The billionth BRS ICH thread

[JayM]

Well, I bought a starry blenny last week, acclimated it into my QT, and let it chill in there for a few days for observation. Looked good after a week, so I introduced him into my display. Now my tang and clown have ich like you read about. I mean COVERED. Looks like a salt mine. I was careful with ich for a long time. Blew it.

Moral of the story......now I have to trash the scape in my display, catch the fish, and let a 375 gallon system lie fallow until labor day. NO fish.

Then I have to treat the fish in QT with copper or hypo....if they survive it.

Some days, this hobby really really REALLY sucks.

 

[Duff485]

That sucks man, sorry to hear that. I hope you have a massive QT setup! At least the corals will still look cool in the mean time - good luck!

 

[arch85]

sorry to hear ... unfortunately, sooner or later, it gets all of us

 

[Dashiki]

I have ich in my dt too. I have a 300gal. I quit qt'ing after I had qt'd an angel and my tangs still broke out in ich.

I feed them well and run a properly rated uv.

 

[newenglandreef]

I was reading up on RC how ich perfectly exploits aquariums. In the ocean, the theronts are lucky to find a host in time but in a small, closed system, it's almost definite. Sorry to hear, I'm dealing with it right now too. I've been using kick-ich, a UV and a neon goby... lost a couple clowns and an anthias, but the rest are doing great, after looking pretty bad. Yellow tang was completely covered--is now spot free, but still gilling heavy, I assume he has some gill damage. Water changes too. Hope they make it...

 

[Kungfukid]

Do a fresh water dip every other day to help loosen those ich

 

[acrofragger]

Do a fresh water dip every other day to help loosen those ich

please stop advising people to do this ...............its going right back into the ich ,so why would he want to keep doing this every other day .

leebeccas thread on ich is the best piece of advice i can offer anyone . last thing if your fish has ich its stressed out ,doesnt matter what fish what tank

get the stress out and help your pet with either qt or copper ,whatever you choose doit right and follow directions .and be warned qt is a constant battle and requires alot of water changes and heavy feedng with nutritious foods ,selcon vitachem ,ect ect

 

[SteelerMike]

I have been battling ich in my 125 for a few weeks as well. I only have a bicolor blenny and a yellow tang in there. I set up a hospital tank, but have not utilized it yet as the blenny has no signs of ich and the tang is still eating and swimming well. I read a few things about the fish possibly developing an immunity if they get through it, so I have been feeding food dosed in garlic and doing regular WC and just watching to see. My fear is that trying to catch the fish will stress them out so much that it will basically doom them. Hope it works out for you. It definitely sucks.

 

[higorc]

I have been battling ich in my 125 for a few weeks as well. I only have a bicolor blenny and a yellow tang in there. I set up a hospital tank, but have not utilized it yet as the blenny has no signs of ich and the tang is still eating and swimming well. I read a few things about the fish possibly developing an immunity if they get through it, so I have been feeding food dosed in garlic and doing regular WC and just watching to see. My fear is that trying to catch the fish will stress them out so much that it will basically doom them. Hope it works out for you. It definitely sucks.

Just lost a 5 year old Black and white Ocellaris to this $%&^@@!# disease this morning!!! I am so pissed off right now! It started with my tangs and I hoped it go away since they were eating and doing well. Guess what? It didn't!!! The only ones I really cared about was my mated pair of BW and Orange Ocellaris that I got back in 2007 when I first got into this hobby. Now the Black is gone. I am sorry if I sound like I don't care about the tangs or the other fishes in my tank.

I have lost a Spot tail Blenny, Bicolor blenny and 4 Chromies since this thing broke out full force in my tank!

I have the DT with no fish now. All the fish has been quarantine now and being treated it with Hyposalinity for the next 2 months.

I really hope my 5 year old Female Ocelaris makes it.

Now I wish I didn't take the "Wait and hope they get better" route and just took them all out and treated them right in the beginning! It would have saved my Black Ocellaris and possibly all of the other ones.

Ich sucks, and I will never look at it lightly as I have until this day. From now on, I will have a quarantine tank and keep any new fish addition in it for a while before it goes into the DT.

It's just not worth trashing all of the Aquascape and jeopardizing all the fish in the tank because of "1" new fish. I guess I have to say I learned it the hard way.



On that note, I am looking to buy or borrow a Refractometer for a couple of days until I am able to get one of my own. If anybody around Malden, MA has one for sale or can lend it to me I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[stingythingy45]

^^^

All of these post are why I haven't adding a fish to my system in years.
If I did it would have to go through a VERY long QT and maybe even treatment session.

 

[SteelerMike]

That realy sucks higorc...sorry to hear about the loss. This does make me want to just bite the bullet and catch the fish and treat them. The only thing is that after inspecting the tang last night I'm not sure it is ich. I am beginning to wonder if it is a different parasite. The areas of his body where he has the spots are raised and they are hard to see during the day. When just the blue lights are on you can see them much clearer and the spots are pretty big in some areas. I have tried to take pictures, but it doesn't show up on my crappy pics. The blenny is still unaffected and it has been three weeks.

