Joining the ich boat :(

[AlexMorsePremium]

My Kole tang is infested. I think it came in with him, but it's not clear as it took quite a while to show signs (over a month)

Working on trapping him and moving him to quarantine, probably will do the same for my foxface as they seem as weak to ich as tangs.

No other fish has any signs yet, so I'm hoping I can move these guys out and have enough resistance for whats left to die off in my main tank. Obviously that's not fool proof as fish can harbor the parasites without signs (and in some cases without any health problems)

There's a lot of people claiming garlic might help, but no proof.

Similar with UV filtering. It seems like this could help, but only in the last stage when it's looking for a host. Also no where near foolproof.

The only sure cure would be to get ALL my fish into QT long enough for whatever population exists in my tank to die out. I'm going to aim for this but it's pretty unlikely I'll be able to catch them all. Wish me luck

[FarmerTy]

Do you have pictures of the infected? Marine velvet has been on a tear lately because some wholesalers have been having problems with it in their facilities and then pass it along to every LFS and reefer down the line.

If it is ich, look up tank transfer method to treat those that have been caught out. Very simple method that interrupts the life cycle and uses no medication.

The tank needs to be fallow for 76 days to be most sure that ich dies out in it.

[AlexMorsePremium]

Hmm... that does seem more effective to get the fish in a good place. I'll get a temp container and give that a go before I put things in the bigger filtered tank.

Pretty sure it's ich. Haven't seen velvet specific symptoms, kole looks like he's dusted with salt. Still eating well, not lethargic, not focused on high flow areas yet. My foxface may have had some issues as he's got some spots on him that could be injuries/scratches but no salt speckling or velvet presenting. None of the other fish have any sort of symptoms presenting currently. (Clowns, chromis, blenny, basslet, cardinals)

I've seen lots of conflict around how long the tank needs to be fallow. If I can GET it fallow that's fine, that just seems really unlikely without setting up a tank for corals and completely dismantling.

[FarmerTy]

Hmm... that does seem more effective to get the fish in a good place. I'll get a temp container and give that a go before I put things in the bigger filtered tank.

Pretty sure it's ich. Haven't seen velvet specific symptoms, kole looks like he's dusted with salt. Still eating well, not lethargic, not focused on high flow areas yet. My foxface may have had some issues as he's got some spots on him that could be injuries/scratches but no salt speckling or velvet presenting. None of the other fish have any sort of symptoms presenting currently. (Clowns, chromis, blenny, basslet, cardinals)

I've seen lots of conflict around how long the tank needs to be fallow. If I can GET it fallow that's fine, that just seems really unlikely without setting up a tank for corals and completely dismantling.

Honestly, 76 days is being careful, even the disease expert on Reef2reef admits that as that's his recommendation based on the studies he's researched regarding ich. Really, 45 days would probably do it as the 76 day number is only being used because one study had the encysted tomonts not hatching for 70+ days. It was the only study that reported this and all the rest were below 40 days. It also mentioned the water was colder than an average reef tank so there's all manner of skewed data with that study but 76 days was recommended just in case there really are variants of ich out there that can remain encysted for that long.

[AlexMorsePremium]

Easy mode, if I can actually catch all the fish I can up the temp in the tank beyond where I typically keep my fish to amp the metabolisms (and increase coral growth while I'm at it)

[FarmerTy]

Easy mode, if I can actually catch all the fish I can up the temp in the tank beyond where I typically keep my fish to amp the metabolisms (and increase coral growth while I'm at it)

FWIW, warmer temps were only observed affecting freshwater ich (which is not even directly related to saltwater ich). There hasn't been a reported study for saltwater ich that directly correlates warmer temps with accelerated life cycles like there has with freshwater ich.

Warmer temps do help corals grow faster but is not usually recommended as it puts you closer to the temp threshold of 84-85 degrees when things start bleaching which makes it risky. Say you're running 81-82 degrees, it only takes 2-4 degree jump and your corals can start bleaching. Higher temps also grow algae and bacteria easier as well.

Positives though are increased metabolism for corals and fish.

All that being said, I run 81-82 average though I don't usually recommend it. 78-80 is much safer. [emoji4]

[Sascha D.]

Hmm... that does seem more effective to get the fish in a good place. I'll get a temp container and give that a go before I put things in the bigger filtered tank.

Pretty sure it's ich. Haven't seen velvet specific symptoms, kole looks like he's dusted with salt. Still eating well, not lethargic, not focused on high flow areas yet. My foxface may have had some issues as he's got some spots on him that could be injuries/scratches but no salt speckling or velvet presenting. None of the other fish have any sort of symptoms presenting currently. (Clowns, chromis, blenny, basslet, cardinals)

I've seen lots of conflict around how long the tank needs to be fallow. If I can GET it fallow that's fine, that just seems really unlikely without setting up a tank for corals and completely dismantling.

