ick is driving me nuts!
- Thread starter calvindo
- Start date
jlem
Active Member
Sounds like an overstocking and stressed out fish problem. Can you list all of you fish in your tank. I would dose up on Garlic and selcon and hope for the best. you could hypo in a seperate tank but you would need a huge quarantine tank. Keep in mind that your tank is really young for those fish so saying that the fish have done great together for a long time is not a valid response. can you post an updated picture of your tank.
calvindo
Member
the tank is up and running for about 6 months now. overstocking??? i dont think so.... the tank is 125G with the following below. i've been feeding them with frozen shrimps soak in garlic for months now.
1 - naso tang (med)
2 - hippo tang (sml)
1 - achillis tang (med)
4 - baby damsels (sml)
1 - lemon peel angel (sml)
1- purple tang (sml)
1 - angel (forgot the name (S)
30+ - pieces of assorted corals
70 - hermits/snails
amm - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 10
calcium - 430
alk - 13
ph - 8.4
*dont know what you need a picture for, but will take a picture and post later tonight.
1 - naso tang (med)
2 - hippo tang (sml)
1 - achillis tang (med)
4 - baby damsels (sml)
1 - lemon peel angel (sml)
1- purple tang (sml)
1 - angel (forgot the name (S)
30+ - pieces of assorted corals
70 - hermits/snails
amm - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 10
calcium - 430
alk - 13
ph - 8.4
*dont know what you need a picture for, but will take a picture and post later tonight.
calvindo
Member
beth, totally understand QT is the way to go. my question really is... why all of the sudden ick is active in my tank? all my fishes (were) in good shape for the last few months. havent added anything, besides corals. the strange thing is that my purple tang, lemon peel and damsels are spotless. i've had them for awhile now, so if ick is present, they should be infected too.
thanks
calvin
thanks
calvin
737mech
Member
Who knows? I had this happen to me once. I started slowly raising the temp in the tank and within a week I had ick on all of my fish. These fish had been in the tank(that I got from someone else) for years. I NEVER added any new fish to the tank.
As Beth stated only proper quarantine procedures will keep your tank ich free. Also, ich will continue to reproduce in your tank with all those fish as hosts. Once all the hosts are gone from your tank, then after a month it should die off.
As Beth stated only proper quarantine procedures will keep your tank ich free. Also, ich will continue to reproduce in your tank with all those fish as hosts. Once all the hosts are gone from your tank, then after a month it should die off.
I haven't seen nemo yet, I guess I should huh. :thinking:
Fish in the wild commonly carry paraisties...that is a given. Once introduced to a life a captivity, then its just a matter of time that the parasite becomes problemmatic. A healthy strong specimen might have a parasite or 2 that goes unnoticed. Due to the fish's good health, the parasite does not become problemmatic until a stressor is introduced into the picture. The addition of a new fish, major water change, changing rock decor, whatever. Then, bam, full blown ich ensues.
Fish in the wild commonly carry paraisties...that is a given. Once introduced to a life a captivity, then its just a matter of time that the parasite becomes problemmatic. A healthy strong specimen might have a parasite or 2 that goes unnoticed. Due to the fish's good health, the parasite does not become problemmatic until a stressor is introduced into the picture. The addition of a new fish, major water change, changing rock decor, whatever. Then, bam, full blown ich ensues.
I can understand why they don't...its a hassle. But, eventually, if you're in the hobby long enough, you learn your hard lessons and then start doing it.
I know some very knowledgable hobbyists who don't and don't have a real problem. Or so they say. They do however, know their source for fish and, I guess, trust that source. With them also, they feel that lack of ANY stress in the tank keeps any parasite well within managable range.
Whatever. To me its risky and I have seen time and again the horrible results of not QTing and treating beforehand. Not just the fish dying off, but the tank dying when desparate hobbyists start medicating their displays. Well, you know that so who am I talking to exactly? LOL
I know some very knowledgable hobbyists who don't and don't have a real problem. Or so they say. They do however, know their source for fish and, I guess, trust that source. With them also, they feel that lack of ANY stress in the tank keeps any parasite well within managable range.
Whatever. To me its risky and I have seen time and again the horrible results of not QTing and treating beforehand. Not just the fish dying off, but the tank dying when desparate hobbyists start medicating their displays. Well, you know that so who am I talking to exactly? LOL
jlem
Active Member
A quarantine tank could be any tank that is big enough for the fish. Obviously a 5 gallon hex will not work for a Naso tang. But a medium or large rubbermade tub would. Filtration could be a simple HOB filter with some carbon or a simple air driven filter with carbon. A heater would be needed and You would want the water test to match your display tank as close as possible. Frequent small water changes keep water quality high also.
debra w-c
New Member
It is possible that one of your fish had a slight ich infection when you introduced it to your tank and now the parasite has exploded in reproduction in your tank. This may be why it hasn't shown up until recently.
I would not recommend that you just feed garlic and selcon and hope for the best.
I've done this and lost several fish "hoping for the best."
I always feed garlic and selcon as a preventative, but I don't believe they can cure a fish from this.
