Well, It HAD to happen.....ICH on the reef

[Reefneck]

As I stated in a Previous post I will use a Quarantine tank for all new fish for the reef every time I get any! Only thing is, My wife didn't think about it and now I have a fish with ICH in the reef tank.

I bought the tank for QT but had not set it up yet so the wife didn't know.

The new Coral Beauty Angel is covered with ICH. As some of you know, Treatment is next to impossible in a reef because Copper meds will kill all the inverts, Live rock and live sand.

Discussed this with the top 3 LFS's in the area and have decided to let nature take it's course. I have a large Cleaner shrimp in the reef and the angel is going to him for cleaning quite often. All the LFS guys agree that a reef is the best environment to treat using this method. I went and bought a second Cleaner shrimp today (much Smaller) in the hopes that the angel will get double teamed by the shrimp. Looking for a cleaner goby as well to help.

So begins the long and hard wait and see game.

Will the angel get cleaned and come out of this or will she succumb? Only time will tell.

Please, Everyone....Never, Ever put any fish in your reef tanks without at least 2 weeks of quarantine in a separate tank!!

[Fishfirst]

If you have other fish in your reef, take the angel out... they all have a better chance of survival if you take the infested fish out and treat in a seperate tank. Yes, you will have ich in the main system, but you will prevent an outbreak of the free swimming stage if you take the fish with the cycsts on it. Plus, correct me if I'm wrong TOS, but I believe cleaner shrimps and gobies hardly feed on that type of parasite, and will most likely not help.

[TheOldSalt]

They try their best, but just can't keep up with the growth of the ickies. A lot of cleaners aren't really interested in the parasites themselves so much as in the skin that flecks off from parasite activity.

Well, truth be told, a GOOD reef tank setup can usually help keep the fish alive when infested, but they'll still be miserable. However, that only works up to a point, and the first chance ick gets to wipeout everything, it will.

I guess your best bet at this point is to get a UV unit. Really, the BEST thing to do would be to set up a QT and put all the fish in it for a few months, but the UV is a lot more convenient. Adding a touch of garlic to the fishfood will make the parasites jump off the fish much faster. A quck google search of "garlic+ick" should provide a lot of details on that, I would think.

[Reefneck]

Well, The Coral Beauty Angel has gone to fish heaven this morning. She was really stressed when I got up this morning and covered with ICH again. Colors were all faded and she was swimming sideways and laying around gasping. To be humane, I was able to capture her and put her out of her misery. There was no saving her. I may be new to SW but been keeping fish for 20+ years and can tell when a fish is beyond saving.

This is a very sad day for us as she is our first loss in the reef other than damsels during the cycle. We can't afford to replace her with me out of work. The worst part is she was my wife's Christmas present.

R.I.P Beauty, We will truly miss you.

Keri

[TheOldSalt]

For future reference, a freshwater dip can save most saltwater fish dying of ick if things haven't gone too far, and it can keep things from going too far. A dip can also be a good appetite stimulant.
Anyway, garlic is a good ick fixer for reef tanks. Garlic + UV makes a very good combination indeed, so once you get a new job, consider that as a practical way to help make your life a bit easier.

[Osiris]

I had a ick outbreak my first time around the reef, soon after it was setup, it developed into marine velvet wiped out 75% of my stock.

I now feed all my foods are soaked in a garlic solution by kent marine to help that out.

Thanx for the tip on UV TOS, added that to my list!

Sorry to hear about the loss. I also keep my temp at around 84 degrees not sure if it helps keep ich away or not...

[TheOldSalt]

Well, you don't have to feed garlic all the time, just for a month or so after adding any new fish. Keeping the temp at 84 does help with parasites, but it causes other problems. if the tank is clear of ick, I'd drop the temp back down to 78. You don't want to encourage the evolution of garlic-loving, high-temp ick after all.

[x-Golden-Lucy-x]

I didnt know SW fish could get ich, to treat FW fishes ich i use salt, how does it live in salt water!? or is it a different parasite?

