White Spots on Coral Beauty

[Kenya]

I just purchased a coral beauty on Friday and i noticed it has gotten ICK earlier this morning. This is my first time with ICK in a saltwater tank, so trying to see what advice yall have to fight it. I know in freshwater you are suppose to rise the temp to around 80-82 (since that speads up the life cycle of ICK so it can die off), then remove active carbon and add some type of ICK treatment. But I know its going to be different for saltwater. I removed the Coral Beauty and put him in a bucket with the current saltwater i had in the tank. Since i dont have a quarintine tank. Also turned on my uv sterlizer on my canister filter so it could run 24/7. I ussually run it couple hours a day, since i heard it can destroy some essential bacteria and parasites. All my water params have been normal(ph 8.0, 0 amm and nitrate), i did notice a hypersalinity problem on saturday but have been lowering it slowly with small water changes mainly whatever has been evaporated in the days time. On my hydrometer it was around 1.0030-2, now its around 1.0025-6 My current life stock is simple enough: 1 sailfin tang 1 lawnmower blenny 1 blue damsel 1 sand shifting star fish 1 coral beauty(the one that has ick) 1 fireshrimp (with red body and white spots) some basics zoo polyps dont know exact kind. small and green if that helps. hermit crabs and snails Any recommendations on medications, directions, and tips to fight this foe? Thanks for any input.

[ErikH]

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

It's stickied in the emergency forum. :)

Stop doing what you are doing.

Feed your fish, let the cycle pass.

Buy a cleaner shrimp.

You should be good.

[Kenya]

I guess i got to worried i didnt take a time to read the first thread on the discussion. Last time i had ICK (week ago) in my freshwater it nearly killed all my livestock. Only have 7-8 fish remaining out of 20.
So your saying i should let the problem solve itself and not use any of the "treaments" mentioned in the article. By the way the article was informative on what the myths of marine ICK. Glad to know its not as potent as freshwater ICK.
[QUOTE=ErikH;738176]http://maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=49040

It's stickied in the emergency forum. :)

[Kristy]

Hope your coral beauty is not still in that bucket... She needs less stress and that bucket would be considerably more stress. Keep the UV going, the water quality up, and the small offerings of food frequent. Good luck!

[corruption]

I'm gonna vary a bit from Erik and say if it were me/mine, I would remove all the fish from the tank and provide a proper quarantine regimen, possibly including some medicated treatment as per the thread you mentioned above. Allowing your tank to be fallow for 6 to 8 weeks will clear the Cryptocaryon irritans that still remains free-floating and in the rock/substrate... they cannot reproduce without fish to provide their food source. This will help guarantee that the parasite is as cleared as possible.

You can always go the route that Erik suggested, and hope for the best -- but do recognize that Cryptocaryon irritans will always be in your tank, even if your fish are not showing outward signs of it, unless properly treated.

-Justin

[ShAgMaN]

^^^ I agree
I would not put that fish back in your tank. Best thing to do is buy a cheap QT and treat him. I've bought QT's and sold them a month or two later for the same price if cost is an issue.

Just my opinion, I've lost too many fish to Ich and will never take the chance again if the fish can be caught and treated.

[ErikH]

Most people do not lose fish to ich. I would say it's as slim as 20 percent. Sure irradication in the display is what most people wish for, just seems like the fish die from being overly stressed by improper fw dips or QT practices. You take a fish and drop it in colder water or of a different salinity, ph, and that will only help to kill your fish. If you plan on keeping a fish that is prone to ich, it's best to have some type of cleaner in the tank.

Less stress, less outbreaks, less death.

Just some more info, I was tired last night

[ErikH]

You need to figure out what is stressing your fish enough for them to be dieing from ich. Poor water quality and fish selection due to aggression are most often the reason fish get frequent cases of ich. Fix the stress issue and the ich outbreaks will slow as well.




^^^ I agree
I would not put that fish back in your tank. Best thing to do is buy a cheap QT and treat him. I've bought QT's and sold them a month or two later for the same price if cost is an issue.

Just my opinion, I've lost too many fish to Ich and will never take the chance again if the fish can be caught and treated.

[CoryDude]

Going to agree with Erik on this one. Tearing down a tank does more harm then good on the tank's current residents.

It's not always feasible to catch all your fish, set up a separate qt tank, move them to the QT, and wait months before setting up your main tank again. Just like us, the fish get sick when they're stressed, and the above process doesn't help matters IMHO.

