Help fish has ich.

[Evan28395950]

Hello, I started this tank up 6 weeks ago, everything was fine in tank. Added in clowns and snail and both were fine for the first few weeks (added In chemicals for the cycling process to be only a day or two). Now I went to a different somewhat lfs and purchased a Valentini Puffer and a royal gramma. Puffer is fine, but the royal gramma started with a white bump on head and then white spots on fins and now on the body (picture below). I’m about 90% sure it’s ich, and most likely had it when I purchased it. I’m just wondering what some of my options are to help cure the fish, and prevent from any more spreading. Anything besides copper-aid. Thanks

 

[Brett newell]

Yup, looks like ich.

 

[Evan28395950]

Dang. What is your go to method for trying to get rid of it? I was also wondering what would happen if I did nothing but just doing water changes and cleaning sand.

 

[Brett newell]

Dont even waste time with the cleaning. That only works in freshwater. There is a great article on here by humblefish called ich management vs eradication. Great read very smart guy. I qt with chloroquine phosphate and metro. Ich found it's way into my tank tho last year and to fully get rid of it you must leave the tank empty for 76 days. Managment can kind of work. They won't have an immunity per say but they will tolerate it better over time so long as you keep stress low. And you will not be able to have tangs.

 

[Evan28395950]

What do you mean by “empty”? Just leave everything alone and don’t add anything?

 

[Brett newell]

Empty as in no fish in the tank. Ich has a direct life cycle that requires fish so all inverts can stay in there during that period but to run the full life cycle its 76 days

 

[Evan28395950]

Yeah I don’t really have that option, only have this one tank. So if I just do nothing it’ll slowly get worse?

 

[Brett newell]

Maybe, maybe not. Keep stress low and feed well. If there is no coral in the tank you could try running hypo salinity. Inverts most likely won't survive. But the gamma and clown will be fine in hypo, not sure about the puffer you'd just have to keep an eye on them. Also have lots of aeration going on in the tank during hypo

 

[Humblefish]

You'll likely lose the gramma if you attempt ich management: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/ich-eradication-vs-management.45/

The puffer is a much more hardy fish.

 

[Brett newell]

The dr is in lol. My mistake on the gamma. No experience with them.

 

[dannyfish]

If you don’t have corals, do hyposalinity. Always work for me.

 

[bsjz]

Hypo wont be an option here as it will also kill the rocks and everything in it.

 

[Brett newell]

Not many options other than hypo for keeping in main tank. If you do it remember to raise it back up super slow. Like over the course of a week slow.

 

[Maritimer]

That's real liverock, covered in sponges and other fascinating things. Hypo in that tank, with that rock, I feel would cause some serious die-off, and an ammonia spike.

Your best bet, at this point, would be to set up a quarantine tank, treat all the fish (in QT) for ich, and wait through the 76-day fallow period to reintroduce them to the display. IIRC, puffers are somewhat sensitive to copper, something to be kept in mind.

~Bruce