Lost fish and shrimp

[Monica Cooper]

I added a very small hippo tang to my tank about 2 weeks ago. (I already know it will outgrow my 55 gal. Plan on upgrading when it gets too big). It seemed to be doing fine until about a week ago. I noticed some white spots and recognized it to be ich. I tried with no luck to get him out but there was no way to get him out without tearing up my whole scape. I followed advice from lfs which was to Medicate with metro and focus, use UV sterilization and hertana and raise the heat. As extra precaution we also purchased a cleaner shrimp and cleaner wrasse to possibly help. The shrimp and the wrasse were both gone writhin 24 hours. We have also lost a blood shrimp and a coral beauty which had been in the tank for months before all of this. None of the other fish have shown any signs of ich including the 2 we lost. Params are as follows: ammonia 0, Nitrates 5, Nitrites 0.2, Salinity 1.025, temp 82, pH 7.5 (added marine buffer to help with this. Fish left in the tank: 2 oscarlares clowns, yellow tang, hippo tang, watchman goby, other life: Pistol Shrimp, peppermint shrimp, Coral banded shrimp and several coral. Please advise on what to do from here. Thanks in advance

 

[jay0705]

No treatment will work and not kill your coral and inverts. Hyposalinty and copper are the only two ways to treat ich.
You have 2 options. Remove the coral and inverts then treat main tank.
2nd most effective remove ALL fish and treat in a qt tank. Leaving main tank fishless for 6-8 weeks.
Yes its a pain in the ass, but honestly its the only way to treat ich.

 

[Monica Cooper]

I have a 20 gal QT tank. Is that big enough or would I need to get a bigger one? Do I leave the shrimp and coral in th DT? Also, I’m worried that all this will be for nothing if I stress the fish out and it comes back

 

[silverado61]

A common misconception among a lot of hobbyists is that Ich is an illness or disease when in fact it's a parasite and once eradicated properly cannot come back.
Just follow the advice from Jay and you'll beat this. However, if you remove the corals and invertebrates and treat the display with copper you'll never be able to add them back to the display as copper will penetrate your rock, sand, pretty much everything Including the tank itself. Copper is deadly to these creatures.
As far as the QT goes with the breeds of fish you have and the numbers I would go larger than a 20g. But that's just me.

 

[Monica Cooper]

Thank you!

 

[lmforbis]

I too would treat all fish in QT. You will probably have to pull apart the display tank to do it but if you don’t you will not be able to get the parasite out of the tank. I’d leave the tank fallow for 72 days per Humble fish’s standard recommendation. A 55 is not big enough for any tang not even a young one. Minimum 125 gallon tank. Tangs are swimmers and the stress of small spaces is not good for their health.