QUARENTINE!!!

[ansonluna]

Hey guys. I know some of you senior people on here know better, but I want to reiterate this for the not so experienced reefers. Quarentine your new fish, QUARENTINE your new fish, QUARENTINE YOUR new fish, QUARENTINE YOUR NEW fish, QUARENTINE YOUR NEW FISH!!!!!!! Added a powder brown to my tank with only one week in the sump as a "quarentine" last week or.......and now I am fighting an uphill battle that has taken the following lives (pics below). R.I.P.- to some my babies. Just pray I don't loose any more :( .

[Reef69]

...I would have never added a powder brown on a tank that had tangs already in it... They are just as prone to ick as powder blues. So im guessing, you are fighting ick. Sorry to hear that though, hope the remaining fish pull through.

[ansonluna]

Dude, I am getting my ***** handed to me by ick. Even my prized $75+ a piece Onyx Clowns are in jeapordy. They are in a hypo-salinity tank by themselves.

[Reef69]

...Ouch!..Clowns are VERY hardy, so i wouldnt worry about them...but man..powder blues/browns are ick magnets man!..what were you thinking?!?!?!..LOL..JK..let me know if i can help you with something..i can set up a QT in no time if you need any more help..LMK!

[pilot_bell777]

Dude....

I hypo salinityied....I changed temp..........didn't work.
I put everything that could get or carry ICK in a hospital tank, treated with copper....they did good
left the tank dormate for 8 weeks instead of 6 weeks like WWM said to do....put all the fish back in and had ick back in a matter of days.

I feel your pain!!!!!

The ONLY thing I have found that worked and I know I will get slapped for this one is a good UV Sterilizer. I have a 36watt Coralife Turbotwist on my 75gal tank right now....YES it's over kill.....but I am only going to be running it two hours in the evening and two hours in the morning. the rest of the time it is off.

Just my experience.......

[ansonluna]

HA HA....I was thinking I was experienced enough for a powder.....MY BAD!!!! Maybe another six months will do me. Pilot, my beloved Atl Blue Tang always had ich. Did the same as you and it still came back. Then one day....nothing. So I thought I had won and I could add another pretty tang.....so now I have to start all over.....and I have to find another Alt. Blue.

[pilot_bell777]

Ya.....everything I have read about ICK says that it can lay dorm in a tank with nothing in it for about 4 weeks and then it hatches and has nothing to host off of and dies off. but I never could figure out how I kept getting it back! LOL......

On my last tank I went through this too and lost well over $1000 worth of fish. bought a 100$ UV Sterilizer and ran it for a couple months.....never saw ich again, but didn't add anything either. My plan on this tank is to run it like I said for a couple hours a day and then full time when ever I add anything new for about a month and then back to a couple hours.

haven't had a problem with it since.....and Tangs are my favorite fish!

[Bill S]

I also tried EVERYTHING with my blue hippo - the ich magnet. Then I got a cleaner shrimp. That shrimp no sooner hit the tank than the tang was all over it. Looked like something plucking hairs. The shrimp would grab a spot and yank it off. The tank would dart away like he was shocked. And then came right back for more. Broke the cycle. My angels also enjoy a regular scratching. I recently got a CBB and it developed a spot. My cleaner had departed after about 2-1/2 years of healthy life. Got a new one from Louis last week. Spot gone within 2 days.

[pilot_bell777]

Ya... the cleaners are great but when you are talking about powders.....they can't keep up! LOL

I had quit a few cleaners and they would put a dent but not get rid of it. A good combination of the both works great! Shrimp and UV!!!!

[ansonluna]

How low can the salinity for my clown's HT go?

[pilot_bell777]

I went to 1.012 without ill effects. More worried about the corals than the fish.

[ansonluna]

My clowns are the only ones in the Hospital Tank. So 1.012 is good or lower?

[pilot_bell777]

I think but don't quote me to this since that was 2 years ago, but with the fish you can take them down to 1.010 or something like that. Check WWM for hyp salin.

