Saltwater Ich Need Advice

phishman1

phishman1

Member
Here goes the short version of what happened:
35 gal, 1st salt tank, 35 pds LR, LS, 2" deep, filtration: millenium 1000, and Prizm skimmer.
Tank cycled just fine, damsels added etc.. then clean up crew, hermits, shrimp etc.
Then clown and dottyback eventually.
All of a sudden I developed ich, so bad and quickly that the dottyback died, clown removed to a new established "quarantine" tank, where is promptly died because of my error in Nitrite.
Here is my question:
I have read and been told that keeping my tanks fish free for 30 days will help rid tank of ich due to no host fish. Other trains of thought are that ich is "always" present and a healthy fish and good water conditions guard against it? Tank has been empty of fish since 15 Aug.
Current tank inhabitants: 3 Pep shrimp, 1 CB shrimp, 1 anemone crab, 2 very small horseshoe crabs, 10 hermits, 6 turbo snails.
I now want to just put in about 3 different kinds of damsels, chromis, something really easy and hardy. Is it safe now? Should I quarantine the new damsels for a while? How long?
Any advice appreciated. All the mistakes I made with this tank should help me in my next venture, a 55 gallon..thanks..
 
slothy

slothy

Active Member
i would still wait some more (15 more days) , damsels suck to catch ! and yes you should always quar your new fish ... otherwise you could be back to square one with ich in you tank
 
brenner_jeff

brenner_jeff

Member
Its funny your going through this now, I just went through it in my 55. Let me give you my advice, with this I lost nothing so hopefully you will be ok. The parasite that causes Ich needs a temp below 80. I suggest if you have another outbreak slowly adjust the temp to about 81-82....>SLOWLY. Medications are worthless save your money. My best advise is get some cleaner shrimp or better yet a cleaner wrasse. Alot of people hate cleaner wrasse because they are so hard to keep. However they will live long enough to keep the Ich down. I like them better personaly because they are cheaper. I paid 3.29 each. They pick the hell out of parasites. Saved my tank. Hasnt come back sence.; The cause of Ick can be many but i think everyone has had to deal with it at one point or another......Good Luck
 
j21kickster

j21kickster

Active Member
Hey Jeff, sory to tell you but ****** lives above 80. Heating the tank up speeds up the life cycle and the infection. So here you go, my advice. In a 35 gal tank dont uses a cleaner wrasse, it is better to have them in tanks w/ lots of fish to pick various items off of. They need that fish grazing ground so to speak. Medications are not worthless. Mabye if you refer to kick ick, but that are others, more potent that are by no means worthless. It is irresponsible to but a fish and let it die as long as it served a short-time purpose. and the cause of ick is actually one, it is a parasite. that specific parasite is ick, it can be contracted better under certain conditions but still is one thing. i think you got off on a special case, for now any way. The ocean is so much different than our tanks, it is impossibe to perfectly replicate the ocean in our tanks, so in essence, mother nature dosent apply fully in our tanks. With the proper quarentine practices everyone does NOT have to deal with ick as you stated. I have been doing this for around 8 yrs and never have had it, not once. So i say to you know to chose words wisely, if not you inexperience really shines, unfortuneatly it might be at someone elses expense, and your own
 
fshhub

fshhub

Active Member
one other point not mentioned is:
cleaner wrasses are fish
they are just as succeptible to ich as the next, so introducing them into a tank with ich is only a gamble, if they get it their usefulness becomes even more short lived
as for MOTHER NATURE, her oceans are mostly over 80 degrees, and where do we think marine ich comes form, our tap water? NO it comes in on the fishes we purchase, which have come from the ocean or from breeder tanks with fish from the oceans and so on. Either way, it comes from teh oceans.
IMO, as anthem mentioned(VERY KNOWLEDGABLE INDIVIDUAL) the only 2 methods that are proven(or even marginally effective) are copper meds, which are NOT reef safe(even afterwards, inverts cannot normally be introduced) and are also not healthy for the fishes. And HYPOSALINITY, whichis safe for the fishes and should be done in a seperate tank, which means no risk to the inverts either.
Do yourself a favor, research hypo some more, and follow that method.
 
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