Ich ???

[littlefish]

As everyone knows, I had or have and ich problem in my tank.
I added two more cleaning shrimps, a cleaning wrass, gralic in the food, and everything seemed to stop (the ich I mean). Two days later the wrass vanished.
Yesterday I lost a Anthia. Today another Anthia died, who by the way where the last fish to be introduce in the tank.
My Sohal tang is dying also. He's so skinny I can see the spine all thou two days ago he was fine.
I just added two more cleaning wrasses since the one I added before did such a good job.
can it be something else besides ich?
Any advise PLEASE !!!!!

I have fish in my tank that have survived war and have been with me for three years and i won't like to loose them.

Thank you.

Alfredo

 

[marrone]

You really need to get the fish out and in a hospital tank and treat with copper.

As for the ich seeming to stop, well what probably happen was the ich that you could see fell off and made it look like the fish were going better but that wasn't the case. It's a very common thing to think that your fish are getting better only to have them die from the ich a little while later.

 

[nikko6nv]

Marrone is 100% right. The sooner you get them out of the tank and into a QT the sooner you can get a handle on things. the longer you wait the more they are going to multiply and kill your fish. When you get them out it may be as simple as a few water changes in the QT to get rid of them. As for the main, do water changes and keep the fish out for at least 4-6 weeks till it dies. I understand your frustration cause it happened to me when i first started off, i waited to long and lost all my fish. ALL NEW FISH MUST BE QT'd. Good luck.

 

[ireefny]

I have been thruogh the same road.this is a very hard lesson to learn. UV will help alot. I micron filter too, not sure what size ich is, but you get the idea. I heard Vortex is small enough to trap the buggers. another thing I did, was collect all corals & hypo the main display. I placed some live rock in a holding container with a same light fixture, I did this for 8 weeks. inverts survived the hyposalinity. please read the RC compilation. search word ich, fish disease forum has a sticky, GOOD LUCK!

 

[phk36]

Hi I am going threw this now. I lost three fish(one to many) and I am now using copper. Taking apart your tank to catch the fish is hard but it has to be done. I also thought I was doing ok with the ich but as it turns out I was not. Good luck Pete

 

[NYreefNoob]

ich

was also told before to slowly raise temp and salinity over the next few days, and qt all fish. ich is always there. just doesnt always affect a fish. stress will cause or help it along also. how long has the tank been running ? filtration ? water changes ? ect

 

[wild fin]

when i had ich i treated right in my main display. i lowered the salinity for 6 weeks. have not had a problem since.

 

[DevIouS]

when i had ich i treated right in my main display. i lowered the salinity for 6 weeks. have not had a problem since.

You can't do that if you have inverts or corals.

 

[wild fin]

that is true, i only have live rock!

 

[scumonkey]

For those with ich problems-Please read at least MOST of this info
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml

 

[marrone]

You can't do that if you have inverts or corals.

that is true, i only have live rock!

And Live Rock. You can and will kill the bacteria in the Live Rock.

 

[Wes]

was also told before to slowly raise temp and salinity over the next few days, and qt all fish. ich is always there. just doesnt always affect a fish. stress will cause or help it along also.

it's a pretty common myth but i read that it's not true...

Ich will die off after time if there are no fish in the tank for a certain amount of time....

I think the only way to completely irradicate ich is to remove all fish and treat w/ copper and hyposalinity while you let the Ich in the tank die off. Knock on Wood, I've never had to do it.

 

[Jasonny5895]

I had almost an identical situation to what you are saying. Ive had a saltwater tank for over 3 years and never had anything happen like this. It appeared to start a week or so previous with a little ich on my hippo tang and yellow tang (both over a year old). Than within two days 75% of my fish died. I attepted to put survivors in a hostil tank but they died shortly in there. Eventually there were only three survivors (ironically the hippo tang, the original barer of the ich). All my paramaters were good and couldnt explain it. I used a UV and did large water changes. Now about a month has passed and all fish show zero sign of any sickness. I think there are similarities, seems to start as ich but seems too deadly for ich.

 

[Jasonny5895]

Just remembered I also added the cleaner wrasse, cleaner shrimp and garlic to food just previous to the demise, wonder if the attempt at cure could be partially responsible? It seems the same exact pattern as yours

 

[reefman]

get all the fishes out to a quarantine
i had said this in your last thread

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

Ich will die off after time if there are no fish in the tank for a certain amount of time....

Even though I believe this is true that when there is no host the ich will ALL die off but a lot of times, we just don;t know how the ich come back as seen in Paul B's tank.

If I remembered correctly, he has done the hypo appropriately and have not seen ich for MANY MANY years with no introduction of new fish but one day ich come back after an electricity cut.

 

[Paul B]

Thats not entirely true. There was plenty of new additions of fish to my tank. Ich was always in there it just had not affected anything in many years. I have my own theories but I can't get into it now.
Mike, I am trying to stay out of this one.
Paul