Entropy Posted January 13, 2008 Share Posted January 13, 2008 Just noticed ich on my powder brown tang, sixline, and my royal gramma. I am actually pretty surprised since the last add was on 12/17 (both the sixline and rg). Not sure what I am going to do yet, but I don't have a hospital tank so whatever I decide it is going to have to be done in the display tank. Right about now I am thinking about a nice community FW tank... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted January 13, 2008 Share Posted January 13, 2008 Did the royal gramma settle in right away? Sometimes they could be a little jittery in a new tank or if a tankmate is giving it grief. But you do have a large tank, right? Plenty of space? Do you have a cleaner shrimps? Also, check water parameters, just in case something is off. Good Luck, -Cindy- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entropy Posted January 13, 2008 Author Share Posted January 13, 2008 Yeah the RG found a nice cave to hang out in and is out the entire light cycle. Everyone eats like pigs. So far the fish are going fine, but I assume it is only a matter of time before things go south. No cleaner shrimps, but I have plenty of space and a low bioload IMO (PB tang, sixline, O clown, lm blenny, pj cardinal, and the rg. I think I am going to try the ich attack stuff, do a big water change and hope for the best. The other idea is to move all the fish to a trash can (32g) and medicate them there, but I am not sure they will survive six weeks in a trash can, and I am 99.9% sure my wife will not be happy with it sitting in our front room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted January 13, 2008 Share Posted January 13, 2008 Unless it is really bad I would ride it out a couple days. If they are still eating well that is a good sign. Keep feeding and add garlic if you don't use it already. The more stress they get put in the worse they will get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entropy Posted January 13, 2008 Author Share Posted January 13, 2008 The really weird thing is that today I saw my sixline eating the ich off my tang. I am wondering if that is how it ended up with the ich. The tang is starting to rub on the glass and sand which means it is really bugging him now. Anyway I am going to start with a big water change (25%) and see if that helps any. I have enough salt for that at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enigma13 Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 I would recommend getting a cleaner shrimp ASAP. They do a great job controlling ick and are fun to watch anyway. I have had mine for a little over two years. He was really social during the first half of his life, and though he stays hidden away most of the time now I still think that he is doing his job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entropy Posted January 14, 2008 Author Share Posted January 14, 2008 I was thinking about that. Maybe I will head on over to RCA today and see what they have. I wish peppermints where as effective since they are usually on $5. I would rather get 5 of them than 1 cleaner for the same price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 Cleaners are much prettier and more visible than peppermints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enigma13 Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 I agree with Gabe. For the first year of having my cleaner it was like having another fish in my tank (one of my favorites at that). They are quite attractive and are quite startling to visitors who are not familiar with reef tanks. My shrimp would even eat from my hand, which was really cool. Do not know why he became more reclusive. Still seems quite healthy though. On the other hand, peppermints never have seemed to have a greater role than any other members of the clean-up crew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ACampbell Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 I have a handful of peppermints and they are very reclusive. I will see one maybe once in a month. I guess they are more on the nocturnal side. The cleaner shrimp is alway out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bananags Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 (edited) it's hard to say what to do, if the water is good and the fish is strong, it normally cover itself (maybe) if I remember correctly of the ich cycle, the parasite attached to fish host/ feed and detach from the host, go back down to the sand/rock, multiply, and go back to fish host, until the host die of irritation, that is why it's tricky, sometime, you see the fish get better and just to see it come back a few week later. cycle took about 4 weeks I think, most people recommend quarantine fish for 6 weeks just to be sure. I personally i don't believed in method of leaving the fish alone and let it heal itself, as long as the parasite still around, it will find a fish attack, in many case, i think because of pure luck or something in the water that break the parasite cycle so they can't come back, and the fish was just healthy and able to wait until this happen. 6line, cleaner shimp will help remove of the parasite from the sick fish --> less irritation ie less exhaustion. personally, i got this problem a long time ago when I first started the hobby, i added a 6line in the tank which wipe out itself and the bluehippo, after they died, i moved the rest of the fish to a quarantine tank and run low salt treatment for 6 weeks. (low salt break the ich production cycle by killing any parasite) it never showed up since. Edited January 14, 2008 by bananags Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entropy Posted January 14, 2008 Author Share Posted January 14, 2008 Well I don't have an extra tank to quarantine with (if I did I wouldn't be in this mess). I am not sure at this point what I am going to do. I might just turn my display tank into a quarantine tank and remove the few corals I have and just start over down the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bananags Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 (edited) well, any method of treat ich should not be done on the main display tank (because it will kill everything else include ich, snail, bacteria in live rock....) if copper based medicine is used, that is hard to remove the copper afterward from the tank, so this method definitely should not be done in main tank, unless this will be a fish only in the future, not reef) I went with hostility treatment (lower salinity level), no medicine, I think this is the best treatment, less stress for the fish and cost nothing. (you google up on the exact detail on how to do this. ie aclimate fish to lower salinity and back up when you are done treatment) a clear storage container at wallmart will do, get