[pilot_bell777]

Powder blue is what whiped me out......

[Richard]

So 1.012 is good or lower


That's too high to be really effective. Go down to 1.010 or 1.009 if you have a good refractometer.

[ansonluna]

Thanks Pilot and Richard.

[Jeff]

I know I should quarentine all new fish but i have no more room for another tank, i already have a 100gl softie tank, 135gl mixed reef, 30gl seahorse, and 50gl freshwater. besides there is a blue tang in both 100gl tanks and it doesn't matter how healthy the new fish are the blues will get ick just from the stress of having new occupents.

[miked78231]

http://www.thekrib.com/Marine/disease.html

[pilot_bell777]

That is called a freshwater dip and yes it does help. I always did mine for up to 5 minutes and watched the fish for signs of STRESS during the process. I never did the copper treatment......in all honesty, I don't QT. I have in the past but now I ask the LFS to put the fish on hold and I go back almost daily to watch it eat and just observe the fish overall but mostly try to get fish from people I know that have had them a while or from LFS I trust! but I still watch them like a hawk for a week or two, then bring them home and fresh dip them, then run the UV for a month after introduction. Seemed to work good last time and planning on doing it that way this time. Of course when I get the three or four fish that I want, my focus will be on corals and I won't buy another fish.

[pilot_bell777]

BE CAREFUL with the copper because a lot of fish can't handle it and I personally unless I see a reason to use it won't because it does do damage to the fish even the ones that can handle it. just fyi

[hobogato]

good link mike - i've tried some of the things in that artical, but inevitably, it will come back. the most success i have had with ick and getting it to go away have been keeping the temp above 80 until the outbreak ends, keeping cleaner shrimp or wrasses(not much luck with these - they always end up going down the overflow) and plenty of food possibly soaked in garlic to keep the infected fish eating.

[pilot_bell777]

Mike that was an article to do if the fish IS infected.....QT is what you should do before you introduce the fish to the main tank. You don't want to burn the fishes gills up with copper if it is not needed. QT is simply putting the fish in another ""Holding"" tank to watch for a couple weeks so not to introduce desease to your main display tank. A freshwater dip is a good thing to do before you put the fish in QT and right before you add it to the display tank but don't do the copper unless the fish absolutely needs it.

I've tried meds (Kick ICK....crap), hyp salinity and raising the temp, the garlic, the cleaner shrimp and even left my display tank empty with no fish for 8 weeks and still got it back without introducing anything new to the tank. Sorry to say it again but the ONLY thing that I have found that works is a UV Sterilizer and great water perm to keep stress down.

In my war with ICK I read an article that said your tank is never completely rid of it but your fish are healthy enough that it can't attack them. When a fish is stressed out over anything their slime coat goes down and makes it easier for the parasite to attach. Food for thought........

I almost quit this hobby because of ICK

But back to the subject of the post.....QT is good practice but don't burn up your fish's gills with copper if you don't need to treat them with it.

[hobogato]

^^sounds like you really had a rough time with that stuff. :(

[pilot_bell777]

LOL....ya....my sign on should be ICK MAN! LOL

Wife talked me into buying a powderblue tang on impulse when I first got into this hobby. guess no better way to learn then trial by fire!

I've read more books, articles, websites on ICK than I have on corals and fish! LOL

got through it though.....and learned A LOT by getting through it. Not doing that again! LOL

This new tank is going to be mainly corals and clams with just three or four fish. Wont' be near capacity on fish! LOL

[miked78231]

nevermind

[Jeff]

right now i have some cleaner shrimp andi will be moving my uv sterilizer over from another tank for an outbreak that i know will happen, also i will add garlic and ick attack to their food (a main componet of ick attack is ginger and garlic). this is something i have done in the past and worked for me. a fresh water dip will help the new fish being added but the other fish alreadyin the tank will stress and get ick themself which in turn will be given to the new addition who is now extremely stressed. this may not be right with others but it workes for me.

[ansonluna]

:cry