Help ICH!!!

[irmandanny]

OK so we are having problem our butterfly fish is got what looks like ICH and our tang died last today, not sure if it is from ich or not but it looks like what is described as ich.. all pet stores are closed and we nee info we dont want to lose anymore fish we have other fish that look ok like our ray and puffer, the butterfly fish is eating but looks bad what do we do??? thank you in advanced. sorry posted in wrong spot..

[Mike]

There is a whole sticky in the emergency forum on ICH. Different people have different approaches, we try to keep the fish eating good (several small meals throughout the day). Garlic can sometimes elicit an eating response. Usually if the fish is healthy and continuing to eat good, they can hopefully fight off the ICH. There are some products for it, but avoid any copper based ones, which will kill any corals. Some people use freshwater dips, which can work but are very stressful on an already stressed and ill fish. Butterflies and tangs are prone to ICH, but so are puffers. How is your water quality? My puffer in the 140g went through a bought of ICH, but we kept him eating and he got over it. Anything that stressed the fish is likely to cause an outbreak of ICH. I suggest reading up on it. Good luck.

[irmandanny]

water quality is good other than a slight amonia spike from the tang that dies earlier today or last night and salinity has been almost perfect, we did a water change of about 20 gallons yesterday but all seemed fine till this afternoon when we found the tang missing then we found the body which the crabs were already working on but we took him out right away.

[irmandanny]

also the butterfly that was in there was eating good 2 hours ago but then we noticed the white stuff and took her out cause she not only looked bad but was acting lethargic...she's in a seperate tank now but the ray puffer and clowns all look fine as of right now.

[Europhyllia]

how about other stresses such as aggressive tankmates? Any of that going on?

[allan]

I'm a bit of a noob here, but when it comes to ich I find the best thing to do is feed often and ride it out. If you were contemplating moving the butterfly I would caution against it.

Moving them, indeed just catching them, creates so much stress that the ich becomes more of a factor. Just trying to catch one fish creates stress for the rest... And unless you're willing to pull all the fish out and wait out the life cycle of the ich you will have the same problem when you put the butterfly back in.

I'm guessing you have a fowlr tank, and if so you can use the hypo-saline method of ridding your tank of ich.

But I wouldn't recommend it if your fish are already stressed.

[kkiel02]

If you already have the butterfly out, just treat it with copper in a seperate tank. Keep the other fish well fed but not too much that creates an ammonia spike. Thats what I would do at least. UV sterilizers can also help with ich...

[Goofball310]

Is this a reef tank or fish only? If it is fish only a great way to cure and prevent illness is to run your tank at hypo.

[Goofball310]

Just an fyi, good preventative measures against parasites and diseases are hypo, uv, and ozonizers.

[irmandanny]

wow i want to thank you all for responding you guys are awesome, what i thought was MI or Marin ICH may be Copepods or amphipods, I only say that because I stared at my tank for about 20 minutes I mean nose to glass stare and i started to see white specks moving on the glass, first i thought it was dust movine in curant but alot was moving towards the currant in sporadic burst nothing like dust or anything dead. and so i looked it up this morning and found that those can stress certain fish if they get on there body so thankfully it is not likely ICH just a large amount of tiny pods... from what i can tell the clowns and puffer and goby are eating them and so are the emerald crab, porsalin crab and pom pom crab.. while I am not ruleing out ICH 100% at least i can breath a little better.. Sadly our Butterfly did not make it through the night we did remove her and try to treat with copper based meds we did not catch what ever it was in time. Poor Irma is very upset but now that I can tell her it may not be ICH that may help perk her up some.. we will miss silly little Mory (our Tang) and Nippy little Jill (our Butterfly). I just wish the learning curve on Marine Tanks were not so hard but we will try harder to make a happy and healthy home for our Salty Friends.. Thank you all for the support will keep you all posted if you like... Sorry again for posting the emergency in wrong area.. Oh I am Danny BTW I am the one to blame for posting in wrong place sorry again. and thank you all so much.

[allan]

Don't appologize, Danny, you're good. I moved your post this morning to the emergency section as I believe it does fit well there.

Give us some details on your tank set up. How long has it been up, what kind of tank is it, what do you keep in there besides the fish... those kind of things.

And welcome to MAAST.

[Mike]

No problem, continue to ask for help when things come up. FYI a moderator could have moved your thread to the emergency section, next time just report it and ask for it to be moved. Tangs and butterfly's are prone to ICH, so would be surprised if tiny pods killed them. The marine learning curve can be steep, just take it slow, read a lot, and ask questions as things arise. Too many people jump in with both feet, going too fast and then become discouraged as bad things happen and they eventually leave the hobby.

[Mike]

Also what type of tang and butterfly?

[irmandanny]

Well the Tank is 260gal with a 70gal sump tank. It has been up for about a month and half, we used established live rock and sand (just really washed sand good), we have a protein skimmer and magnum filter, in the tank now is a California sting ray, emerald crab, anemone crab, 1 maybe 2 pom pom crabs (1 is mia but he is small and a good hider), a coco worm, feather duster, 2 anemones, 3 clowns, red tree sponge, 3 inch cowrie, lots of hermit crabs and snails, torch coral, mushroom coral, dozen or so tiny tiny red feather dusters, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 yellow spotted puffer (slow acclimated to salt water from brachish water), 1 Flame Scallop, 1 pistol shrimp and i think that is all... Not sure what type of butterfly or tang but they were beautiful...

[LuckySingh]

+1 what allan said ...if ur water quality is good feed often including garlic....ich is a sign on stress which could be from anything mainly from aggressive tank not friendly environment ......feeding healthy often make fish strong and fight ich on her own


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