Lost most of my fish to ich

[reefsluge]

I lost seven fish out of eleven do to ich. This is in my 110g display tank which is full of coral. How long must I wait til I start restocking? It really sucks only seeing only four small fish. I don't really have anyone fun to feed.

[bachtor]

As long as there are fish in there, the ich won't go away. If you can, you should move the remaining fish to a QT, treat them there, and let the main tank go fallow.

If you don't want to move the fish, I remember reading somewhere that the ich strain will eventually die off, however, this process takes about a year and you can't add any other 'strains' of ich into the tank (via new fish).

[timmy_boy188]

I hope not a year, I have a 55 saltwater tank that I started about a month ago, I have a blue tang, yellow tang, percula clown, royal angel, and one damsel, with live rock and crushed coral for the base, I just noticed tonight that my blue tang and royal angel have the little white spots, im going to my local fish store tomorrow to see what to do, I hope I can just get some ick solution and make this an easy process.

[Steven Pro]

Be aware that your local fish store may sell you a lot of different 'treatments' that may or may not work. They only proven treatments are copper, hyposalinity, and tank transfer, none of which can be done in a display.

[timmy_boy188]

Went to the store today, they said as long as my fish are eating good, than they can be strong enough to fight it off, so I picked up a UV sterilizer and got a better heater, the one I had wasnt big enough for my size tank, hopefully this works,

Tim

[Steven Pro]

Sooooo to recap, your fish got sick, you did nothing, 7 of 11 died, and there advice is to continue to do nothing?

[timmy_boy188]

I didnt lose any fish, the other guy did, they told me that as long as there eating they can fight it, once they quit eating than I take action with medications,

tim

[Steven Pro]

Sorry I got you confused with reefsluge, but that is still horrible advice. Once they get so bad that they quit eating, it might be too late to save them.

[timmy_boy188]

He said that his fish have had ick, because they got too stressed out, and it went away after a while and no fish died, so he thinks that doing meds and taking fish out right now could just stress them out too much and then they would get really bad, so im going to go with his advice, hopefully this UV sterilizer will knock the parasites out, and my food has garlic in it, im gonna ride it out,

Tim

[BTTRFLYGRL]

Stress does not cause ich. Ich is a parasite

[willowtree_1987]

This reminds me of what happened to me a few years ago to my FW tank...I lost all of the fish, I believe, but one. I would be warry on what you buy, but there are solutions out there...I am sorry for your loss...It is depressing....G/L

[timmy_boy188]

ive decided that tomorow im going to put all of my live rock in my quarintine tank and get some rid ich, I dont want to lose my fish, wish me good luck,

tim

[NwG]

Same your money and put all your FISH in QT... Nest buy some copper or go hyposalinity... Again these are the ONLY proven methods to cure ick... along with letting you display tank go fishless or "fallow" for 6-8 weeks.... Rid ich does nothing... I can't understand why people listen to LFS... They give horrable advice... What people have told you here is the truth.. Please don't waste anymore money at the LFS... And for the sake of your livestock, use a treatment that is PROVEN to work...
Nate D

[timmy_boy188]

whats wronge with treating my fish in my display, all it will have in it is the base and the fish

[NwG]

#1- Rid Ich dosen't work
#2-if you were to use a method that does work, It will kill off your bio-filtration or you will never be able to keep an invert in it again...

[timmy_boy188]

wait I guess I dont get it, my bio-filtration is my live rock right? I will be taking that out, and what do you mean by invert? thanks for your help too I know this stuff is easy for you guys and I appreciate the help,

Tim

[NwG]

Tim,
You got the live rock as filtration part correct... But lets say you removed all your live rock sand and everything but the fish... Your tank will still need a certin amount of bacteria to process waste from the fish.. Well It will grow, on the glass, in the water..ect... It will always balance itself out...

By inverts, I mean invertabrates... Corals, snails, shrimp, bateria, (everything but fish) Copper is VERY toxic to them.. This is why you move the fish to QT and treat with copper there.. If you were to put copper in your display tank with your base rock and sand.. The copper would get bound in the substrate and would slowly kill any invert (along with your bio-filtration).

You bet bet is to remove all you fish to a QT tank.. This could be as simple as a cheap rubbermade storage bin.. ($10) with a heater and a powerhead.. You can do daily waterchanges to keep toxic levels down in the QT.. Treat the fish with a copper med, or hyposalinity (or both) and let the tank remain fallow or fishless for 6-8 weeks..