Stabilize your tank parameters, keep your fish fed with a variety of foods, and they should recover. I've had fish in my tank that developed ICK upon introduction, but they always recover with a happy tank. The last 3 fish I added over the last year and a half have developed NO infections at all and all 7 of my tenants are fat and healthy (just like me).

[ShAgMaN]

I agree with both of you that water quality and stress are the main reasons ich breaks out. Also I agree catching the fish causes more stress. However, he already has the fish out, and I personally wouldn't chance putting him back in.

I have also had fish get a mild case when first introduced, and recovered just fine, but my water quality was high and it was in an established tank. I'm not sure that is the case here. Maybe it was an easy catch to get him out? Also not sure how bad the coral beauty looked.

I'm not saying this is exactly how I would have done it, but given the circumstances I would not put a sick fish back in the tank...kinda like us...if we get sick we don't hang out with each other and spread it. We rest in our room and take meds…least that’s what I do.

[Kenya]

I wanted to update yall on the status of my fish.

After reading that QT her into the bucket was a bad idea. I decided to put her back into the tank and hopefully she would last... But first i decided to dip her into some "cycled" freshwater (just water conditioner and heater with a powerhead to mix it) I let it cycle for around 30 minutes. Then i dipped the fish into water for 3min and 30 secs. At this point he looked like he was near death but when i put him back into the my main tank he was instantly revived in matter of seconds.

This morning when i checked on him he seemed better than ever. This was the first time he actually he came out of my live rock caves when i turned on the lights. And when I checked him for spots, there were none.

I know from reading yalls comments and the articles that were linked into the thread. I know that ICH is still "active" in the tank even if you dont see spots. So my follow-up question for yall would be if I should QT the rest of my livestock and make sure the ICH is destroyed or should I take my chance and try and keep low stress levels and monitor aquarium closely?

[Kenya]

Just a side note. I do not see any other signs of ICH on my other fish.

[CoryDude]

I've seen it said a lot around here..."A fish that eats is a fish that will live".

There's no one right way to do things, that's the beauty and the frustration of this hobby.

IMO, unless you want to tear down your tank, just keep your tank levels stable and healthy and the fish should follow along.

[corruption]

I'm with Terry here -- not that I disagree with the points that Erik and Cory bring up... but the simple fact is, Cryptocaryon irritans is a parasite, not a sickness... there is no getting over it, and as long as there is a live fish body in the tank it will ALWAYS be there. Kenya, you may not see outward signs of ich on your other fish, but I can guarantee its there.

Like I said, many people just add purposeful cleaners such as neon gobies and cleaner shrimp, and hope for the best -- many people have no problems like this. That doesn't change the fact that the parasite is still dormant in their tank, and could flare up at ANY time.

Again, just my opinions -- and as far as quarantine stress, its my personal opinion that if you can't maintain well-balanced tanks outside of your display, you are likely having MAJOR issues inside your display.

-Justin

[Kenya]

Thanks everyone for the helpful input.

I decided to not QT my fish. I know that ICH is always present in your tank unless you QT all your fish and wait 6-8 weeks. Even then there might be some still dormant or on other fish. Personally im to impatient to do that. Imagine no fish in your display tank for 6-8 weeks sounds painful to me especially when its located where every one can see it. An empty tank with just rocks is an eye sore...

I will keep everyone posted if the ICH breaks out again. Also if it gets worse with ICH i have heard KICK ICH works wonders in reef tanks. so might give it a shot if it breaks out again. i will also do a writeup on it to let everyone know my results.

side note: since i dipped my coral beauty in freshwater she has no "visible" signs of ICH on her and has become alot more active than before. I know ICH is still there just not visible as before.

[Still Learning]

Glad your fish seems to be doing better. Again, lots of 'right' ways to do things on this subject and it is a matter of finding out what works best with you.

While no one looks like they have ich....I would highly recommend getting a cleaner shrimp or wrasse...just in case and for the future.

[corruption]

Whatever you do, please don't do a treatment with Kick Ich... Have a read through here:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/brooknocuref.htm

go to Edit -> Find in your browser, and type "Kick Ich" in the blank -- use this to find the various discussions of it... plenty of tests have been done with this, I wouldn't recommend such treatments to my worst enemies :)

If you're going to treat with anything, please please please do so in a quarantine environment -- you will regret it down the line in the display. :)

-Justin