Fish problem

[brewercm]

With the exception of my lonely firefish that I've had since I put him in first every fish I've had eventually seems to get Ick within a few days of putting them in the tank and die. Corals are all doing great, no inverts kicking the bucket, no problems with the firefish. Just every fish since then dies no matter how long I take to aclimate etc.:at_wits_end:

I know there's a huge thread all about ick, it just doesn't help my problem and give me a true solution. I guess I'm curious if this little firefish has gotten immune and is now the carrier and there's nothing I can do next to taking it out, treating it separately and then eventually putting it back in after I've let the vicious cycle finally die without a host.

Any thoughts?

[Gilbert]

you just might not see it on the firefish because most of his body is white... as for all the other fish i was told that ick starts when a fish is stressed out, so maybe you dont have enough hinding spots in your tank for the fish to find a secret spot and calm himself down. just a thought.

[brewercm]

Can't put a whole lot more rock in there and the pieces actually have some nice caves to them. He may have it but he's been in the tank for about two months now with no problems which is why I was wondering. I'm sure the others are getting it from the stress, I just don't know what the solution could be as long as possibly the carrier is still alive and in the tank and doing fie. Definitely no marine ick specialist here though.

[FireWater]

Cliff, I ran into the same problem with yellow eye tangs. Fine when I got them and dead a week later from ich. I went through a bout where every fish in the tank showed signs of ich and I thought I had a real chance of losing everything. I fed heavy and often - major water changes every couple of days - cut back the light cycle - lowered temp. All fish with the exception of the 2nd yellow eye, who developed the ich to begin with, are alive and kicking today. You might need to leave the tank fishless for a month or so to let the current ich cycle break. Some folks might tell you that running an UV sterilzer helps.

[Mr Cob]

I know there's a huge thread all about ick, it just doesn't help my problem and give me a true solution.
Any thoughts?

Cliff, it does give a solution. Quarantine everything :) including the firefish and run your current display without fish for 2 or 3 months. I Forget how long it is.

If you add up how much you have lost in fish or will loose in fish at the rate you are going you might find it is also worth it to invest in the quarantine equipment.

P.S. I don't quarantine...but I might if I had your problem. LOL.

Good luck.

[seatrueblue]

Hi Rob, I was just about to post this but you got to it first. :D its all good.
Its 8 weeks of quarantine for the fish. With your display it must go fishless for that 8 week period.
Durring this time do not add any new live rock, corals, inverts or livesand to the display.
treatment methods prefered is hyposalinity or cupramine. (not both at once of course)
instuctions for hyposalinity are here:
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...t-process.html (http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...t-process.html)

For copper treatments please read this:
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...-problems.html (http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/saltwater-fish/23130-copper-treatment-use-problems.html)

[brewercm]

I'd already decided no more fish for a couple of months at this point I'm just concerned if this guy is still hosting though what good would that do. Not that I'm going to put any more fish in right now to a death trap.

BTW, a quarantine would be great if I had the room for it.
Anyone have a hospital tank that may be willing to take this one guy off of my hands for now?

[aggman]

man sorry to here about this. i don't have space in my system for anymore fish, but i do have a couple 10-30 gal tanks. i could let you use one for a temporary quarantine tank. i know you said you don't have much room, but if you can find the space you are welcome to use one of my tanks. i will be attending tmac this weekend, so i could just bring one up. well, let me know what you decide-and good luck.

~alex

[brewercm]

I could easily set one up but having him in one for any length of time like that I wouldn't feel comfortable for it. Not to mention a filter and other stuff etc. Thanks for the offer though.

[brewercm]

I did just notice that my tank has been apparently running around the 75 degree range here since I got rid of my chiller and temp controller. This could help with the reduced imune system of the fish I suppose but since the cooler water tends to slow down their metabolism. I remember that's how we used to keep minnows alive in a bag over night to go fishing early the next day before the bait shops would open. We'd buy them the night before and put them in the refrigerator.

[mharmon]

I will admit that thankfully I have no experience with marine ich, but I do know that with freshwater ich I have successfully treated it by increasing the temperature a few degrees without any medication.

I may be completely backwards with this regarding marine ich, but I thought I would offer my two cents.

Anyone have an opinion regarding increasing/decreasing the temperature as a treatment?

[seatrueblue]

I copied this from the emergency forum..its a sticky in the emergency forum: myths and facts about marine ich.

5. This is not the same as the freshwater disease, Ich (Ichthyophthirius multifilis) but it was named after it?! This leads freshwater aquarists to thinking the wrong things about Marine Ich, adding to the myths and rumors.

7. MI can live and reproduce in temperatures as low as 50F and as high as 90F. Thus temperatures that would kill MI would first kill or severely stress most tropical marine fishes.

