All my fish died from Ich

[Cleo642]

He tries to revive them. He gives them a chance when they are almost guaranteed to die otherwise

I am happy about that.

 

[Cleo642]

He tries to revive them. He gives them a chance when they are almost guaranteed to die otherwise

Like those poor bettas at Walmart, I wish I could take them all home.

 

[Diesel]

On this point we only can assume that it was ick but yes it was a fairly quick mass die-off.
Few facts here is that the fish were sick from the get go but never showed a sign of it, ick just don't show up by it self it has to be introduced in your system.
Due to the fact you transferred them all to a new system that IMO stressed your fish and ick showed up rapidly as result in a mass attack.
Again sorry but as you mentioned what happens is past and you like to go on but asking some info.
72 days as was already dropped is a fair time period but you need to make sure all fish our out of the tank dead or alive.
Not sure if you put cupramine in your DT or QT, we like to know as this can be a very bad thing for your DT.
Do you keep records of your # of your tank?
How does it look now?
What your PO4, No3, ammonia?
Skimmer still doing normal?
Post tome pics for us and maybe from your sick fish before they past if you have them.

 

[mcarroll]

Like those poor bettas at Walmart, I wish I could take them all home.

One of the most misunderstood popular fish.

Given a properly sized (50+ gallons) normal freshwater tank with adequate plant cover you can easily keep multiple males without issue - no fighting, long term. I did in a 45 gallon XTall using plastic plants.

The tiny tanks force the aggressive behavior by forcing unnaturally small distances between the fish.

I suppose this was developed for showing them at breeders competitions but it's apparently evolved into the whole lifestyle we provide for them. But then we also a apparently love glowing GMO fish. Go figure.

 

[4FordFamily]

One of the most misunderstood popular fish.

Given a properly sized (50+ gallons) normal freshwater tank with adequate plant cover you can easily keep multiple males without issue - no fighting, long term. I did in a 45 gallon XTall using plastic plants.

The tiny tanks force the aggressive behavior by forcing unnaturally small distances between the fish.

I suppose this was developed for showing them at breeders competitions but it's apparently evolved into the whole lifestyle we provide for them. But then we also a apparently love glowing GMO fish. Go figure.

They live in puddles in Asia..

 

[Cleo642]

One of the most misunderstood popular fish.

Given a properly sized (50+ gallons) normal freshwater tank with adequate plant cover you can easily keep multiple males without issue - no fighting, long term. I did in a 45 gallon XTall using plastic plants.

The tiny tanks force the aggressive behavior by forcing unnaturally small distances between the fish.

I suppose this was developed for showing them at breeders competitions but it's apparently evolved into the whole lifestyle we provide for them. But then we also a apparently love glowing GMO fish. Go figure.

Bowls are not good for fish, but even that would be better than little cup they sit in. I don't think they are ever fed. Sitting in filth, look so depressed. I am sure so many of them die. I remember I rescued a red one once, he looked like a little rose in my tank.

 

[Cleo642]

They live in puddles in Asia..

In Thailand, in rice paddies and streams.

 

[Akida17th]

On this point we only can assume that it was ick but yes it was a fairly quick mass die-off.
Few facts here is that the fish were sick from the get go but never showed a sign of it, ick just don't show up by it self it has to be introduced in your system.
Due to the fact you transferred them all to a new system that IMO stressed your fish and ick showed up rapidly as result in a mass attack.
Again sorry but as you mentioned what happens is past and you like to go on but asking some info.
72 days as was already dropped is a fair time period but you need to make sure all fish our out of the tank dead or alive.
Not sure if you put cupramine in your DT or QT, we like to know as this can be a very bad thing for your DT.
Do you keep records of your # of your tank?
How does it look now?
What your PO4, No3, ammonia?
Skimmer still doing normal?
Post tome pics for us and maybe from your sick fish before they past if you have them.

I don't know why you would wait 72 days. Even after 72 days ich can still be in your water column. I would make sure your fish are healthy and maybe quarantine if possible. My tank succumbed to ich and I have all of my livestock (that I could catch and isolate) thriving and happy right now because I try and feed a healthy diet as ford said. Personally I'd be more concerned about not having any fish or livestock in my system for 72 days then adding new fish and something occurring. That's just my thoughts though.

 

[Crackem]

Thank You for your responses. My fish were all 3-4 years old and very healthy. After I transferred them to the new tank the only stress I saw was on 1 of the clowns. The other 2 decided to gang up on him and took a bite out of his tail. After the transfer I added about 40 snails and 100 blue leg hermits. I didn't have a qt so I was trying to see if medicated food would help but within a day or 2 of feeding them the clowns showed severe illness. By the time I was able to get a qt setup all that was left was my bellus and blue tang. I caught the bellus because he already stopped eating and I put him in the qt tank with cupramine. I did Not put cupramine in my display tank. The bellus died in qt and now all that's left is my blue hippo that is somewhere in my display. I'm assuming it's still alive but it's not eating or coming out of hiding. Nitrates were at 0, po4 0.03

 

[Diesel]

Thanks, I would do on this point treading your tank as corals only.
That means you have to feed a little for your corals as there isn't any fish present to do it for you.
Keep your eye out for Mr Hippo and if he's still around on one point he'll make a show to look for food.
If not than presume him missing in action.
Start counting down the days and keep monitoring your # as much as possible for the first week or so.
Keep updating this thread for your own records and for members that want to chime in with help to get you back on track.