something big for under $20 you need a hang on filter for another $20 at petco, then you are good to go, it does not take much for a hospital tank, just make sure add top off water to hold the salinity level and change water 10% or somethign once a week to remove waste and monitor the salinity and ammonia level regularly. the main tank should be fish free for 6weeks to make sure no ich left, you don't have to do anything to the main tank, since w/o the fish host, the parasite will die of starving by themself I know this is suck, long wait it's really up to you, you can wait out and see, if some fish not making it, then start hospitalize the rest but definitely don't use any type of medicine on the main display tank Edited January 14, 2008 by bananags Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4R00P3R Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 I had an ich problem a couple months ago when I first started my tank. I started out lowering salinity and raising temperature. Then I gave the sickest fish freshwater baths a couple times a day for about 2 minutes each. I got a yellowtail cleaner wrasse who started eating the ich. The problem continued but was now in remission. Next I bought a cleaner shrimp. I continued doing normal water changes. The sickest fish died (the butterfly that I wanted to get rid of anyway) and then the ich started to go away. I haven't had any problems since. Whatever you do, don't move rocks and things around to get your fish out of the tank if you can avoid it. Quarantining is more of a last resort if it wasn't done in the first place. I HIGHLY recommend getting a cleaner wrasse and/or shrimp. The shrimp seemed to be what finally saved my tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entropy Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 I am just riding it out. I did a water change and have been keeping the skimmer/filter sock clean(er) than usual. The tang is the only one that still has spots and there is a lot less now. I am not even sure if it is ich now. The cycle so far doesn't make sense. I went four weeks and a day (29 days) between adding fish and the spots showing up and then the spots lasted 1 day (on all but the tang). It doesn't seem to fit the standard pattern of ich. The tang is still eating like a pig and not showing any signs of stress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4R00P3R Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 It's possible that all your fishes' immune systems are healthy enough to have fought off the infection. I still recommend getting a cleaner shrimp soon to prevent future outbreaks. The cleaners also pick off other parasites and dead epidermal cells and things so they are very useful for more than only ich. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entropy Posted January 23, 2008 Author Share Posted January 23, 2008 Is there anything like Ich that my tang might have? It still has a couple of white spots, but they are more gray than white, and it has cloudy like spots on it front fins. The problem is that it has had these for a week now and it is not effecting its swimming/eating/behavior at all (at least that I can tell). None of the other six fish have any spots. I am wonder if it is something else. Weird! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entropy Posted March 9, 2008 Author Share Posted March 9, 2008 Just an update... My tang is finally spot free. It only took six weeks or so. I am still not sure it was ich since none of the other fish seemed to be affected. Anyway I did end up getting a cleaner shrimp and between it and the six line wrasse they picked everything thing off pretty much on a daily routine. My tang still parks itself in front of the cleaner shrimp every morning out of habit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmanning Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 Just an update... My tang is finally spot free. It only took six weeks or so. I am still not sure it was ich since none of the other fish seemed to be affected. Anyway I did end up getting a cleaner shrimp and between it and the six line wrasse they picked everything thing off pretty much on a daily routine. My tang still parks itself in front of the cleaner shrimp every morning out of habit. You're (might) not be completely out of the woods yet. Wait until 4-5 weeks after the last visible trophonts have disappeared to declare a complete victory. Otherwise - in almost exactly 4 weeks - (depending on temperature) . They (might) come back. Cryptocarins seems like God's "marine version" of the cockroach. Took us 4 x 1-month cycles to finally get rid of them for good (with no meds - since most meds we found would have damaged our tank life more than we wanted). We did lose a few fish. (better than the entire tank of corals though). We just kept adding Lysmata ambionensis (2 at a time) each time, until we had six of them in the tank. And stop feeding the (shrimp) about 1 week before the 4 weeks time hits (make the shrimp damned hungry when the next expected trophont stage reappears). -during this time we hand-fed the fish to keep the shrimp "hungry". This worked. - but it did take us 4 cycles over 5 months. (this was all 3 years ago). If even one parasite ever makes it back into the sand, it's certain to multiply/rise from the dead in 4 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted March 9, 2008 Share Posted March 9, 2008 I would also add some garlic (garilic Xtreme by Kent) to their food to help keep up their immune system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fc.gonzalez Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 I would also add some garlic (garilic Xtreme by Kent) to their food to help keep up their immune system. when things got bad i tried fresh water baths for 10 - 15 secs. and copper treating the fish in 10 gal. quarantine tanks...fish stop showing signs within a week or two..however i waited for any remaining eggs to hatch from substrate and die out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entropy Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 I really didn't have the option of catching the fish. I didn't feel like tearing the tank apart to get the tang and I would have to since he is pretty sly. Looks like I got lucky. So far all the fish are still clear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entropy Posted August 1, 2008 Author Share Posted August 1, 2008 You're (might) not be completely out of the woods yet. Wait until 4-5 weeks after the last visible trophonts have disappeared to declare a complete victory. Apparently I did get lucky. It has been four months now and the tank is still ich free. I would love to claim it was my brilliant fish keeping skills, but I know better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.