RIP Sailfin tang :(

[keliza82]

Ok I need some serious help. I'm at the end of my rope at the moment. In the last week I've lost 2 percula clowns, 2 orange spot gobies, a long nose butterfly and now my beloved sailfin tang is on his way out.. It all started with the butterfly getting tail & fin rot then ich. Slowly they all got ich and eventually died. I thought the sailfin was going to be ok, he was a healthy eater the whole time and was swimming well. Last night he started losing color and his fins were looking ragged so I put him in the quarantine tank this morning. Now he's half white, no stripes, his fins have chunks missing and he's covered in slime. He had been ich-free for a few days so I don't know what happened. I need some ideas as to what to do now, we've decided to give it 2 months to let the ich die before we get new fish. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

 

[flower]

Years ago I was using an ich medicine and after the dosing was over they still had ich…so I repeated the medicine for another round, without doing a water change first. I did not know about this site back then…
The ich medicine had made the immune system in the fish so low they got a secondary infection and they died from it. It looked like fin rot. Sometimes the over the counter cure is worse than the disease.
So sorry to hear of your troubles. Hang in there and just let the tank sit empty for 8 weeks..do a water change and quarantine every new fish before you add it to the tank in the future.

 

[beth]

You didn't say how your tank is set up, how large it is, water readings, or how you treated the ich.
Also, now is a excellent time for you to start adding a quarantine tank to your hobby experience. Please take a look at the info on quarantine tank, hypo-salinity, and ich in the FAQ Topic, top of this forum

 

[keliza82]

I have a 55gal reef tank with 20lbs of live rock, some mushroom coral and frogspawn. We've been treating for ich for the long nose butterfly who got it first, he died after about 5 days of treatment. The rest of the fish seemed ok but shortly after they got sick so we treated again with no water change until a week into treatment. We've done weekly water changes since and stopped treating for ich about a week ago. There have been some water quality issues since, everything was perfect before this mess started. Now the params are coming back to normal but everything spiked. We set up a QT about a week ago to try to save the clowns but they died before it was ready. The tang went into the QT this morning but is not doing well, has been laying on his side and breathing rapidly, he is covered in slime and his fins are missing chunks. He's also no longer black, his back half is white and his stripes are completely gone. We've decided to wait 2 months before adding more fish and will be quarantining everything before they go into the reef tank. But my question now is what do I do about the reef tank? Should we leave it alone and continue with weekly water changes or should we do a big water change and start over? There are 5 snails and 3 hermit crabs and a cleaner shrimp in there along with our corals. Thanks for your help!

 

[2quills]

What type of treatment were you performing to get rid of the Ich?

 

[keliza82]

I was dosing with Rid-Ich, 1 tsp per 5 gal, so about 5 tsp a day. This is what my LFS recommended tho I don't think I will ever do it again. I raised the temp in the tank to 85 to try to speed it up as well.

 

[flower]

I would just do small water changes, and try not to disturb the shrimp, they so sensitive to sudden changes. The corals you have are hardy and should bounce back to health since you quit poisoning the tank with ich meds. Lower your temps to 80-82 if your corals are not accustomed to such high temps they will close up, they don’t handle change very well.
Rid-ich, kick-ich and the so called reef safe cures...that stuff just doesn't work.
Just my .02

 

[beth]

Please read the info on posted on hyposalinity and proceed with that treat on the remaining fish, if possible.

 

[nicetry]

You're dealing with more than just ich. Ich itself would not kill all of those fish so quickly. The symptoms you describe on your SF tang also point to other problems. You mentioned you had water quality issues. Post the actual parameters. There may be a clue here. Is your Q tank even cycled? What did you use to cycle this system? At this point, I'd do a series of small 6-8 gallon water changes in the display tank, using well aged and aerated saltwater. Don't add anything else to the tank in terms of medications. How long has the tank been set up altogether? At what intervals did you add fish and what was the last fish put in? Realistically, the tank was overstocked. A 55 is a modest tank and should be lightly stocked with hardy small species. Leave the tank fallow for a couple months. Add a pair of ocellaris clowns (after you quarantine them first). Wait another month and add another small fish, andso on. Skip tangs and butterflies in this tank. Basslets, gobies, clowns, small fairy wrasses, etc..all work well and are relatively hardy. Be sure to quarantine everything before placing it in your display. You'll have much better success.