YAIT (yet another Ick thread)

[Scott]

Instead of hijacking one of the other recent threads, I thought I'd start my own to get some advice.

I've got a 40G with a scopus tang and an 6-line wrasse.

I noticed today that the tang has ick. It wasn't there yesterday. It's harder to see on the wrasse, but it looks like there's two spots on its tail as well.

I had a mishap yesterday and the temp dropped a few degrees (I used the wrong bucket for a water change, which hadn't warmed up yet) and I'm guessing that caused the stress that caused the ick.

They don't act sick.

I've been reading and while I've got a 20G that I can use as a quarantine, since both fish seem to be affected, I could just start with garlic extract and watch closely?

Where to you get garlic extract? Is that a grocery store item?

I have a 75G tank that I'm in the process of moving some stuff into (the tang was on the short-list to give it more running room). It has a single blenny in there. Is it safe to move corals over? Or should I not risk moving anything over now?

thanks.

 

[JohnK]

I'd suggest picking your strategy before making any moves. Ie is your goal to completely eradicate the parisite, or is it to manage it so that it's not totally gone, but the fish are OK?

If you hope to eradicate, garlic, kick ick, and everything else will be ineffective in the long run. If you just want to manage it, then all of the above may help. The problem with managing it is that any time you have a stressor or add a new fish, it's likely that you'll see the infection pop up again.

Personally I'm a big advocate of going for eradication, but MANY others go the other way. Putting that tang in a 20 could be a pretty big stressor which would be it's own added problem.

FWIW, If you want to treat your fish and would like to borrow a larger QT I would be willing to loan you my 75G hospital system (as long as you don't mind babysitting the rabbitfish that's been calling it home).

 

[Scott]

Thanks John.

All out eradication is of course the best bet, I think logistics is the biggest problem there for most. I am reluctant to stick him in the 20 -- I've been working hard to get him out of the 40! (just want to be clear about that since I'm talking to the tang cop here. )

I also read somewhere that ick is present in every system, only showing itself when fish are weak/stressed.

An option that I've been considering is to use this 40G as a QT.

My plan was to migrate everything out of it anyway, over to the 75.

That brings me back to my other question, can I safely move the corals, inverts, and rock to the other tank with this infection going on?

Then once it's empty (except fish and substrate), I can treat with copper.

How's that strategy?