is this super ich?!!!

[harmon]

I am having a hard time keeping some fish. When I bring them home they have no ich at all, no spots, nothing! Two days later my fish is completely covered with white spots and is gone. I've tested the water and the water is perfect, I've had this tank up and running for over a year now. I have a UV Sterilizer in there but it still happens. So far I lost my Potters Angel, a Pink Anthias, and a Lion Fish. All three were brand new to the tank, one at a time not all at once, and were perfect going in. In all three cases two days later completely covered in spots! What is going on? :help:

 

[devilboy]

hmm... for my understanding of the hobby, most Ich related cases are stress related. so imo it maybe a few things.
1. How do you acclimate the new arrivals?
2. Could there be something in the tank that is stressing out the new arrivals?
3. please can you give the exact water parameters, as this will help Beth, or other people narrow your problem down...

 

[harmon]

We have a 55 gallon set up with a compact light running 4 - 55 watt bulbs, two power heads, a Berlin Skimmer, and a UV Sterilizer. For fish we have 2 Marroon Clowns, one Saddle Back clown, a Royal Gramma, and three Damsels.

 

[harmon]

We drip our fish when we acclimate them

 

[jmick]

Sounds less like super Ich and more like poor husbandry to me. What exactly is perfect water? You really need to post your parameters.
Ich can be very difficult to get rid of once it’s been introduced into a tank. What you really need to do is not add any more fish and remove any fish that is in it and let it run fallow for 5-6 weeks. With nothing to host on the Ich will die out. Also, I think UV does little to fight/combat ich. Again, let it run fallow and once you system is ich free make sure you QT all new arrivals so you don’t introduce it again.

 

[harmon]

The fish that we have in our tank are all ich free.

 

[harmon]

is it possible for ich to infect and kill in one day?

 

[beth]

Ich is not caused by stress. It is caused by a parasite. The only to avoid these problems is to QT your fish before putting them into the display, and, if they get sick, treat them.

 

[harmon]

I understand that Ich is a parasite, what I am trying to figure out is if ich is the problem here. When we buy our fish they have no spots on them what so ever. We drip acclimate them and put them into a QT tank just to be on the safe side. We bought a potters Angel and when we placed her into our 55 gallon after being QT'd completely spot free I found her dead the very next day completely covered in spots.

 

[payne66801]

They are mean little suckers and love to stress out tangs and other new fish.. I know the lfs always sayes get damsels to start the tank. Problem is you can never get them out. I have seen alot of people post about damsels stressing the other fish.

 

[payne66801]

Once you have one fish get ich the tank has ich. To totally get rid of it you much run it without fish for a month or longer. If you do not have any inverts in the tank and do not plan to get some chem and treat for it..

 

[hot883]

Originally Posted by payne66801
Once you have one fish get ich the tank has ich. To totally get rid of it you much run it without fish for a month or longer. If you do not have any inverts in the tank and do not plan to get some chem and treat for it..
No, never treat the tank. It is to my understanding that the chemical will ALWAYS be present from/in the cilicone and the biological system. Always treat fish in a QT.
My questions would be;
1. How long do you QT?
2. Did the fish all come from the same store?
3. And last, not really a question just my observation and limited experience; 2 types of clowns and the damsels are enough to stress anything especially if ALL of those are in a 55. Plusmost UV do not work due to the time the water passes through the device. Most flow way to fast to be effective.
Just my $.02. Goodluck

 

[harmon]

We QT them for a week before putting them into the 55 gallon. Mind you we dont intentionally buy fish that look infected, I carefully examine each fish before I purchase them. So even if they look healthy I still QT them to be on the safe side. We get our fish from one of two stores, one of them my husband works at. Two of the fish that we have had the same problem with was from each store, totally seperate times. The UV sterlizer we have was running too fast but my husband was able to slow down the flow so that there was more exposure to the light. We have corals and invertabraes in the 55 gallon so we never treat in that tank, we always do it in a seperate one.

 

[daj0424]

Here is my opinion, to completely get rid of the ich that is obviously in your display tank you will need to run this tank fish free for 5-6 weeks, some even say 8 weeks to be on the safe side. While you are doing this you can start to Qt some new fish along with your old fish if any. You should QT your fish for no less than 3 weeks.
Some fish may look like they do not have ich but to totally wipe out your system which is what you will need to do, you will need to take all fish out of the tank. That was the only way I was able to kill Ich. I also used a UV sterilizer and it never has completely killed ich.
There are only three methods to kill ich, no host present, copper or hypo. With corals you only be able to take away the hosts.

 

[boalgf]

Jmick and Daj are right. If you've got ich in your water, you need to take the fish out of there and leave your tank empty of fish. If your water is infected with free swimming ich, putting a healthy fish in can (and probably will) lead to it getting ich.
If you don't have live rock or inverts, you could always do Hypo in the main tank.

 

[harmon]

I would have to take all my fish out. How long does Ich take to infect and kill a fish?

 

[harmon]

HOT833, your profile says your a former Marine, my husband is also a Marine. He just got out a few months ago. Semper Fi!

 

[shark bait]

Originally Posted by hot883
No, never treat the tank. It is to my understanding that the chemical will ALWAYS be present from/in the cilicone and the biological system. Always treat fish in a QT.

True. Copper will stay in the filters, rock and anything it can even glass. Once it is in you will never fully remove it and will not be able to keep a reef.