Many of use have tryed and failed with the "reef safe" meds.. Some people claim they work.. But In all honesty they are a big waste of money... also none of these has been proven "reef safe" ....

Hope this helps some
Nate D

[ninneball]

I definitely feel for both posters, as I'm going through the same thing myself right now. I made a big mistake, and am paying for it now, that being now QT a new fish, and my healthy tank went down the drain in just a few weeks. I thought I saved the new Sohal, but lost it over the weekend. After reading enough here, I decided to break down my TANKS, and start fresh. I have a 55g freshwater cichlid tank, god bless them, they can handle anything. They're now occupying a 30g rubbermaid tub, I transferred all their decorations, rock, filter and water into the temp home. I cleaned out the 55g, setup fresh saltwater, and moved my backup filtration system from reef tank to this one. I run an overflow + fluval on my reef, just for extra extra filtration, so I had a good bacteria buildup from that. I did make a mistake though, and should've emptied water from reef into the new tank, but oh well, live and learn. I took an empty 20g tank, moved my corals out slowly with a pitcher so to keep them under water the entire time in the same tank water. I then removed all LR from the tank into a garbage can used for mixing salt only, and then netted the fish. Each fish got a FW dip for about 3-7 minutes depending on their reaction. Then they went into the new tank, it's only got water + fluval + PVC for hiding spaces. I'm medicating with paraguard, while slowly dropping the salinity in the tank. I almost lost my rock beauty angel with the transition, to save him I put him in a 5g tank for a few days with the reef water, no medication and ran carbon in it just to get him back. Today I did about a 6 hr drip acclimation to the 55g and put him in a few hours ago, he's eating and doing well. I'll leave all fish out of the main reef for 50 days, increased the temp to 80 to help speed up the life cycle, and purchased a massive UV filter today, which I'll run in the QT tank for a few weeks, just to help keep bacteria and parasites in check, then move it to the main tank. It's probably an overkill, but definitely beats losing everything. I made the decision to do this all, knowing I could lose everything, but couldn't sit there and watch fish after fish get ick. Only my purple tank got it, but everything is getting treated, and they'll stay in QT 40+ days past the last spots I see. Currently there's nothing on any of them now, and I've been vacuuming the tank daily to keep things out and get rid of any food / waste left behind. This whole experience taught me one valuable lesson. Have a full time QT tank ready at all times, QT ALL new fish, corals, inverts, etc. and leave nothing to chance. My reef tank looks horrible right now, rocks all over the place, it's not setup pretty like it was before, and it's taken almost my entire week / weekend to get things straightened out. All because I didn't follow directions properly, but I've learned my lesson well.

My choices were:

1. Let everything continually get sick, die, stress me out, them out, and wind up hating this hobby.
2. Deal with it, do things properly, lose what I lose, and rebuild.

Had to do what was right.

Thanks,

Matt

[timmy_boy188]

well then I have a medium blue tang, small yellow tang, 2 inch percula clown, and a royal something cant remember but he is about 3 inches, how big should the QT tank be?

Tim

[ninneball]

Originally posted by timmy_boy188
well then I have a medium blue tang, small yellow tang, 2 inch percula clown, and a royal something cant remember but he is about 3 inches, how big should the QT tank be?

Tim

I had read tangs like to swim, mostly recommended here 20g - 30g tank. I did have a question that I just realized. You said you've had the 55g tank for about a month now. How long ago did you add the fish, and how long did your tank cycle before adding them? I ran mine for 8 weeks, 75g with 120lbs of LR before even adding in some damsels and a goby.

[timmy_boy188]

well I think the blue tang brought the ich in, tank has been set up for a little over a month, ive been putting fish in for about 2 weeks now, blue tang was last,

Tim

[nikeboy_2001]

royal gramma is probably what you have. I have a 75 gallon tank that got ick from my powder brown tang (died 08/20/05) and everything in my tank except my yellow tang got ick, i used prevent ich and that helped very minimal so i just used my qt tank and put everyone in there. Thats about all you really can do because the main tank is way to hard to dose and half the crap doesnt even work. For black ich prevent ich works great, my tang got it once and my mandarin got it once and it cured it both times but other then that copper and hypo is the only way to go. My problem is now clearing the water in my display lol I did a 20% water change and waited 24 hours and it cleared up a very tiny tiny bit, any ideas on that one guys?