ICK, a possible end to my aggressive tank.

Dj Orion · 02-19-2007, 08:51 PM

I have a 75 gallon tank with more than adequate skimming and filtration. The tank consists of an aggressive population. I have been contimplating for some time on beginning a reef tank and was greeted today with an outbreak of ich in my community. I have been experiencing red slime lately and have been cutting back on the lighting and feedings in the tank. I have been using RO water and taking all necessary precautions (minus a quarantine tank) in the treatment of the water (pre mixing, e.t.c.). I have a rather large stars and stripes puffer that is covered with white spots on his eyes body and fins. I have now began to realize that my hardwicki wrasse has been slamming itself on the rocks and swimming abnormally. Should I take this turn of events in my tank as a possible opportunity to remove this aggressive population and begin a reef environment? Should I wait a certain amount of time before deciding to add corals and new fish population? Should I use a treatment after I remove the fish? Should I bomb the tank with copper and start a totally new reef tank!?!?!?!? I would like to make this tank the reef tank and keep the live rock inside. Does Ick die off if there are no host fish for it to latch onto? Please help!

coral reefer · 02-19-2007, 08:56 PM

Hi,
Another person with the ich thing going on...I know it sucks for you and the fish infeced with it. You don't have any coral or inverts right?
If not start lowering the salinity in your tank slowly to about 1.015 or so and leave it there for a few weeks, then increae it back up to the desired SG.
You can dose wth copper if you don't again have corals and inverts.
Try that first and see how you make out!
Welcome to 3reef by the way.
Good luck!

Birchell · 02-19-2007, 09:07 PM

Copper is a no no in a live rock tank. The copper will soak into the rock and slowly dislove back into the tank. Lowering your SG is the best thing you can do in the display tank. If you have shrimp, or snails you mite want to take them out, they cant handle the low salt levels. I know how you feel, my tank is infested right now, and my majestic is on its last leg! Plus my dottyback is acting wierd, so I think its next. Make sure you feed your fish good quality food. This will help there system fight the evil parasite!! Good luck, and welcome to 3reef! I wish it could be under better conditons,

Michael

bderos · 02-19-2007, 09:15 PM

DJ Orion, I really feel for you. I was having a huge problem with my 65gal tank with ich but i found by dosing daily Garlic Gaurd about 10 ml and adding Selcom to my food solved my problem along with raising my temp to about 82-83 for about a week and half. I'm still using the garlic and selcom daily and its been about 6 weeks, no sign of the evil. I'll probably cut back on the Selcom to every other day and the garlic still once a day but about 5ml. Its all about keeping the fish healthy and the garlic keeps them eating and the Selcom is vitamins for them. I also agree with coral reefer to also lower you salinity espcially if you dont have any corals. Welcome to 3reef!

amcarrig · 02-20-2007, 05:26 AM

Ich is NOT the only disease that produces white spots on a fish so be sure of what you have before you treat. Please see this thread and let us know if the fishes symptoms resemble ich or marine velvet.

Sick Trigger

Dj Orion · 02-20-2007, 11:07 AM

ok, the white spots as indicated on that Trigger photo are not like the ones that my fish have. My puffer and triggers tend to have a more wart like bump to their white spots, unlike that photograph of the trigger with the power sugar like ****e spots. I also just noticed today that my Niger trigger has stringy white stuff coming out of his bum. My huma trigger has a huge gash on his body and my smaller porcupine puffer had his tail fin almost bitten off. It seems as if the fish are on an aggressive tear on one another. Their eating hasnt decreased at all and I am beginning to wonder if what they have really is ick at all?

amcarrig · 02-20-2007, 11:10 AM

Doesn't sound like ich to me either. Also, white stringy poop is indicative of internal parasites and/or bacterial infection. How long have these fish been together for?

Dj Orion · 02-20-2007, 01:18 PM

This tank is a rebirth of a tank i established a few years ago. I kept the liverock from the previous setup, however, I used new sand and water on this new population. The fish have been together in this tank for about 2 months. The tank consists of 2 baby triggers, a baby v. lion, a hardwikki wrasse and two puffers. If there are infectious internal parasites, at this point I would guess that all of them would be infected to a certain degree.

After another once over on the tank, I noticed that the external white bumps on my larger puffer are starting to dissappear. Should I worry if its just the beginning of a parasite incubation period like ick would behave? I know from previous experience that the fish in this tank are very hardy, should I just let this run on for a while before acting to see if any of them die?

Does anyone think that pullin these fish out and starting a new reef would be the move? ( I cant stand that they are so aggressive towards one another)