aw man...ick...

[PeeJ]

Well, the past several days have been extra busy. So I havnt been messin with the tank a lot. I got low on water, so I turned off my skimmer. I only fed like every other day. Now today I get around to gettin my water level back up and feedin everybody real well...and low and behold I find most of my fish to have ich.

I havn't done anything to this tank in a while. Everything has been doin real good. Everybody is eating and swimming well.

Infected fish include : Yellow tang, scopus tang, flame angel.

How ever, my baby panther grouper and lion are both light colored so i cant tell if they have it. My zebra and snowflake morays look ok.

I have no way to quarantine all these fish. How should I proceed? Just wait it out and see if it gets better? I really don't want to try hypo, but if that is the only option, then I will.

Are there any meds that I could dose to my tank? No corals, just live rock. I'm at a loss. Thanks for the help

[kaiser]

With the bioload in that tank You really should not have turned off the skimmer. I am running UV in mine, You might want to think about getting one in the future. Try some Greenex ($5.00) or RidIch ($2.50)

[Jenn]

Well, you can't put in any type of "cleaner", so meds are your best bet. I have a predator tank in whick my FIRST lion came down with ick (or some other white spotted disease) so I treated the tank. I cannot remember what it was, but I came to find out that lions are very sensitive to medications - be careful.
Second, I sometimes get busy too, but you have to make it a point to at least stop and check everyone out everyday.

[Instar]

What I would do first is get it back stable like it was. Then watch, and if it doesn't get a little better, raise the temp, slowly, till it gets to 82. Then watch. If you like meds and really think that will work without upsetting your bactieria, you can still do that later. Feeding your fish every other day is real bad for them. Those tangs depend on daily nourishment. Good food keeps their immunity up and starving them for food because of a skimmer is not in their best interest. Next time, feed them even when there are equipment failures. You can fix the equipment in a day or so, and do a partial water change. That will work a lot better. Also, check the temp. With the weather and humidity changes lately, the tank temp can drop a lot at night when the lights are off. That can jump start ick in some tanks, especially live rock only. Kai has good results with his UV and that might be a good investment in a FOWLR like you have.

[PeeJ]

I did not not feed becuase of the skimmer. Those two facts are completely unrelated and apart from eachother.

I am biased toward not running a UV. It is a double edged sword. On one hand, yes, it is killing of the parasites and bacteria. On the other hand, it is also killing off all the good life that you want. Perhaps running it intermitantly would be a better idea, but even then you are not likely to kill all of what you are attempting to.

[kaiser]

If I had a bunch of corals I would probably rethink the UV issue, but on a FOWLR it is quiet beneficial. The few softies I have get micro vert about once a week.

[PeeJ]

Hmm...how much did it cost you with a pump kai?

[kaiser]

I got mine used, but You can get a new one for about $90 or so on ebay. I got the double helix 18W w/ a rio 800 pump.

[GaryP]

PeeJ,

I also add garlic extract to my fish feed. It seems to help prevent and control Ich outbreaks.

Gary

[PeeJ]

gary..jeans alterations on pat booker road does digitizng

[Tim Marvin]

Try soaking some food in garlic juice first.

[Instar]

I'll say it once again, probably not for the last time - fish have to be fed at least 2x per day to be healthy. Here's what Bob Fenner says, more than once in things that he has written and in another writing he recommends 3x per day!:


The 'secret' to maintaining these fishes is to provide foods often and varied. Sorry, I can't help myself in re-emphasizing this point. Get your marines to eat quickly and offer algae, different foods in small amounts as frequently as practical.