ick, and specific questions

[squid]

I have a reef tank, a month old now, which seems to have ick. shortly after I add substrate I noticed small "bugs" on the glass. it was live sand substrate so I figured that it was part of the eco system and thought nothing of it. 3 or 4 days later I added a high hat and a conchfish, which I had caught while diving, as my first fish. the bugs disappeared with in a day. I thought all’s well they became food. 2 days later or today I notice what looks like ick on both the high hat and a clownfish that I added the day after the high hat was added.
now that you have the information here are the questions...
- were those bugs the ick looking for a host?
- when I remove the fish for treatment what should I do with the display tank other then wait 23 days?
-what will happen to my invertebrates; shrimp, snails, coral, etc...?
-is ick caused by temperature fluctuations?
-how can I in the future prevent ick?
Please no flames this is my first post I want a good experience, thanks for your help.!

 

[beth]

No need to worry about Flames here...they are not tolerated.
The "bugs" you noticed prior to introducing the new fish had nothing to do with ICK.
To prevent ick from being introduced into your tank, you should quarantine your fish in a separate dedicated fish tank for at least a wk, preferably 2 weeks.
Now that you have ick, once you remove the fish from the main tank to the separate hospital tank and keep no fish in the main tank, then the ick will die out in the main tank [in the absence of fish].
Nothing will happen to any inverts in the main tank as long as you don't put any meds or reduce salinity in the main tank. Ick has no effect on inverts, they are not hosts.
As for treating ICK, there are several active posts currently running in this Forum which detail various treatments. Feel free to read and or participate in those discussions. Additionally, ICK is probably the most talked about subject on this BB, so, if you want to read everything, use the Search Feature on this BB, and type in ICK...you will get many responses.
Does temp effect ick? Most definitely. Temp fluctuations, stress, exposure...all of which your new acquisitions experienced--especially so because they just came from the ocean.
Welcome to Saltwaterfish.com!

 

[beth]

Trey! Sorry! I had this feeling just as I pressed the DELETE button that you were over there and I'd end up deleting you! opps!
My personal preference would be to leave ICK fish in hosptital for at least a month--as I don't trust the 3-wk timeframe, cutting it too close for comfort. QT, I think it would depend where I got the fish. If the fish came from a very trustworthy source where I knew that QT had already taken place, then I'd cut down on the time-out timeframe. However, straight from the ocean and into the tank is just asking for trouble. Live and learn in this hobby.

 

[krustytheclownfish]

First of all welcome to the board Squid. Like Beth said, you don't have to worry about flaming here. Everyone is very helpful and if you stick around, you'll get lots of good info. from a lot of good people just waiting to help.
Since we're on the subject of white "bugs", I'll ask a question I posted in the fish only section just to see what others have to say. Is there anyway to get them in a tank that doesn't have ls or lr(fish-only tank with cc and dead coral)? I hope so, because I have something like them all over the glass. The tank has fish, crabs, snails, and shrimps(alright, so not totally fish-only).
I guess the question I'm really asking is how do you think they got in there? Someone in the fish-only section guessed maybe they came in with the snails.
[ June 18, 2001: Message edited by: KrustytheClownFish ]

 

[squid]

thanks for all the help i started setting up my hospital / quarantine tank last night as well as adding garlic to the frozen food. the fish are looking much better yet the ick is still present.
for some reason i thought the ocean was safe from things like ick, i know better now.
anyway thanks again.