Crazy work Schedule and Ich Treatment Issues

[Kactai]

Hi All,

My decision to not quarantine new arrivals has come back to bite me in the butt. My powder blue tang has Ich.

I have since set up two hospital tanks - 20 g long and 30 g. I have never done a disease treatment before and I'm reading up on several options.

My problem is that I work at a remote mine site and am gone for 8 days and home for 6 days. This makes the TTM impossible. I also have seachem's Paraguard which requires daily dosing.

My current fish stock is:
2 black ocellaris clowns - small
1 yellow flanked fairy wrasse - medium size
1 tail spot blenny - small
1 swiss guard basslet - small
1 powder blue tag - juvenile

My questions are:
Do I have enough QT tanks/space to house and treat all of my fish?
Is there a treatment/method that will require minimal maintenance (performed by my GF) while I am away for 8 days?

So far only the Tang is showing signs of ICH but it's in the display now and I want to get rid of it with a plan to treat all new incoming fish after this fiasco. My GF is pretty good at regular maintenance of our two reef tanks but I'd like to keep the load minimal for her as she does run her own business. She is currently dosing the reef with polyplab medic in order to hopefully keep the fish alive until I return home next Wednesday.

Any advice for treating, medications, hyposalinity or any other method would be greatly appreciated.

 

[HotRocks]

Hi All,

My decision to not quarantine new arrivals has come back to bite me in the ***. My powder blue tang has Ich.

I have since set up two hospital tanks - 20 g long and 30 g. I have never done a disease treatment before and I'm reading up on several options.

My problem is that I work at a remote mine site and am gone for 8 days and home for 6 days. This makes the TTM impossible. I also have seachem's Paraguard which requires daily dosing.

My current fish stock is:
2 black ocellaris clowns - small
1 yellow flanked fairy wrasse - medium size
1 tail spot blenny - small
1 swiss guard basslet - small
1 powder blue tag - juvenile

My questions are:
Do I have enough QT tanks/space to house and treat all of my fish?
Is there a treatment/method that will require minimal maintenance (performed by my GF) while I am away for 8 days?

So far only the Tang is showing signs of ICH but it's in the display now and I want to get rid of it with a plan to treat all new incoming fish after this fiasco. My GF is pretty good at regular maintenance of our two reef tanks but I'd like to keep the load minimal for her as she does run her own business. She is currently dosing the reef with polyplab medic in order to hopefully keep the fish alive until I return home next Wednesday.

Any advice for treating, medications, hyposalinity or any other method would be greatly appreciated.

I would recommend either copper or CP. Once you have everything set and meds are to a therapeutic level, it just requires normal maintenance (Maybe a small amount of extra observation).
CP would be the easiest, but not easily obtained. My wife has dosed copper for me before while I was traveling. I just premeasured all of the doses to where all she had to do was dump it in twice daily.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/copper-treatment.193343/

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chloroquine-phosphate.192309/

 

[Big G]

If you decide to use CP, you would have to setup a separate tank for the wrasse. They don't do well in CP.

 

[Kactai]

Has anyone used the paraguard by seachem?

 

[HotRocks]

Has anyone used the paraguard by seachem?

It will not erradicate ich, unfortunately.

 

[Kactai]

It will not erradicate ich, unfortunately.

I just read the thread on the stuff. Man my LFS owner tells me lots of whacky things.

 

[Big G]

Man my LFS owner tells me lots of whacky things.

Yep. That's normal. Mine won't treat fish with copper when they have Ich, velvet . . . . and his tanks are full of aptasia.

 

[Kactai]

Same here! Aptaisia bubble algae, ich, you name it. I asked for magnesium test kits and supplements and he asked me why I need that. Apparently corals depleting magnesium faster than water changes can replace it is not a thing.

 

[Kactai]

Ok this is what I have set up/planned.

20g long will house the tails spot blenny, the Swiss guard basslet and the two clowns.

The 30g wil house the yellowflanked wrasse and the powderblue tang.

The only problem is that I planned on using my 20g long as my coral and invert Qt after I get this ich taken care of. Will this be ok if I clean it all properly

I am going to use coppersafe.

Is the stocking too much for the 20g long and will I be able to reuse it along with the HOB filter as my coral and invert QT afterwards?

 

[Kactai]

Things did not go well for me with copper at all. I ramped up slowly over 6 days to half of therapeutic levels. I lost a fairy wrasse, my PBT and tailspot blenny.

The remaining fish (Swiss guard basslet and pair of midnight clowns) stayed in 1.17 ppm chelated copper for 8 days until I got back from work. I then dosed to 1.35ppm the first day I got home in the am. The next day in the evening I dosed again to finally get to 1.57ppm copper and the Swiss guard basslet was dead hours later.

