well my first ICH outbreak in new reef tank.

Hello all. Well about two weeks ago, I notice slight ICH on my coral beauty,6line wrasse,royal gramma, and 1 saddleback/fire clown.
Everyone was eating well, just had a scratch here and there. well I hoping it would go away.. it did on my clown and wrasse after a few days. My NEW coral beauty trys to start some trouble with the fire clown which is alittle bigger than the CB. The CB will always do this sideway jingle whenever the two meet in the tank, just swimming by. everytime and all the time. well I started to notice my CB fins looking a little shorter everyday for the last week.. well 1 day ago her ich was really really bad and fins too. and I noticed all the fishes were pickin at her now.

So it took about 45 minutes to out trick her with mulitple nets and destroy my live rocks (colapsed). I got her in a QT with low salinity 1.010-1.011 (next 7-10days)and started formalin treatments (next 3-4 days). well I noticed my royal gramma not coming out to eat in my DT and the ich was getting worst. This fish was going to be the hardest to get out of the live rocks due to its small size and rock loving nature.

Until today it was so hurting so much that it could barely swim away from my net.. I still took about 5 minutes to net, and about 25min to redo my live rock and coral frags that collapsed during the catching part. Broke a couple tips of my hard corals (birdsnet/acro).. just a BIG PITA sandwich! I hope to never have to do this again.

well the gramma is in the QT and is getting sucked into the filter and I give her a little push off. Its is upside down, on its side, flipping around. Its still breathing but thats about it.. Im sure she'll be died tonight. Inless a miracle happens.. I did screwup and didn't check my PH before I put her in the QT.. so I had to add some buffer after the fact. (it was like 7.2 LOW) besides the ich, i did notice two nice size lesions on one side of her. I wonder is this is something else besides ich that got to her or just maybe scales missing from rubbing rocks.? The only good thing I have to say is, the CB will make it through, ich is pretty much gone and shes eating regularly. probly leave her in their 3-4 weeks to let those fins go back.


Is there a chance the royal gramma will make it? its been breathing and laying upside/sides for like 5 hours. But its still flapping its gills. once in a while she sits upright for a 30+/- seconds. any advice??
:-/

Lesson learned: I will use mt QT for any new fishes, before adding to the display tank.

 

Here's the problem....even though you have now QT'd the fish with the worst ich, your main tank is now infected pretty much permanently. That means that when you add the fish back from quarantine (if they survive), they stand a good chance of getting re-infected with the ich from the main tank.

This also goes for any new fish you add to the tank - even if you quarantine them, they can catch ich from your main tank later. The way I see it (and others here will surely disagree), you have 2 choices. 1) you can remove all your fish from the main tank into quarantine and treat them with copper for 2-3 weeks, and then keep them quarantined for another 6-8 weeks while the ich dies off from your main tank (yes, that's how long it takes). or 2) learn to live with ich, keep your water parameters stable and your fish as well fed and happy as possible so that they can fight off the inevitable ich infections. Up to you which you pick. I thought I would pick option 2 myself, but the constant ich made me go with option 1 recently myself.

As for your fish in bad shape, I hope it makes it. You gotta make sure that the water parameters in your quarantine tank are the same as your main tank - pH, salinity, temperature, and low/zero ammonia/nitrites/nitrates.

One final word of friendly advice - your tank is over-stocked. You have 10 fish in your 55 gallon tank, which is way too much by most standards. This may have contributed to the ill health of your fish. My advice is to get rid of some of the fish, or maybe get a bigger tank - this might help the other fish stay healthier IMO.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

my parms have been ok for my display tank. Took some test today.

7-9-09 7-12-09 7-16-09 7-20-09
PH 8.1 8.1 8.1 8.0
Nitrate 0 0 0 0
Calcium 500 600 600 460
KH 19 24 24 22
Temp 78 78 79 79
Nitrite 0 0 0 0
Amon. 0 0 0 0
Phos 3ppm 1 1 .5
Salinity 1.024 1.023 1.023 1.023

My water has a high dKH. but high calcium is now good. Also did a 25% WC yesterday.

I'll probly go option #2. I really want corals more than fish anyways.

 

you could try kick ich, its supposedly reef safe (and expensive) but I have heard mixed reviews on its effectiveness. personally I'm on my 2nd week of a fallow display tank, and a quarantine tank being treated with copper. are you using any food additives to help boost their immune systems?

hope your gramma pulls through.

~Will.

 

keep the water quality up and they beat it themselves - if they are going to pull through. I think chasing them down for treatment adds some stress, if you do it go all the way - FW dip. Kind of advanced, but if you are going to take the risk might as well kill the ich... fish trap for your gramma. (Inverted soda bottle trap). Sounds like it may be a little late for the gramma, once the ich starts making trouble for the fish's respiratory system it is in the final stages.

 

No additives, was soaking mysis shrimp in garlic from kitchen.. and soaked for a little bit before feeding.. my LFS doesnt have any of that stuff.. probly have to order some online..

I have copper but decline to use it. Just doing low salinity 1.010 for next 10 days, and formalin/malachite green (QuICK Cure) for next 3 days.

I figured that would be enough treatments without going copper route.

UPDATE on gramma: he's still slowly breathing and flapping gills.. not swimming though.. I'll keep ya posted.

 

If your not already add garlic to anything you feed the fish.

 

i would recomened like was said before change to the food to a garlicy food then change watever water possible(solution to polution is disultion however that goes and spells), and if you really want to do a fw water dip go ahead.i but i would let them try and fight it themselves and see if you can find some kind of ich be gone thingy chemical.but you want to make sure that if your gonna be having some losses that the new fish you introduce dont get affected later on.sorry for your losses

 

UPDATE on gramma: he's still slowly breathing and flapping gills after 18 hrs in the QT tank.. unbelievable.. not swimming though, unless its for a few seconds and its usally upside down,etc... I'll keep ya guys posted. Thought I was gonna be pulling a dead fish out this morning.. I'll keep my fingers crossed..

 

I have to disagree a little with what was said above. If a fish is in obvious distress (like your royal gramma), you would not want to fresh water dip him, as this would just add more stress, which might kill him faster than the ich. At this point, now that your gramma is in quarantine, you want to keep him as stress-free as possible. Good water parameters, good food (I like to soak it in selcon, personally. It is a vitamin supplement).

Also, I tried Kick Ich myself - it did not work for me at all, and the general consensus on the various sites is that it really does not work. If you want to get rid of ich permanently, you are looking at copper in a QT.

Again, hope the fish all pull through ok.