[Reefneck]

Originally Posted by x-Golden-Lucy-x

I didnt know SW fish could get ich, to treat FW fishes ich i use salt, how does it live in salt water!? or is it a different parasite?

It is a completely different parasite although it looks just like the freshwater variety to the naked eye. Symptoms are similar.

[Purple-Tang]

I never had a quarantine tank, and most of the fish in my tank eventually have ich, but a few weeks later, they all are fine. My 8 purple tangs and yellow tangs all had ich when I got them, but then the ich all went away. My blue tangs had ich too, and theirs disappeared. I had everything required though, Chiller, UV, skimmer, wet/dry sump.

[Fishfirst]

wait how large is this tank??? I see you've got a 135 gallon. And although thats big, its not big enough for all these tangs, and is severely overcrowded. I would HIGHLY recommend getting rid of all but one of the zebrasoma genus and the blue tang would probably be fine in there. Otherwise a single small school of zebrasoma would work well of about 4 individuals.

[Jonno]

I had Ich in my tank twice and got over it but after the 2nd lot i had to setup a QT tank because i didn't want to do it anymore. There is guy about 2 miles away from me which makes his own Herbel medcine for marine tanks that are invert safe and coral safe it worked wonders. I turned my Skimmer & UV off to make sure it didn't get taken out the water but after the the 7 days all the ICH was gone and corals where looking fine.

[Purple-Tang]

The fishes are fine, fishfirst, its 135 gallon, big enough for like 30 fishes. Well, I have like 30 fishes not counting the gobies and those other critter fishes. They all seem fine to me, chase around a bit, but they are getting along well, as long as I have enough cracks for them to hide, which I made sure there is a cave for each fish. They been like for several months now. People said i cant have more than one flame angel in my tank, and I got like 4 flame angels right now in one tank. I did it just to see what would happen. I noticed they just chase each other around a bit, thats all.

[TheOldSalt]

Oh, man...here we go....

Hey, Jonno, is there any hope of your being able to get ahold of your friend's recipie?

[Fishfirst]

Purple tang - I know it "seems" like their isn't anything wrong with your system... but a stocking level like that is going to cause problems. Whether it be by simple water chemistry, (IE nitrates from all the waste those fish produce or simple ammonia or nitrite problems from the massive bioload) abnormal algae growth from those nutrients, increased aggression levels as these fish mature into their TRUE nature, and the increased stress from conspecifics creating an outbreak of diseases when something goes wrong (say, your UV sterilizer goes out on you).

If you want to test your theory and play the "my tank is alright" card, then try unplugging the UV sterilizer. In a properly stocked aquarium, fish should be able to maintain their immune systems and not break out into an all out ich fest. In an overstocked aquarium, you get stress, stress lowers immune systems response, and you get ich. So turn off that UV sterilizer, and if your fish are ich free in 6 weeks... by all means, call me a lier.

By the way, you should check out my stock list for my 210 gallon to get a better sense of how many fish should actually be in a tank that is so large. Let me tell you, its WAY less than 30 including gobies and such.

I want to know where you got the info that 30 fish would be fine in a 135 gallon... because they missed some key things... such as territoriality, dissolved oxygen, size of the fish, behavior of the fish, diet of the fish, ect, which all play a role in the choosing of a fish and stocking level of an aquarium. For instance, I have a 210 gallon, techniqually I could stock it with around 50 fish, but they'd all be tiny gobies. Where as I choose 3 tangs, and that eats up around 10 gobies bioloads because of the factors above.

[jasno999]

I love these discussions.

[TheReefAddict]

Not trying to promote products or anything but my local fish store said this was the hottest thing on the market right now for parasites.(SPECTRUM THERA by newlife) Try to feed your fish this for about ten days without other foods...It worked remarkably for my blue tang and it is good for the other fish as well as far as preventative. Its like the herbal supplement to fish..no copper