Ich Outbreak. Please Help

[molly05]

I bought 110g with
1 sailfin tang
1 maroon
1 clown trigger
2 chromis
1 lemonpeel angel
70lb LR and 70lb LS
All of them showed no sign of ich when I came to pick up. 2 days after moving, the sailfin got ich. I treated the whole tank with stop parasite for 5 days and no more ich on sailfin. Next day, I transferred a small hippo tang from the QT to this tank. Every fish seemed to be happy for about a week until I introduced 2 more fishes (1 pearlscale butterfly and 1 long nose butterfly). 2 days later, both 2 new fishes got ich. I hesitated to do hypo in the DT. Next 2 days, the long nose butterfly died. I made the decision to hypo in the DT. I moved all LR to a trash can and started to low SG on 10/28 and finished on 10/30. I adjusted SG to 1.009 on 10/31. Everything went smoothly, and then my honey told me “why don’t you buy 2 more fishes and hypo them at the same time, after the hypo don’t put any more fish in”. It sounded good to me. On 11/12, I bought a flame angel, put in 10g QT, low SG for 2 days then moved to the DT. He got ich 2 days later but not much. On 11/18, I bought a powder blue tang, put in 10g QT, low SG then moved to the DT. He got ich 4 days later. Now all fishes have ich except maroon and chromis. The worst infected one is power tang. He has a lot of ich on his body now. Next one is hippo, then flame angel. I know I was stupid to listen to my honey. What should I do now? My water parameters are:
sg 1.008 to 1.009 or 11 to 12ppm
pH 8.23
am 0
trate 0
trite 0
phos 0.05ppm
cal 300
temp 78
water change 10g every two weeks
food: seaweed sheet, therm +A pellet, formula 1, shrimp, clam soaked with selcon, zoe, vita chem, extreme garlic

 

[mandarin w]

In my opinion you are adding way too many fish way to fast.
It looks like you added the original livestock back right after moving the tank, then added 5 more fish in the corse of a month. The tank probley hadn't settled from the move.
If sg is 1.008 to 1.009, it is way to low. your inverts wont make it. All you can do for now is water changes, and slowly up your salinity to about 1.025 range. You should prepare yourself to loose a few more fish. But don't replace them right away. You should only add 1 or 2 fish to a tank a month. You need to give the tank time to build itself up to handle the extra bio load you are adding. too many fish at once could shock the system and crash your tank. Keep an eye on your tank, check the levels often, do your water changes and wait it out. If you make it two months with out any more fish dieing, then you can think about added a (1) (uno) single, fish. But the news isn't very good for you. sorry to say. Tangs espeacaily powder blues are ick magnets. and the angles don't fare to well either. And the ick parasite feeds off fish. as long as there are fish in the tank, there is food. it take about 4 to 6 weeks of a fish free tank for the ick parasite to die. But sometimes we luck out and don't loose everything in our tanks.

 

[teresaq]

her sg is so low because she has her tank in hypo to treat the ick.
Sorry I cant help, never had ick. maybe post in the disease forum. maybe try adding garlic to thier diet.

 

[nick76]

adding fish to fast, did u QT the 2 new ones u added? If u didnt theres your problem right there.

 

[emeralcrab]

So your post was long, are we getting this right?
1) you now have all your fish, new and old in DT doing HYPO? 110g right?
2) you moved your LR/LS to trash can during hypo? Keep heat and water movement going for it, check parameters often and do water changes as needed. Also help to have a light on it.
If this is right you will need to watch your water parameters very very carefully in your hypo'd DT, as you did add a lot bigger bio-load then your tank was use to.
You will just have to do your best with possibly changing water daily, your fish have been very stressed esp. the new ones, getting moved into a new tank, new territory. Hopefully you have some hiding places for the fish to go to. If not I would add lace rock or PVC pipes for them to hide in.
Have lots of water made up a head of time. To match your hypo DT. When I hypo'd I check'd my water sometimes twice a day. As any level of amm, trites and trates can cause stress on your already stressed fish. Also checked my salinity twice a day with a refractometer. I hope that is what you are testing with as that is the ONLY way to make sure you are right on.
Just follow Beth's instructions on HYPO and hope for the best. You probably will loose somemore because of all the stress. Make sure you follow hypo to the tea for it to work. Good luck keep us posted and maybe have a mod move this to the disease forum.

 

[alyssia]

..and stop adding so many fish so quickly. :joy:

 

[molly05]

Originally Posted by EmeralCrab
So your post was long, are we getting this right?
1) you now have all your fish, new and old in DT doing HYPO? 110g right?
Yes, all new and old are in 110g DT right now.
2) you moved your LR/LS to trash can during hypo? Keep heat and water movement going for it, check parameters often and do water changes as needed. Also help to have a light on it.
I only moved LR to trash can. I left LS in DT during hypo. Heat and PH are provided. No light.
If this is right you will need to watch your water parameters very very carefully in your hypo'd DT, as you did add a lot bigger bio-load then your tank was use to.
You will just have to do your best with possibly changing water daily, your fish have been very stressed esp. the new ones, getting moved into a new tank, new territory. Hopefully you have some hiding places for the fish to go to. If not I would add lace rock or PVC pipes for them to hide in.
Have lots of water made up a head of time. To match your hypo DT. When I hypo'd I check'd my water sometimes twice a day. As any level of amm, trites and trates can cause stress on your already stressed fish. Also checked my salinity twice a day with a refractometer. I hope that is what you are testing with as that is the ONLY way to make sure you are right on.
I check water parameters everyday and use refractometer to measure SG.
Just follow Beth's instructions on HYPO and hope for the best. You probably will loose somemore because of all the stress. Make sure you follow hypo to the tea for it to work. Good luck keep us posted and maybe have a mod move this to the disease forum.
I follow Beth's instruction on hypo. How long will ich go away?

