What should I do???

[mary787]

:nervous: Today I found my clown fish and yellow tang dead due to ICH ...I read some threads about Melafix....

and it surely fixed it alright...now I have a tank with 1 blue damsel, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 blue hermit crab, 10 snails, 1 orange linkia starfish, and a cleaner shrimp. I believe the damsel has a little bit of white dots on his tail, and the blenny is almost impossible to see, since he changes color so much, but he is breathing fairly quick. What should I do now? I only used that Melafix 1 day. It's going straight to the trashcan. Should I take out the damsel and blenny in a QT, which I would have to buy now? What should I do with the LR and substrate? Do you guys think the inverts would get the ICH?? :nope: I am soooooo stressed, one side wants to give up but the other side does not. HELP PLEASE

 

[mary787]

:help: Please Help ....I forgot to add that I am also thinking of doing a 25% water change, if that will help in something......:help:

 

[oceana]

Inverts won’t get ich but they will be harmed by a lot of the ich treatments available today.
Even the "reef safe" ich treatments IMO are not really reef safe and the main tank should NEVER be treated.
As far as your remaining fish get them into a QT NOW never hope that things will get better. Its best to take them out and treat them at first sign of spots and especially breathing problems treatment should begin.
Let your take sit fish free (fallow) for at least 4-8 weeks.
As long as there are host for the ich in the tank the problem will not

 

[thomas712]

First of all I'm going to move this to the disease forum, perhaps Beth will be able to chime in, I'm no disease expert..in fact far from it.
At a guess your tang is the one that contracted the ick first, perhpas you don't know it but putting a tang in a 29 gallon tank is far from optimal. IN fact it can and will be very stressful to a tang to be in so small of tank.
Is this a fish only tank? Your inverts will not get ick but with them in there you can't perform hypo which is the tried and true method of controling and curing ick problems.
I suggest you go to the disease forum and look at the sticky's located at the top until Beth or someone can give you better advice than I can offer.
Thomas

 

[mary787]

:thinking: Thanks for your responses, Ok, so the first thing I want to do is take out the blenny, and the damsel and put them in a QT, to treat them both, or should I take out the inverts and LR and treat fishes in tank with the substrate, which is reef aragonite sand? I don't want to take the chance for the ich to remain in the main tank........thanks again ....sorry for all the questions :nervous:

 

[oceana]

your QT tank sould be bare bottom no sand.

 

[mary787]

OK, so I will leave the main tank alone with the LR and inverts with no fish for 6 to 8 weeks? The ICH should not be present by then?

 

[elfdoctors]

One month is all that is necessary for ich to be eliminated from your display tank (if you leave it completely fishless.)

 

[oceana]

One month is all that is necessary for ich to be eliminated from your display tank (if you leave it completely fishless.)
one month is the min. and a risk to say the least.
why not give it that extra week or two to TRY and be sure?? even then its not a sure bet. In resting stages it can last weeks even months without seeking out a host.
we dont know WHEN the or where the Ich is in it's life cycle when we start the treatment so how can we say that only a month is needed?? if the ich has just droped from its host it can stay for 3-30 days from that point and then another 5-7 before showing up on a fish
you really should wait ATLEAST 6 weeks. ya wait 4 already why not give it two more to try and be on the safe side.
once a tank is invested it becomes hard to ever get rid of it all together but through good water and provided perfect conditions you can keep it away.
when you remove your fish lower your salinity a to around
1.017 and raise your temp to around mid 80's. if you have alot of corals do some research on the ones you have before messing with your salinity and temp
as a side note dont use the same nets for your QT tank and your main tank.