Honestly, 76 days is being careful, even the disease expert on Reef2reef admits that as that's his recommendation based on the studies he's researched regarding ich. Really, 45 days would probably do it as the 76 day number is only being used because one study had the encysted tomonts not hatching for 70+ days. It was the only study that reported this and all the rest were below 40 days. It also mentioned the water was colder than an average reef tank so there's all manner of skewed data with that study but 76 days was recommended just in case there really are variants of ich out there that can remain encysted for that long.

By fallow, he means without fish. The corals and inverts can stay in the tank.

[AlexMorsePremium]

yeah I'm 78 now, I've got room.

And I'd only need to dismantle to get 100% of the fish out, very easy for them to hide in rocks, etc.

[Sascha D.]

It would be easiest to use a bottle trap.

I recently read an article written by Anthony Calfo. If you had enough containers, then you could drain the water down to 1" and collect the fish easily. Once you've gotten all of the fish, then pump the water back into the tank. He says it's similar to a low tide situation and the corals will be okay.

[FarmerTy]

It would be easiest to use a bottle trap.

I recently read an article written by Anthony Calfo. If you had enough containers, then you could drain the water down to 1" and collect the fish easily. Once you've gotten all of the fish, then pump the water back into the tank. He says it's similar to a low tide situation and the corals will be okay.

I did that once with Brian's help and it was still a pain in the butt, though I was doing it on a 215 gallon tank. A fish trap if you can borrow one is pretty reliable for most fishes.

[Sascha D.]

I think we're talking about the 90g in his profile. It probably has about 75 gallons of water. It would take me 2 hours to drain the water on my big tank, but smaller tanks should be fast. The whole thing might take 30-60 minutes total.

[AlexMorsePremium]

I've a 92g display, 24g sump (redsea reefer 450) Nowhere near the storage to drain and re-fill. I can make/store about 50g at a time if I'm pushing limits.

Going to try the trap, transfer with a small intermediate tank to get the ich to fall off/go to next stage, then keep things in my secondary and let the display tank be inverts for a while and see how it goes.

[FarmerTy]

Not sure if you looked up tank transfer method yet but you'll need 4 more transfers for the fish to be ich free. If you just go from one tank to the secondary, you'll end up accomplishing nothing as they'll just reinfect themselves.

You can always treat with an ich medication as well if you prefer over the tank transfer method.

[nori4dori]

Ty. You mentioned marine velvet being on the rise. Do you know what suppliers or retailers velvet has been associated with recently? I added some fish from Live Aquaria 2 weeks ago. Most of the fishes from the order didn't make it through the 2 weeks. Today I am noticing what appears to be velvet on my sunburst anthia, clowns, and tangs. The sunburst is showing all the symptoms of velvet. The clowns and tangs maybe in their early stage.

[FarmerTy]

Ty. You mentioned marine velvet being on the rise. Do you know what suppliers or retailers velvet has been associated with recently? I added some fish from Live Aquaria 2 weeks ago. Most of the fishes from the order didn't make it through the 2 weeks. Today I am noticing what appears to be velvet on my sunburst anthia, clowns, and tangs. The sunburst is showing all the symptoms of velvet. The clowns and tangs maybe in their early stage.

I know of at least one person in the last couple months that got velvet from Divers Den. I'm not sure if the Live Aquaria portion of the company operates in the same facility or not.

Aa far as wholesaler, can't say exactly but there have just been more reports about velvet lately. I hear about it being an issue in some LFSs and they got it from their wholesalers. While I can't really pinpoint which wholesalers, I can say that talking to some of the LFSs in town, that their safest supplier is usually Quality Marine.

I got 5 fish lately from a different wholesaler and all 5 died of velvet like symptoms. I'm almost thinking of just going ahead and prophylactically treating all incoming fish for velvet these days. By the time you see physical symptoms, the fish is often good as dead already.

[nori4dori]

Ty. You mentioned marine velvet being on the rise. Do you know what suppliers or retailers velvet has been associated with recently? I added some fish from Live Aquaria 2 weeks ago. Most of the fishes from the order didn't make it through the 2 weeks. Today I am noticing what appears to be velvet on my sunburst anthia, clowns, and tangs. The sunburst is showing all the symptoms of velvet. The clowns and tangs maybe in their early stage.

I know of at least one person in the last couple months that got velvet from Divers Den. I'm not sure if the Live Aquaria portion of the company operates in the same facility or not.

