BAD ICK!

Gabbydee233 · Aug 25, 2016

My Fiance and I noticed that our Butterfly fish had Ick recently so we moved him to the QT. We had just bought two new fish from our LPS so we didn't want to take any chances with the thought that they may have brought it home with them - we put the two new fish in the QT as well.

Well, now the Butterfly has even worse Ick but they don't have a speck on them still. We don't want them to get sick if they are not already... Should we just leave them in the QT or can we move them back to the main tank if they haven't shown signs of sickness yet? They've been in there together for about a week or two now...

themcnertney · Aug 25, 2016

QT all your fish and treat them accordingly. Leave your display fishless for X amount of days (I am not quite sure what the duration is), then return the fish back to their home.

melypr1985 · Aug 25, 2016

Your display has ick now. It wont matter if you put the new fish in there because they already have it as well. My advice is to take all fish out of the display and treat for ick. Leave the display fallow (fishless) for 76 days to starve out the parasite. You can then start reintroducing the fish back to their home a couple at a time. Leave all corals and inverts in the display as they aren't effected by ick.

You can treat one of a few ways.. Tank Transfer Method (TTM), Copper, CP and Hypo. all needs to be done in a QT and not the display. I can give you some links to read on each method.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chloroquine-phosphate.192309/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/copper-treatment.193343/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hyposalinity.247596/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tank-transfer-method.192655/

themcnertney · Aug 25, 2016

melypr1985 said:
Leave the display fallow (fishless) for 76 days to starve out the parasite.

Ah thank you. Wasn't sure on the duration and didn't want to give the wrong advice.

Humblefish · Aug 25, 2016

"BAD ICK" sometimes actually means velvet. Can you post a photo of the fish showing the white specks?

Gabbydee233 · Aug 25, 2016

So I got the best photo I could of him. He's really fast. He's looking red/inflamed if you notice. Also, I got a picture of him hiding under one of the rocks - laying on his side (the picture was taken from below the tank). He like, flops around under there like he's having convulsions or something...

Humblefish · Aug 25, 2016

Are those tiny white specks all over his tail I am seeing?

melypr1985 · Aug 25, 2016

Humblefish said:
Are those tiny white specks all over his tail I am seeing?

I see them too

Gabbydee233 · Aug 25, 2016

Yeah, I'm thinking that it's probably velvet at this point.

I also believe that the entire display tank is infected too... UGH.

melypr1985 · Aug 25, 2016

Gabbydee233 said:
Yeah, I'm thinking that it's probably velvet at this point.

I also believe that the entire display tank is infected too... UGH.

No matter if it's velvet or ick, they all need to come out and get treated with either Copper or CP. Leave the display fallow for 76 days to cover either scenario.

Humblefish · Aug 26, 2016

Marine Velvet Disease: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/

Scroll down to read how to treat it.

Breakthecycle2 · Aug 28, 2016

Im on bout 2 with velvet. I really thought after the first time, I'd know to how to prevent it, but I got lazy a few times and now my tank is fishless for another 5 weeks.