You have some large fish and would be hard to cram them in a small QT Tank all at once. However, QT and treatment doesn't have to be difficult.
I would definetely pull your fish out and treat them for the ich.
I'm assuming you have live rock in your tank. If you do not and have no invertebrates (crabs, shrimp, etc) you could do hyposalinity in your main tank. This involves lowering spec gravity to 1.009 for 4 -6 weeks. You shouldn't even try this if you don't have a refractometer to measure salinity as swinging arm hydrometers are not usually accurate....
I would recommend that you treat with copper (cupramine is a good product).
If I were you I would buy several five gallon buckets and an airpump and airline & heater for each bucket. Separate the fish and treat them with copper in the bucket for a minimum of 4 weeks with the cupramine. Leave your main tank fallow "with no fish because even a healthy looking fish would be a host and allow ich to survive in your main tank."
After 5-6 weeks after beginning this treatment if there are no longer any signs of ich put your fish back in the main tank.
The good thing about this method is that it's easy to provide great water quality to your fish while they are healing.
Use Amquel or a similar product to detoxify ammonia and use prime or similar product to detoxify nitrite. If you do frequent water changes (say every 3 days) this will help remove the ich and keep water quality up.
If you do this you could have an ich free main tank and wouldn't have to worry about this parasite destroying your fish.
I've had good luck with saving fish with this method.
Good Luck and please update us regarding your fish!:happyfish
I would not recommend that you just feed garlic and selcon and hope for the best.
I've done this and lost several fish "hoping for the best."
I always feed garlic and selcon as a preventative, but I don't believe they can cure a fish from this.
You have some large fish and would be hard to cram them in a small QT Tank all at once. However, QT and treatment doesn't have to be difficult.
I would definetely pull your fish out and treat them for the ich.
I'm assuming you have live rock in your tank. If you do not and have no invertebrates (crabs, shrimp, etc) you could do hyposalinity in your main tank. This involves lowering spec gravity to 1.009 for 4 -6 weeks. You shouldn't even try this if you don't have a refractometer to measure salinity as swinging arm hydrometers are not usually accurate....
I would recommend that you treat with copper (cupramine is a good product).
If I were you I would buy several five gallon buckets and an airpump and airline & heater for each bucket. Separate the fish and treat them with copper in the bucket for a minimum of 4 weeks with the cupramine. Leave your main tank fallow "with no fish because even a healthy looking fish would be a host and allow ich to survive in your main tank."
After 5-6 weeks after beginning this treatment if there are no longer any signs of ich put your fish back in the main tank.
The good thing about this method is that it's easy to provide great water quality to your fish while they are healing.
Use Amquel or a similar product to detoxify ammonia and use prime or similar product to detoxify nitrite. If you do frequent water changes (say every 3 days) this will help remove the ich and keep water quality up.
If you do this you could have an ich free main tank and wouldn't have to worry about this parasite destroying your fish.
I've had good luck with saving fish with this method.
Good Luck and please update us regarding your fish!:happyfish
Unless you are going to have pretty small fish, or junveniles in the 10gal QT, then you might say that that size is pretty small. 20L is a nice small QT, but you can go with smaller keeping in mind the fish size going in to the tank. Also, the smaller the tank the smaller the margin for error.
The FAQ Thread at the top of this forum has a good deal of info, suggestions on QT. I prefer to use 100% water from the display for the QT, unless there is something wrong with the water quality in the display. This way, you match your QT water exactly with your display. This significantly reduces stress for the fish. Remember slight changes in water conditions can cause stress in fish....even when the change is precieved to be "better". For instance. Your display tank has a pH of 8.0, but, via buffering, you bring your QT up to 8.3. 8.3 is much better for marine fish generally, but it is not so good for fish who are used to living at 8.0 to suddently go into 8.3---even with acclimation.
There are just so many variables in sea water that we can't even measure as hobbyists. Thus, I say stick to the same water for the display and the QT [when possible and logical]. Its a judgement call, and sometimes you just have to use good sense. For instance, saying what I have said here about my preferance for using display water in a QT, I would never do this in the case of oodinium [saltwater velvet]. This disease is so utterly virulent and deadly that I would place as much distance from the parasite and the QT as I could.
The FAQ Thread at the top of this forum has a good deal of info, suggestions on QT. I prefer to use 100% water from the display for the QT, unless there is something wrong with the water quality in the display. This way, you match your QT water exactly with your display. This significantly reduces stress for the fish. Remember slight changes in water conditions can cause stress in fish....even when the change is precieved to be "better". For instance. Your display tank has a pH of 8.0, but, via buffering, you bring your QT up to 8.3. 8.3 is much better for marine fish generally, but it is not so good for fish who are used to living at 8.0 to suddently go into 8.3---even with acclimation.
There are just so many variables in sea water that we can't even measure as hobbyists. Thus, I say stick to the same water for the display and the QT [when possible and logical]. Its a judgement call, and sometimes you just have to use good sense. For instance, saying what I have said here about my preferance for using display water in a QT, I would never do this in the case of oodinium [saltwater velvet]. This disease is so utterly virulent and deadly that I would place as much distance from the parasite and the QT as I could.