Aa far as wholesaler, can't say exactly but there have just been more reports about velvet lately. I hear about it being an issue in some LFSs and they got it from their wholesalers. While I can't really pinpoint which wholesalers, I can say that talking to some of the LFSs in town, that their safest supplier is usually Quality Marine.

I got 5 fish lately from a different wholesaler and all 5 died of velvet like symptoms. I'm almost thinking of just going ahead and prophylactically treating all incoming fish for velvet these days. By the time you see physical symptoms, the fish is often good as dead already.

Man this is so depressing. Yesterday the sunburst was eating fine and superficially asymptomatic. Today it stopped eating and had velvet/ich spots all over the body with slimy strings. Within 12 hours of noticing symptoms he is lying sideways on the sandbed. I am going to euthanize him. He won't make it through the night. This is definitely velvet.

All the fishes in my tank were healthy before adding my LiveAquaria fishes. All (but 2) of the live aquaria fishes died within 7-10 days, and now the rest of the fishes in my tank are showing symptoms. I am almost certain it's velvet and it came with my LA order. I got some tough days ahead. Sad way to learn the absolute necessity of QT.

[Sascha D.]

I received an order from Liveaquaria about five weeks ago where one fish arrived with Marine Velvet. I treated with Formalin and it didn't work. I would suggest a copper based medicine like Cupramine. I have heard people have good luck with Paraguard as well. Both medicines need to be used in a quarantine tank.

[FarmerTy]

Ty. You mentioned marine velvet being on the rise. Do you know what suppliers or retailers velvet has been associated with recently? I added some fish from Live Aquaria 2 weeks ago. Most of the fishes from the order didn't make it through the 2 weeks. Today I am noticing what appears to be velvet on my sunburst anthia, clowns, and tangs. The sunburst is showing all the symptoms of velvet. The clowns and tangs maybe in their early stage.

I know of at least one person in the last couple months that got velvet from Divers Den. I'm not sure if the Live Aquaria portion of the company operates in the same facility or not.

Aa far as wholesaler, can't say exactly but there have just been more reports about velvet lately. I hear about it being an issue in some LFSs and they got it from their wholesalers. While I can't really pinpoint which wholesalers, I can say that talking to some of the LFSs in town, that their safest supplier is usually Quality Marine.

I got 5 fish lately from a different wholesaler and all 5 died of velvet like symptoms. I'm almost thinking of just going ahead and prophylactically treating all incoming fish for velvet these days. By the time you see physical symptoms, the fish is often good as dead already.

Man this is so depressing. Yesterday the sunburst was eating fine and superficially asymptomatic. Today it stopped eating and had velvet/ich spots all over the body with slimy strings. Within 12 hours of noticing symptoms he is lying sideways on the sandbed. I am going to euthanize him. He won't make it through the night. This is definitely velvet.

All the fishes in my tank were healthy before adding my LiveAquaria fishes. All (but 2) of the live aquaria fishes died within 7-10 days, and now the rest of the fishes in my tank are showing symptoms. I am almost certain it's velvet and it came with my LA order. I got some tough days ahead. Sad way to learn the absolute necessity of QT.

Sorry for the losses! I've been trying to warn people for the last 8 months now. Velvet is a huge issue for wholesalers this past year so treat every new fish like it might be coming in with velvet. Don't put it directly in the tank!

[Reburn]

^^^^^ agreed with Ty.

There is a bacterial infection making its rounds too. Just remember velvet and ich have very similar life cycles. Minimum 45 days QT. If your not treating prophylacticly they will either be alive or dead at the end of the 45 days. If it's velvet they will almost for sure die.

[AlexMorsePremium]

So the main tank is fallow except for my six line wrasse. Cunning little *******, also in great health.

I ended up losing my yellow eyed kole, which I expected, but also my bi-color blenny and royal gramma which didn't have obvious symptoms. Everyone else seems clear and healthy in the holding tank. I went and bought a big marine pure block for the sump since there's very little rock in this tank, and that seems to have done the trick and is maintaining the nitrogen cycle well.

This tank was my macro algae farm, and now it's getting more nutrients, so that's cool.

Still trying to trap the wrasse, challenge is he's never taken food. I almost got him once when he was investigating some garlic I put in the trap. Any suggestions on lures?

[Sascha D.]

The timer doesn't start until all fish are out. I would use mysis to lure the wrasse. Leave the trap in the tank and only feed inside of the trap.

[AlexMorsePremium]

Yeah, tried mysis, brine, squid...

I've never actually seen him take food for sure, I've seen him lunge at things occasionally then leave them.