[mharmon]

Thank you for that. It would appear that temperature adjustment is not a treatment for marine ich.

[brewercm]

Wasn't thinking so much along the lines of killing it since it's really not ich like freshwater ich, but more along the lines it would make my fish's immune system a little more susceptible.

[sharkboy]

when you say every fish...what species are you talking? are they coming from other people's tanks or from lfs?

[Bill S]

Cliff, I'd look at your source for fish... Especially if they are all the same.

75 should be ok, but it is cool. A little warmer is better.

[Kyle46N]

Like already mentioned, quarantine is about the only sure way to get rid of it. I too had problems with all my fish getting iche a few years back. I know the stress that it gives the care taker. I decided to commit the time and do the quarantine with hyposalinity. It works. But it takes time. Marine ich is a funny thing. Sometimes it will wreak havoc on someones tank.....and for another its not really an issue. Yet it exists in both tanks. I think because of that, youi have all these remedies that pop up.

[brewercm]

Copperbands (tried two so far but they are a very finicky fish anyways), Powder Blue Tang, Powder Brown Tang, pair of Oscelaris clowns, pair of True percs, a couple of other firefish. All fish from one of two sources, both LFS's so stress there involved also with shipping twice.

With the exception of the CBB's all fish started out really well eating and the tangs nipping at algae really well then within two to five days started breaking out with the white spots on fish and its fins.

More just thinking out loud here than anything I suppose. I may try a set of green chromis next and see now that the temp is back up to 79 how things work out. Just never had a problem like this in almost 30 years of keeping saltwater fish.

[Texreefer]

Cliff, I starting to experience the same problem, it has now started attacking my clowns and anthias,, real bummer. I have never had this kind of problem before either. I wanted to read over that artilce a gain but the search button keeps saying i'm stupid

[Mr Cob]

Cliff, I starting to experience the same problem, it has now started attacking my clowns and anthias,, real bummer. I have never had this kind of problem before either. I wanted to read over that artilce a gain but the search button keeps saying i'm stupid

Christina posted the links on page 1 of this thread.

[Mr Cob]

Actually she didn't.

It's a stickiy on the Emergency Forum.

Here it is:
http://maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=49040

[Gilbertg78228]

i had it once and was told to ad ZOE to there food when i feed them. so i would let the ZOE soak in the food for about an hour or so before i feed them and it took care of the problem. no more ick and the fish where very healthy. never came back well hasn't come back yet and its been over a year.

[brewercm]

i had it once and was told to ad ZOE to there food when i feed them. so i would let the ZOE soak in the food for about an hour or so before i feed them and it took care of the problem. no more ick and the fish where very healthy. never came back well hasn't come back yet and its been over a year.


I might need to try this out. Do you know where they might sell it locally?

[Marlin]

I'm going thru a war with ich right now. About 2 weeks ago I did something I tell everyone else not to do, I bought a clown tang from the LFS and put it directly into my 180 gal SPS reef tank. A couple of days later I notice that is showing signs of ich. Next thing I know my powder blue tang and copperband are showing signs of ich. In a couple of days they were all covered with it and the same with the purple firefish. They showed no signs of fast breathing and were eating well.
I tried all different ways of catching them but they are way too smart and with 150 lbs of live rock for them to hide in, it was virtually impossible.
Last evening I decided the only way to save the fish was to remove about 75 pieces of coral and all 150 lbs of live rock. A friend of mine helped me. We finally caught the fish after the tank was emptied and put them in a QT tank. Worked all night and finally finished putting all the rock and coral back into the tank around 4 A.M. this morning.
I did not lose any coral in the process and the fish are in the QT tank and happily eating. I am treating with Copper Safe. I can already see a difference this morning. Most of the white spots have dropped off. I will keep the reef tank fishless for 8 weeks and the fish will stay in QT for the duration. This should rid the fish and tank of ich.
I do not ever want to go thru this again. I will follow my own advise from now on!!!

Rick

[Gilbertg78228]

the ZOE can be found at any fish store. i tried all the ick meds they had at the fish stores. funny thing is the ZOE really worked and it was probably the cheapest. i use it all the time now i soak the food in it and liek i said i havn't seen any signs of ICK and i have a yellow tang and they get ick allot.

[Kristy]

We've used Zoe when we were working through the Ich too. I'm pretty sure we bought ours from AD. It's just basically a vitamin for your fish to keep their resistance up. We don't soak the food for an hour though, just a few minutes and often with a drop or two of garlic (with the hopes that it helps keep them interested in eating). Now we bust out the Zoe anytime a fish seems unusally stressed (such as if we are introducing a new fish that is getting the special hazing welcome from our powder blue).