 

[michaeltx]

Your display will now have been fishless for at least four weeks, sufficient time to allow the parasite’s life cycle to be interrupted. ****** is an obligate parasite that requires a fish host. No fish=No host=No parasite. Ich is a fish-only parasite, it will not affect inverts.

this is from the same page as the hypo instructions. after you get it all taken care of I would suggest keeping the QT tank to ensure that you dont reintroduce ich in the tank again. The powder tangs are notorious for getting ich they are very susceptable to it for some reason. so now that you have it you will need to be extra careful about how you add to the DT. and be sure not to add any LFS water to your DT or QT.
on another note as you already know adding new fish to a QT with fish in it already isnt a good idea but it does 2 things 1 starts the QT time all over and 2 can reintroduce ich or other parasites to fish that are already immune comprimised.
Good luck and keep us up to date on how its going .
Mike

 

[ice4ice]

Adding too many fishes too fast. Tangs are your most likely suspect of ich and they are prone to it. Addition of fishes are usually done every few weeks not days. QT your fishes at least 3 - 4 weeks. Your SG is too low. Should be around 1.024 - 1.026. Consider it a lesson learned. Alot of fishes dying and you're quickly replacing them as fast is costing you alot of money buying new ones. Take things slow.

 

[michaeltx]

sg is low cause she is in the middle of hypo treatments.
Mike

 

[cora]

Here's something else you could try.
I've had my tank for 6 years and have had ich problems, especially with tangs, 4 or 5 times. In my humble opinion, ich is always present, and ditching live rock, sand, etc. won't change that. Healthy fish rarely get ich if they aren't stressed, but when they become stressed it seems to lower their immunity.
I've had good luck using Ick Attack (it's a herbal remedy, no chemicals). You can even double the dose without damage to anything (my inverts seem to like it) I always keep several bottles on hand. It may take two or three days to see a difference, but the ich parasites eventually start falling off and the fish get well--unless the fish are really far gone, then there may be nothing that can save them. Just keep dosing and follow the directions. It's worth a try and may prevent anymore break outs. Good luck.

 

[snapperboy]

Just a thought.. Where are you buying fish? *****? Id look closely at your lfs's fish and see if they are selling healthy livestock.

 

[molly05]

Originally Posted by snapperboy
Just a thought.. Where are you buying fish? *****? Id look closely at your lfs's fish and see if they are selling healthy livestock.
No matter where I bought fish, they always show ich after 2 days. I tried 3 different LFS already and have same result.

 

[emeralcrab]

molly, just make sure that you don't start counting the weeks until there is no ick present on ANY of your fish. When ALL are clear of ick, that is when you start counting. In fact to be on the safe side I wouldn't start counting until a couple days or more after no sign of parasite. I also run UV's on all of my tanks.
After you have done this hypo, takes a long time sometimes....make sure that you QT all new fish that you buy. We have all made mistakes and taken short cuts, but it is not worth it in the long run. Right now I have 3 QT's going as I have 3 main tanks.
Good luck, just be sure to follow hypo instruction to the letter. Read and reread to make sure you have it right, or print it out to be able to referr back to it. After reading and reading people's post it seems like they really don't take the time to read what is really there, they seem to skip over things.

 

[molly05]

Originally Posted by EmeralCrab
molly, just make sure that you don't start counting the weeks until there is no ick present on ANY of your fish. When ALL are clear of ick, that is when you start counting. In fact to be on the safe side I wouldn't start counting until a couple days or more after no sign of parasite. I also run UV's on all of my tanks.
I do run 15W UV on this tank.
After you have done this hypo, takes a long time sometimes....make sure that you QT all new fish that you buy. We have all made mistakes and taken short cuts, but it is not worth it in the long run. Right now I have 3 QT's going as I have 3 main tanks.
Good luck, just be sure to follow hypo instruction to the letter. Read and reread to make sure you have it right, or print it out to be able to referr back to it. After reading and reading people's post it seems like they really don't take the time to read what is really there, they seem to skip over things.
Yes, I keep reading and reading and learning, too. BTW, my power tang is just dead.

 

[michaeltx]

sorry to hear that.
I wouldnt add anything to the QT or DT until you get it all worked out and then ask about the down side to the fish you want to add.
mike

 

[emeralcrab]

Sorry

, are you at hypo now? and if so how long? how are the other fish looking?
It was probably just to much stress being a new fish, getting sick and hypo, they aren't the hardiest of tangs.
My hippo will still get a spot or two when something stress's her. Like water change, adding a new fish. It falls off and then there isn't any until something stress's her again. She was in hypo by herself for over 6 weeks, the DT tank was fishless for over 6 weeks, I have UV on tank and even after all of that she still gets one once in a while. I soak all their food in zoe, zoecon, garlic, you name it. They get a variety also.
So good luck, keep us posted on your progress.

 

[molly05]

Yes, I hypo my DT now. It's 1 month already. The sailfin, butterfly, angels and trigger still have couple white dots on tail and fin. The sailfin, butterfly and trigger eat like pig and very active. The hippo has a lot of ich on his body, but hes still eating and swimming. No sign of ich on chromis and maroon at all. Hopefully, all my fishes will pass this outbreak.

 

[emeralcrab]

Hang in there, it's amazing how long till all the ich falls off. Wow a month at hypo already...u would think that by now it would be gone.

 

[molly05]

I read a thread somewhere stated that during hypo don't feed the fish everyday, let them starve so that they can push their immu system. Is it true?