ICK Saga

[woganaga]

So here's the story -

I started the tank in June, and added my first cool fish in October - A Purple Tang and a Potter's Angel.

Within 2 weeks, all four of the fish in the tank (2 green chromis, tang, potter's angel) got the Ick. I removed the fish and gave each a freshwater dip and moved to a 30G quarantine tank for 38 days (yes i counted.... i couldn't wait to get them back to the display). In QT they received Formalin and Hyposalinity. All the fish quickly improved, and I was pretty confident there was no ick in either QT or Display.

Meanwhile, while the fish were in QT i started adding low light corals like mushrooms to the display tank and things were looking good. Added the fish back to the tank, and everything was good for 1 day.

Potter the Angel and the 2 Chromii were fine, but the Purple Tang (who is now named Popeye) developed popeye overnight.

Took all the rocks down again, to extract the tang back to QT. Treated with Myracin for 5 days and put him back in the display on the 8th day.

Meanwhile, 3 weeks ago i finished building a hood for the display tank with good lighting so that i could start adding some more interesting corals. I acclimated the tank to the new lights by adding 6 sheets of window screen, removing them every 4-5 days.

Things were good and I was excited that all the fish were happy and the corals were doing well. To complete my stocking list, I had my eyes on a pair of wrasses and a watchman goby. Ordered the Wrasses on Friday, and on Sunday i picked up the Goby at Absolutely Fish.

Last night after I got home from work i noticed a tiny speck or two on the Tang. I didn't worry about it too much because it didn't look like the salt granule looking Ick that he had the first time around.

When I woke up this morning (which is wrasse arrival day) the Tang was covered in it. The Potter and Chromii look fine to me and show no traces of ick.

So now I have 3 new fish in QT, a sick fish in the display and these fish are really starting to drive me nuts.

water paramaters are fine, i dose nothing except 2-part. I change out 5-10 gallons every weekend.

Any suggestions - i am seriously ready to flush the tang. To get him out of the display is becoming a giant production with having to remove all the rock w/o disturbing the coral etc. I tried luring him in a net for an hour with a piece of seaweed but the guy is smarter and faster than me.

[woganaga]

I want to add - the tank was down 2 years - I moved in 2005 and am just getting around to setting things up again. Maybe i am looking through RBTA colored glasses, but i really don't remember ever having this much trouble (the fish are stressing ME out lol) with my old fish.

[harryk]

I feel you pain, your tank still has ICH in it. the Tang's immunity isn't as strong as the other fish so the parasite is attracted to it. I had the same issue with a tang and ich. The only way to really cure it is to remove all the fish to QT and leave your tank fallow for 3 months, i did it so i know how hard it is. or live with the Ich and a possible infection with any new addition.

thanks
Harry

[huskyrider]

I would try a cleaner wrasse or skunk shrimp to eat the ick but it doesn't always work but it has for me

[lubyone1]

There seems to be a lot of debate about how long to run your tank fallow. The disease forum has a bunch of nice articles on treatment. From what I've been told, a good month and a half will suffice when running a fallow tank. However, apparently the Ich parasite can sometimes live in a fish for over 2 months. I'd also make sure your salinity was low enough.

Usually it would take you 2-3 days to get your fish from normal salinity to low 1.009 and then another 2-3 days to get them back to normal salinity from hypo. This could mean you only treated your fish for 32-34 days. Most people will tell you to run hypo for 5-8 weeks. If you are going to wait 6 weeks, why not just wait 2 more for safe measure.

Good luck :P

[woganaga]

thanks for the feedback..

- since i have 3 fish in QT right now, these are my options:
a. move the 4 display tank fish into the same QT tank (30G)
b. move the 2 wrasses and goby that are in QT to an empty 10 gallon, and the display fish to the QT.

should i attempt the same formalin/hypo treatment?

lubyone1 - 8 weeks is what i originally planned for but i got impatient.... I also took about 6 days to raise the salinity back.