Ich Problem Please Help

[DragonMoray]

Hi everyone.

I recently introduced a new fish into my tank (blue stripe angel) without quarantining it first. I was told by a few reputable stores that it's not a good idea to move this kind of fish around. I should have quarantined, but i didn't.

Anyway, I noticed some small white spots on the fish two days after putting him in the tank. The next day, the white spots where no longer there. A couple days went by without any noticeable problematic signs, but now all of my fish have ich.

I do have a 65-gallon hospital tank, but my main tank is 350 gallons. There is no way that the hospital tank can support 14 fish.

I have the following fish:
Japanese Dragon Moray
Snowflake Moray
5 yellow tangs
Blonde Naso Tang
Sohal Tang
Harlequin tusk
Clown Trigger
Crosshatch Trigger
Blue Stripe Angel
Emperor Angel

The main tank has 250+ pounds of live rock and crushed coral for the substrate. I know hypo-salinity would probably be a good thing to do, what do you think?

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions/advice.

Thanks much

[MJC]

Hey Dragon,


As mentioned in another post, Hyposalinity may take longer and also, may require additional medication.

At this point, if all fish in your tank is affected, it might be better served to remove them and if possible, place them into a QT, perhaps purchasing an additional tank to house everyone.

Trying to eradicate your main tank with livestock might prove frustrating on the long run. The parasites will have laid eggs in your substrate and once they hatch, you will find them again on your livestock.

Over the summer, the SF Bay Area temps fluctuated high and low and I found my fish developing whitespots.

I removed everything from my main tank and placed them into a QT with SG 1.015 and dosed with Marine Aquaria's No Ich and Kent's RxP for close to 5 weeks. In my maintank, the temps were left high but I dosed with the No Ich as I had some invertibrates in there.

I lost a few fish while they were in the QT, but after transferring back into my main tank, they've been fine. Since then, I added a UV and have always QT any livestock I purchase and use RxP when introducing the fish.

HTH,

Marty

[RichT]

One thing to keep in mind. Like MJC stated, parasite eggs are in and on your substrate. After treating, however you decide, keep in mind that parasites can not live without a host. But, can take up to 45 days for all of the eggs to hatch and die off (with no host present).

In short, after they are gone, wait 45 days before you put your fish back in the tank...or it'll start all over again.

[MJC]

Thanks RichT for reading between the lines and filling in...I meant to say just what you just said. :)

I dosed for five weeks because I didn't want to risk having the eggs hatch and attaching themselves to a host fish. I left the temps high, assuming the eggs will hatch sooner and die off. When I transferred the fish back, I placed one in to observe, followed by another in two days, and so forth and monitored not only the fish, but water quality in the process.

DragonMoray, go with your first instinct and QT any new fish in the future. I assume a lot of time, effort and re$ource went into setting up your 350, it would be a shame to lose any fish or have a tank full of whitespotted fish because of cutting corners.

Good luck!

[kevin adams]

im not sure if you would want to do this or not but you COULD put your rock in the hospital tank and in some rubbermaid tubs and nuke(copper) the tank with the fish still in it, then use polyfilters to get the copper out after the treatment time...remember, this is only a last resort but id do that before id put 14 fish into a 65 gallon tank


HTH