Fowlr Fubar?

[Rovert]

Dear Dr. Ron, I'm at wit's end, and need some advice.

I've been struggling to set up my 55FO for a while, but it seems that no matter what fish I put in there, they contract Ich, and drop like files.

The first few bouts were my fault, because of stupid mistakes, but this time I did it right, cured my own Marshall, completely cleaned out the tank, waited for the metabolites to zero out even aftwards, and only then did I put fish in again.

Whammo. Lost another Imperator and a Neon Wrasse, per my other question on refugiums.

No matter what I do, these poor fish are always stricken with ich, and I don't know why. Is my tank just cursed by Poseidon?

Signed,
Looney in Lakewood

[rshimek]

Robert,

Well... perhaps it is necessary for you to have a quarantine tank for these animals.

I think I will move the thread to the Fish Care forum and hope that you can get some good advice there.

:D

[hcs3]

rovert

i'm sure we can get you past this. let's start with the obvious and work from there.

how old is the tank? what are your water parameters (SG, temp, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH)?

how are you acclimating these fish?

henry

[Vilas]

Another question - how long did you wait in between losing your fish and adding new ones? Parasites can live for quite a while without a fish host, you might want to keep it without fish for 4-6 weeks to give yourself the best shot.

[Rovert]

hcs, everything was OK, as far as I could tell. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, SG ~1.024. Didn't test for Alk or KH, since this was a FO.

Vilas, short answer was that the tank was fresh. My prior install also had the same problem, so I tore down the tank, shoveled out all the Southdown sand, soaked the tank and equipment in bleach water for over 24 hours, rinsed multiple times, then refilled w/ freshwater and ammolock, and let that stand for over 24 hours. I then refilled w/SW, then used it to cure 80# of Marshall rock. When that was done, I removed the rock, siphoned everything out, laid down a new sand bed with fresh SD, replaced the rock, and waited a few days before introducing fish.

[BrianD]

Rovert, you might be well served to introduce a very hardy species to see how it fares. Unless the fish are weakened in some fashion by stress or poor handling/shipping, they should be able to overcome ich or other parasitic infections. I would choose a very hardy specimen at the LFS, watch it eat, than take it home. Captive-bred clowns are very hardy, so they may be a possibility for adding to your tank.

If you cured your liverock yourself. you may want to let the tank mature for a good 30 days after you think all the parameters are fine. It never hurts to be cautious, and it may be that the tank hasn't finished "spiking". I wouldn't always trust the test kits. They can be old or the regents may have degraded.

Letting the tank "sit" for 30 days without fish will also aid in breaking the life cycle of the ich

Brian

[Rovert]

Brian, your points would be well taken on the test kit issue, were it not for the fact that the kit in question is no ordinarly kit. I spent over $300 on the LaMotte complete salt water kit presuming it was the most accurate, so I take it to be so.

I tend to think there is something particular to a newly established tank that causes ich. Don't know what it is, or how it happens, but if anyone has any theories, I'm all ears!

Regards,
RK

[hcs3]

i wouldn't *trust* any hobbyist grade test kits. JMO. all kits, whether $10 or $300, can give round about ideas if used properly. for ammonia and the such that's really all that is needed. is there any or not? most all kits can do that. most often it's user error or old reagents as BD stated that give faulty results. if used improperly, it doesn't matter how much you spent on them. the biggest deciding factor, IMO, is whether the results are repeatable.

how old is this tank? what temperature?

an imperator angel is very delicate. small tanks (less than 180g) can stress them out as well newly set up tanks. brians advice of putting in a hardy specimen should be considered.