Ick...what do i do?

[vdhillon]

Hi,
i have a 29 gallon reef tank to which i added a baby blue tang, he was about the size of a nickel. Well i noticed some spots on him, thought he had ich, so i removed him and put him in my 10 gallon nano tank, i had to much invested into the 29 to take a chance. Well after about a day he cleared up, i guessed the spots were from being attacked from other fish and were bites. Well all was well for the past 4 days, and today i just noticed that he is covered in white spots as well as my other fish have a few on them too.
I have about 10 lbs of live rock in the tank, 10 blue crabs, snails, and a bandit shrimp. What do i do, what can be saved? should i moved the crabs to the other tank.
I didn't have a chance to go to the pet store to get ich meds, but i will tomarow... do i have till then? can i add them with live rock? any help would be appretciated.

vinnie

[Bruce]

well if there are no inverts in the 10 gal and if it is not attatched to the 29 i would put them in there and use copper meds...also a 29gal tank is way to small for a blue tang...they get pretty big fast...what other fish do u have?

[Birdlady]

At one of my recent reef club meetings, we had Anthony Calfo speak. The question came up about ich. Copper was not recommended.

The question arose because my Chevron tang had ich. His recommendation was to quarantine the fish in a separate tank. (I put him in a 10 gallon and he is about 3 inches long. I covered half the tank so he could hide to reduce stress)

I also gave the fish a freshwater dip per his recommendation. (please be sure to match the temperature and pH) He stated that a tang should be able to withstand a very long dip. I left mine in the freshwater dip for 30 minutes. Laying on their side and being very still is normal behavior for a freshwater dip. Thrashing about is not.

Do a water change at least every other day and siphon the bottom (where all the trophonts or cysts would be after dropping off the fish) I did this for about 6 weeks. I used a small filter with a sponge in it to trap detrius. One must change this filter every couple days...so as not to harbor the trophonts.

The fish will either survive, or it won't on it's own. I was fortunate, and my tang is quite healthy now. It has been about a month since he is back in the display tank.

I also left my display tank fishless for the timeframe. But was told that fallowing a tank will not eliminate any chance of ich. One must keep excellent water conditions and keep the fish fed and healthy.

There is tons of info out there for treating ich. You will have to decide which method you wish to use. I hope this helps! Good luck!

Tangs are quite succeptible to ich....it may be an ongoing issue.

[vdhillon]

thanks,
but i do have alot of other inverts in the tank...are they as good as gone then? I was in the process of setting up a 125 gallon reef tank and using my 29 as the sump...so the tang would have been in there. I'm not sure if can do the dips for all the fish...what about the crabs, snails and shrimp?
thanks

[Birdlady]

Ich only affects fish, not inverts or other critters.

I would NOT put any ich meds in a system with live rock or sand. JMO. Some claim to be safe, but.....
Copper is deadly to rock, sand , inverts, snails etc. DO NOT USE IT in a display system.

You should try and dip and then quarantine the fish. A small tank is not that expensive, and you should be quarantining all new animals anyway. How many fish do you have?

You could also, play the odds, and if your new tank will be set up soon, just wait until you are ready to move the fish and treat them prior to adding any fish to the new system. It will be easier to catch them then. That is risky tho....they could die before then.

All your other livestock but the fish, will not get ich. Fish only disease so don't worry about that.

[Michaelr5]

I just had an incident with Ich that I found amazing! I had just purchased a new Coral Beauty Angel and put it in my tank. (no quarantine, maybe this will shock me into setting one up!) Two days later, Coral is covered with white polka dots. I had read the other thread about 'Kick Ich' and tried to find some locally, but no such luck. Then one lfs told be to just buy some cleaner wrasses and that would take care of it. He didn't have any in stock so I bought 3 Neon Gobies (Larry Moe and Curly for the record) And two days after that, no more ick! I am not necessarily recommending this as a cure for everyone, but Coral was still active and eating, so I may have caught it early.

FWIW

Mike

[Birdlady]

Ich will drop off the fish and into a cyst-like state for several days. After which, they will re-infest the fish and the cycle begins again.

Now , fish that are healthy, generally can ward off ich , but not always. It is one of those unpredictable things.... Ihope the ich stays away for you!