 

[higorc]

That realy sucks higorc...sorry to hear about the loss. This does make me want to just bite the bullet and catch the fish and treat them. The only thing is that after inspecting the tang last night I'm not sure it is ich. I am beginning to wonder if it is a different parasite. The areas of his body where he has the spots are raised and they are hard to see during the day. When just the blue lights are on you can see them much clearer and the spots are pretty big in some areas. I have tried to take pictures, but it doesn't show up on my crappy pics. The blenny is still unaffected and it has been three weeks.

The thing with Ich is, it take a little bit to finally take it's final blow! My tang had it for about 2 weeks. It went away and then came back. Then it went away again. Then I noticed he had a bunch of raised bumps all over his body (not white). This happened in between when he had white Ich dots and then not.

I read somewhere that the bumps are pretty much the scars of when they recover from the Ich. After maybe 3 weeks the other tang got it. It was only after maybe a month that all the fish got it. From that point on it took the ich 2 days to kill both blennies and 4 Chromies! and 4 days to kill my Black ocellaris.

I am at work now and I am bracing my self when I get home and check the quarantine tank. I really hope the 2 tangs, orange ocellaris and orange stripe goby are still alive! But at this point I am not expecting much.

I really hope u have a different experience than mine. Just becareful.

Higor

 

[JayM]

the idea of ripping my aquascape apart is just really, really disheartening.

Maybe next week, since I am scheduled at least 12 hours/day until after Sunday. 100 gallon water change water is mixing, will be setting up a qt with the water change water, then catching a skittish tang.

Once they are in the 75 (qt) then it's getting treated with copper. Then the display system stays fallow until Labor day . <sigh>

 

[JohnK]

the idea of ripping my aquascape apart is just really, really disheartening.

Fish trap?

 

[JayM]

does anyone have a fish trap capable of catching a full sized psycho-skittish yellow tang?

 

[JohnK]

I do. You just need to feed the fish by putting the food in the trap for a few days. Before you know it the fish will be in the trap waiting when you get home.

 

[JayM]

LMK when I can borrow/pick it up John. Thanks. I guess the only problem is my tang doesn't eat much that isn't algae on the rocks. When it was downstairs I literally went 2 years without feeding it, making it forage for algae all the time.

 

[JohnK]

I've always had good luck catching fish with traps, there must be something that will tempt the tang.

That said, I just looked around for a bit and realized that my really big trap got borrowed and not returned. The one I do have on hand should be big enough though, and if it's not let me know and I'll throw together another bigger trap.... I'll drop it off sometime today.

 

[higorc]

the idea of ripping my aquascape apart is just really, really disheartening.

Maybe next week, since I am scheduled at least 12 hours/day until after Sunday. 100 gallon water change water is mixing, will be setting up a qt with the water change water, then catching a skittish tang.

Once they are in the 75 (qt) then it's getting treated with copper. Then the display system stays fallow until Labor day . <sigh>

I know how you feel. Trust me. I am not saying you should do it or saying you shouldn't but I know I will not take the "wait and hope for the best approach" to anything like this again. If I know I can do something I will. It's just not worth all the aggravation!

But I am not an expert. I can only speak from my painful experience.

So this morning I lost a my blue tang...the one that got all this thing started.

So far I have lost a Spot Tail Blenny, Bicolor Blenny, Black Ocellaris, 4 Chrommies and a Blue Tang. The only survivors so far are my Desjardini Tang and my 5 year old female Ocellaris.

At this point I am not holding my breath they will make it anymore. I am doing everything I can to save them. Checking the PH and Ammonia in the Quarantine tank before I come to work and when I get home. Using Ammonia Detox and doing water changes and keeping the Salinity at 1.09. I am buying a Refractometer today because I don't trust my Hydrometer.

I don't know if it's related, but I lost my Black Ocellaris and My Blue Tang shortly after the water changes. They could just have just been on their way out already though. And the PH on the 20G quarantine drops so quickly! I have to watch it like a hawk and up it every time I check. I am also picking up a 30G breeder long tank tomorrow for more water volume and swimming space for them.

When I checked the dead Blue tang this morning, it seemed to have it's gills very irritated and/or bleeding.

At a positive note, I re-did the Aquascape in my DT and I love it. I Have been working on it for the last 4 days. The water quality just keeps increasing and is Crystal clear since I stopped aggressively feeding the fishes to try to boost their immune systems.

My Corals, clam and inverts all look healthy and happy as well.

While the fish are in the quarantine I will take the time to get my DT into pristine conditions.

I have to at least try to get something good out of this tragedy! (o;

Higor

 

[newenglandreef]

I'm having great luck with a Neon Goby... noticed a couple spots on an anthias last night, this morning the spots were gone and the anthias was holding himself outside the goby's rock, looking for more cleaning.