ICK Wipe Out

[majikhat]

Well I had the beginners bad luck and all my new fishe are dead . My tank has 5o lbs of live rock and several hermits, turbo snails, cleaner shrimp and two anenome's. the tank has been up for three months. what should i do before i start to add fish again? please advise oh wise ones

 

[tangs_in_pacifica]

Well, though I'm certainly not a wise one, here goes...
1. Can you give us some more detail as to the nature of the wipeout? How you knew it was ich? When did you first notice problems? How quickly was everyone infected? What kind of treatment did you attempt? How big is the tank? What kind of fish were they? What are/were you water conditions... (PH, saltininty, Ammonia, Nitrites, Bitrates)? How are your current inhabitants doing?
2. If don't add any fish to your tank for about a month, all of the parasites will die. This is, of course, assuming that you were fighting ich.
3. Conduct a search on this board for ich/ick (both spellings) and you'll find plenty of info. Just browsing in the Disease and treatments group should prove fruitful.
BTW, what kind of anemones do you have? Some of these things often prove to be a challenge for expert Saltwater enthusiasts.
LOL
[ June 15, 2001: Message edited by: tangs_in_pacifica ]

 

[i3luedragon]

Well... as a beginner, you shouldn't be keeing anemones. If any of your inverts die, it's not as obvious. A snail could've died and you'd think it was just idle. Snail deaths can cause major ammonia if you are not careful. Lastly, if you had cleaner shrimp, ick shouldn't have been a major problem.
Please explain the course in which your fish and inverts died.

 

[playtime]

I agree that we need more info. I also agree that since you have inverts and cant use copper, you need to wait at least 21 days before adding more fish. Ich cant live without a host (fish) and it doesn't affect inverts. cleaner shrimp can't prevent ich and they can't cure it either. They can keep it under control but by the time you can actually see them it is pretty far advanced and there is no way they can keep up. How quickly did you add your fish? When restocking, be sure to only add about 3 at a time. Do you quaranteen? This is a good preventative before adding new fish to your main tank. As stated by Trey I believe, you do not need an expensive set up. just a clear rubbermaid tub, some clay pots for hidding, a heater, and a powerhead. You can add your fish here first and monitor their health before adding them to the main tank. By the time you get your fish home, they are stressed and their immune systems are down and therefore more suseptible to ich. Also, if you do find a fish with ich in your main tank, you can remove it and treat it safely in your qt without having to medicate your other inhabitants. As requested, what treatments did you try?
playtime

 

[krazzydart]

Well, witout knowing the facts it is pretty hard..... but get a water reading, all peramiters, what did the fish die from??? if the inverts are ok i would leave it alone for awhile and let the cleaners and pepermint shrimp do the job,,,, by the way what size tank do you have???? was it fully cycled before adding any livestock, what did you cycle the tank with?????

 

[majikhat]

sorry it was just my fish that died my two anemones are doing great one is a carpet and the other is a sebae i feed them 2 times a week and they eat like pigs. the crabs and snails or ok too. my parameters are as follows:
75 Gal Tank
2 48" power compacts w - 4 65w 50/50
Filter Amiracle PL2000
PH 8.2
Temp 78
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate ? I know it was a little high lat time i check becaus i was getting some major algae for a wile. I think that i narroweded it down to the las fish i added it was a purple tang. i found out that the fish store i purchased it fro did not quaranteen the fis they jus put them in the tank an sold them it was after that i notice salt like spots on my powder blue tang and then my 2 perks. I started garlic treatment right away and it perked all the fish up but it seemed to get worse. It took about 2 weeks i had to bury my last perk this morning. unfortunatlly i do not have a hospital tank.
thanks for the advice

 

[tangs_in_pacifica]

Khat,
This would be an excellent time for you to buy a quarantine tank. Look at it this way - If you buy the quarantine tank, you can buy those fish sooner. Just don't add them to the main tank for about a month, as you seem to have had a pretty bad ich outbreak. But the Q tank... let it sit for a week... but a fish or two... let them sit in the Q-Tank for ~ 3 weeks... presto, you can add them to your main tank. Qaurantine tanks don't have to be a drag.
Also, you really need to test your Nitrates. I suspect that they're high and this might have been a contibuting factor to the inability of your fish to fight the parasite. Also, you may want to cut back on the feeding of your anemones just a bit. I have a huge Sebae that I feed ~ one a month... if that. It gets food from my clowns and from the Photosynthesis of it's internal algae. So far, I've had it for 2+ years and it's about 4-5x the size it was when I got it.
Also, Powder Blues are notorius for their delicacy and susceptibilty to parasites like cryptocaryn. You might want to wait a while and research them quite a bit, before you attempt to keep one again. If one fish really breaks out with ich and isn't removed, this makes the ich populations so high that the other fish have trouble compatting it.
If this happens again, you can start with the garlic approach, provided you watch your fish closely. I would always have a Q-Tank in reserve just in case. There's a lot of info about ich, garlic, medications, Q-Tanks, etc. in the Disease and Treatment group.
LOL

 

[beth]

Leave your tank idle [with fish] for a month. Get a QT setup, but if you absolutely are not going to do this, then seriously look into making a UV sterilizer your next hobby purchase...and, even if you do get a QT, still make a UV your next equipt purchase.
Where there's fish, there is ICK. A UV reduces the risk of what you experienced considerably.

 

[majikhat]

thank you all for your advice i am saving for a uv sterilizer for now. i also found a store that quaranteens their fish for two weeks before they sell them. this should help for my nex round of fish.

 

[lcc]

two week is not long enough......it has to be at least 21 days. If you search back in on this BB you will find if I recall correctly it takes at least 21 days for the ick to show itself or to starve out in an infected tank with no fish. Even if the fish store claims to Qt their fish do you really want to take that chance. You do not want to learn the hard way again, plus it's expensive! I am not saying that the SHARKS on the BB know everything, but they do know a lot and you can learn from them and they do not get upset if you question their point of view in a proper way.
I have learned a great deal from this BB and still have a long way to go, but when you go into a fish store and you question their answers you get some pretty shocked looks. When I go into a fish store now I play dumb, I do this to see if the employees seem to know what they are talking about. I was in a shop the other day and saw a tank with about 6 powder blue tangs, I asked the clerk how long they had them and he stated three weeks, I told him that one appeared to have little white things on him, I asked the clerk if the others in the tank would get them and he said no. Well, the little white spots were ick. I know Ick when I see it. and all those powder blues will probably get ick before they are sold.
Point of the long post, 1) never believe the fishstore, 2) read and learn.