Cant treat fishes

[OSo]

i have an ich problem but cant catch my fish, i have tried for more than 2 days, the problem is , my tank is a 300 gallon long tank with lots of live rock so i cant catch them, the sick fish is a small hippo, i had him with me for 5 moths without problems, just introduced it to 6 month new tank and puff, ich started on him

First of all i have made a rigorous 5 week qarantine procedure on all my fishes, shortly after introducing my blue hippo tang, he developed ich, hes with 2 blue atlantic tangs 6 yellow tangs a tomato fish and a six line wrassle, all fishes looked healthy exept the hippo who has showed signs of white salt grains spots on the body.

The tank has corals in it so i cant treat it with copper , all fishes are eating well, including the heppatus who eats more than any other fish on the tank.

Can a UV filter save my day ?
Should i wait and see if the fish develop a natural immunity to ich ?



PH 8.2
Amonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
phospates 0
Salinity 1025

Thanks

[Puffer Queen]

Check out this link for catching fish in a display tank: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=707656

UV filters when used in a bare bottom tank and the water is prefiltered through a micron filter can help reduce the numbers of parasites. I personally would not use one in this situation in hopes that your fish will be cured.

When you quarantined, did you quarantine the rock, corals, inverts as well? Anything wet can carry pathogens.

Kelly

[OSo]

i cant hold 9 surgeonfishes in a 55 quarantine tank, thats the size of my qt tank.

Looking at the thread, from antony calfo, i figured out that i cant drain the tank, i have clams, and a lot of corals worth 20 times the price of the fish, so draining the tank is not an option, thanks anyway.

One of the old fishes developed ich 3 months ago, but was on quarantine, i treated the fish with copper for 4 weeks, then when there was no signs of ich i reintroduced the fish to my tank, i guess that some of the parasites where still on that fish, and infected the hippo. :(

[Puffer Queen]

Oso,

In the link there are several ways besides the drain method. The night time method has worked well for me as well as many others.

You can drain your reef tank - Anthony states "As for the exposed rock/coral... I promise you that the 2 week dry import of live rock and the daily exposure of most reef corals to equatorial sun at low tide is far more stressful than the 15-20 minutes in a climate controlled house that it takes for you to drain and refill your tank

Ah, but what of anemones? Well.. the anemones would be better than most any other creature with this imposed "low tide." Wholesaler's ship and import most all of them without water to improve shipping survivability (they cannot pass waste in their own shipping bag water and pollute/kill themselves)."

I think you are correct in the reinfection theory.

Best of luck with your tangs,

Kelly

[OSo]

Thanks a lot for all the help Kelly

For now im going to try with ozone and UV, and ill give some medicated food to the fishes, if i see something wrong with any other fish or if the heppatus stop eating then ill remove them all to a qt tank.

Thanks

[kevin2000]

My 02

A UV device can be an effective tool against ich ... however the device must have sufficient power to kill protozoan parasites while turning over tank water volume at 4-5X per hr ... that usually means a large and probably expensive UV device.

The mfg of your UV device should provide the recommended flow rate to kill parasites ... I suggest you compare that rate with the 4-5x -- may help you determine how effective your device might be.

Hope this helps.

[OSo]

kevin2000 thanks for the info. im combining ozone with UV, and there are no signs of ich anymore, thanks a lot for your help.