 

[Humblefish]

Many species can be kept utilizing ich management as you describe assuming the hobbyist:
1) selects species that can handle this (acanthurus tangs are not an example like powder blues, Achilles, powder Browns, etc)
2) has fantastic nutrient export/filtration
3) good and STABLE water parameters
4) has a very established tank
5) doesn't feed garbage food, or solely flakes and freeze dried foods.
6) feeds nori regularly
7) is OK killing new additions that may not be able to develop resistance quickly enough (for me it was 1/4 fish would succumb to ich even though the resident fish had no problems)
8) is quite experienced. It helps.

+1 Ich management gives you very little wiggle room. You may think you have the situation under control, but all it takes is a big enough "stressor event" to undo years of ich management. Unfortunately, as the OP found out, the stressor event in his case was just a simple tank upgrade. Prolonged power loss, heater malfunction or even a big fish fight can all do the same.

 

[Cleo642]

+1 Ich management gives you very little wiggle room. You may think you have the situation under control, but all it takes is a big enough "stressor event" to undo years of ich management. Unfortunately, as the OP found out, the stressor event in his case was just a simple tank upgrade. Prolonged power loss, heater malfunction or even a big fish fight can all do the same.

So it does better to treat and eradicate I guess.

 

[Humblefish]

So it does better to treat and eradicate I guess.

Fish with ich typically just do not look healthy. They are constantly having to battle parasites they cannot get away from, as opposed to the wide open ocean. Think of it as being locked in a room with a bunch of biting mosquitoes vs. being outside where you can walk away from an area with a heavy concentration of them. Then there's the stress of seeing the spots, the scratching, wondering if today was going to be the day it all caught up with me. Or if the fish that just died was a result of ich or something else. Losing too many fish under “mysterious” circumstances is what finally led me to choose ich eradication.

 

[Cleo642]

Fish with ich typically just do not look healthy. They are constantly having to battle parasites they cannot get away from, as opposed to the wide open ocean. Think of it as being locked in a room with a bunch of biting mosquitoes vs. being outside where you can walk away from an area with a heavy concentration of them. Then there's the stress of seeing the spots, the scratching, wondering if today was going to be the day it all caught up with me. Or if the fish that just died was a result of ich or something else. Losing too many fish under “mysterious” circumstances is what finally led me to choose ich eradication.

I would do whatever it takes too. You made that mosquito comparison is enough to think about. Some of these people don't live in places with allot of mosquitoes, at times you can catch them with a net down here, as you would know.
I feel sorry for those fish that have to live with it.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

I had a similar issue in my tank the last few weeks. Are you sure it was ICH? My guess is what you saw under the microscope was ICH, but it was also Velvet. Did you buy any new fish recently by chance?

 

[dmort]

I didn't read the whole thread but I had a bad ich outbreak once and I went fallow for 10 weeks. I had found an article (academic) that asserted that after 6 weeks you can be 95% certain that all ich was dead but it wasn't until 10 weeks that you passed the 99.5% certainty mark and hit 100% certain. Ich is a parasite with a life cycle like any other creature. You need to allow a long enough fallow period to let the current generation reproduce and then let the off spring inhabit a tank with no food (fish) until they die. Going longer is better but probably not necessary.

Incidentally, the store manager at a truly excellent fish store on New Jersey (tristaters, you probably know absolutely fish) thought it wasn't neccesay to go fallow past 30 days.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

I didn't read the whole thread but I had a bad ich outbreak once and I went fallow for 10 weeks. I had found an article (academic) that asserted that after 6 weeks you can be 95% certain that all ich was dead but it wasn't until 10 weeks that you passed the 99.5% certainty mark and hit 100% certain. Ich is a parasite with a life cycle like any other creature. You need to allow a long enough fallow period to let the current generation reproduce and then let the off spring inhabit a tank with no food (fish) until they die. Going longer is better but probably not necessary.

Incidentally, the store manager at a truly excellent fish store on New Jersey (tristaters, you probably know absolutely fish) thought it wasn't neccesay to go fallow past 30 days.

Todd, Glenn or Patrick? I go there regularly. They told me the same thing, however Todd? and Heather are Marine Biologists, I believe or studied Marine Biology. I had the same issue. Do I do 45 days, 10 weeks or what?

 

[4FordFamily]

Todd, Glenn or Patrick? I go there regularly. They told me the same thing, however Todd? and Heather are Marine Biologists, I believe or studied Marine Biology. I had the same issue. Do I do 45 days, 10 weeks or what?

72 days minimum is what works for me

 

[dmort]

Todd, Glenn or Patrick? I go there regularly. They told me the same thing, however Todd? and Heather are Marine Biologists, I believe or studied Marine Biology. I had the same issue. Do I do 45 days, 10 weeks or what?

I'm not sure, it was a year ago - younger guy, maybe mid thirties, dark hair.

 

[Crackem]

I had a similar issue in my tank the last few weeks. Are you sure it was ICH? My guess is what you saw under the microscope was ICH, but it was also Velvet. Did you buy any new fish recently by chance?

The only thing that was added were snails and crabs. My rocks were all dry and man made. My tank is also barebottom.
My hippo is still alive. I tried to get him out by moving rocks around but it's going to be almost impossible to get him out without taking all my rocks out. He's in bad shape and I think I saw him try to eat a pellet. I tried to grab him blindly and I'm pretty sure he bit me