.***************.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PA&Product_Code=REFRACT-PA&Category_Code=Hydrometer</a>
... you can slowly lower the salinity during the 5 days of M2 meds. Now if you don't have the time/patience/$$$/inclination to do hypo then use copper with the M2 (I have before with success).
Now, about the bio-filter (which by the way is a MUST if you don't want to loose fish to ammonia/nitrite spikes/levels)... if you want to use some of your already cycled media (bio-balls) from your display set up... just take any bucket and PVC fittings, drill the bucket put fittings in bottom, put the bucket above your container level so you can pipe the water back to the container (gravity feed) and use a pump to get the water from the Q container up to your home-made drip filter. If you want take a plastic drip pan made for plant pots and drill holes in it to make a drip tray in the bucket. I have done this with a 5 gallon Coralife salt bucket (lots of bio-balls!) and have kept many fish simultaneously in Q for months with no problems. It sounds like a lot to do but it is the RIGHT WAY to keep and stock saltwater fish. There is a great product that eases the fears during Q. If you in any way think you may not have a cycled bio-filter to use during Q, I highly recommend using some "bacteria in a bottle". I have used the Tropical Science brand many times with seeming success. You can get it here:
<a href="http://www.**************.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=6&pCatId=4003" target="_blank">http://www.**************.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=6&pCatId=4003</a>
for what I consider a reasonable price considering the cost of your fish (investment).
Also, I would not try hypo on my display tank as inverts, etc. will not survive. Lastly, you say you do not have room to Q... how important are your fish to you??? I have set-up my whole Q system (3 interconnected w/pvc 50g rubbermaid containers) in my bedroom beside my bed! O.K. maybe you are not a fanatic but I would make some exceptions to the normal if you really want to save/keep fish... Just my .02, and best of luck, Joe.