Now only the clown fish are left but they seem to be doing well and are still eating small amounts of food. 30 day countdown started May 28th.

I’m a wrasse lover... I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to QT and treat them if TTM is impossible on my schedule, Hypo apparently doesn’t and wrasses aren’t good in copper. Nothing seems to do well in copper for me.

I may just do observational quarantine for 60-90 days, only treat using prazipro for worms and flukes and treat only if I observe signs of disease.

 

[HotRocks]

I am sorry to hear that it hasn't went well so far. I am having great luck with leopard Wrasse and copper power. There are a few others having the same success.

Couple questions. Are you using an Airstone? Do you have a powerhead aimed upward breaking the surface of the water? Heavy oxygenation of the water is very important when using copper and other meds as they deplete the oxygen from the water.

 

[Kactai]

I am using HOB filters with a slightly lower water level to create an abundance of surface agitation. I also do have an air stone running in the tank just in case.

I honestly think that it’s my ramp up of copper levels and the fact that the fish I am treating are all very small juveniles. It could also be the copper product I am using. It is a privately made chelated copper product made by a chemist for a local “quarantine guru” in my area.

I’m still troubleshooting all of this to find out what will work. I will try my next round of fish with copper power and if I’m still having no luck I may just have to teach my gf to do tank transfers and buy some extra gear to make that easier.

 

[HotRocks]

A powerhead will create the most agitation/oxygen. Just FYI.

I would try copper power. I have lost zero Wrasse once copper has started. I shouldn't say zero. (I am assuming 0 due to copper). I lost one last round after 21 days. I never saw him eat, ever. I lost a gold rhom this round, but it was a spinal injury, very early in the ramp up. I have an Achilles Tang, Moorish idol, regal angel, moyeri and Bluestar leopards in this batch. Also pink margin male, and a checkerboard Wrasse as well.

 

[Kactai]

Do you mind if I pick your brain a bit then?

How fast do you ramp up your copper concentration?

Do you provide a little container of sand for your burrowing wrasses?

How often are you testing for copper?

How long do you wait with the fish in QT before starting treatment?

I appreciate your help!
I will look at getting a cheap powerhead for the hospital tank.

 

[Kactai]

By the way! I love the moyeri wrasse! Beautiful fish.

 

[HotRocks]

Do you mind if I pick your brain a bit then?

How fast do you ramp up your copper concentration?

Do you provide a little container of sand for your burrowing wrasses?

How often are you testing for copper?

How long do you wait with the fish in QT before starting treatment?

I appreciate your help!
I will look at getting a cheap powerhead for the hospital tank.

Gladly!

I am currently treating at 1.75ppm (copper power). Using the Hanna checker.

My ramp up schedule (as long as no signs of velvet) is 7 days. I increase my Cu level .25ppm per day. Administered in 2 doses, one am, one pm.

1st go round I did not use sand. This current batch yes I am. Per recommendations and testing by @Humblefish I am using a small container filled with Caribsea Fiji pink DRY sand. It does not absorb copper.

I test daily, no matter what, during ramp up and once therapuetic target level is reached.

I make sure everyone is eating and doing well for 3 days. This time the male Bluestar was lethargic and not eating well on day 3, I started seeing ich on two fish. So I started copper anyway, and he picked up the pace on day 5, or 2nd day of copper ramp up. Seems well now.

I hope this helps!

 

[4FordFamily]

I didn’t see it addressed, but did you dose Dr Tims or Biospira in the tank for beneficial bacteria to keep ammonia away? This is critical with newly set up QTs. That would explain the deaths. Unless the copper you’re using is very harsh, I can’t imagine copper doing that to your fish.

I’m sorry for your loss

 

[HotRocks]

By the way! I love the moyeri wrasse! Beautiful fish.

They are the best eaters in the QT! @4FordFamily can vouch, he saw them eat this weekend. You would think they were in a DT, not a medicated QT!

 

[4FordFamily]

They are the best eaters in the QT! @4FordFamily can vouch, he saw them eat this weekend. You would think they were in a DT, not a medicated QT!

This is true. The man is better at quarantining than I. It took me too long to discover that Copper(un)Safe was the culprit. Oh and my lack of testing. I thought my experience would tell me when to test. Nope. CopperUnSafe changed concentrations. Whoops!

 

[Kactai]

I didn’t see it addressed, but did you dose Dr Tims or Biospira in the tank for beneficial bacteria to keep ammonia away? This is critical with newly set up QTs. That would explain the deaths. Unless the copper you’re using is very harsh, I can’t imagine copper doing that to your fish.

I’m sorry for your loss

Using seachem stability.