Ich in multiple fish at once?

[StrayAmoeba]

I have a Reefer 350 with 10 fish, set up now for 3 months. I had noticed Ich on my Royal Gramma at one point but it went away and all was well for about 2 months. Within the last week my tang, blenny, royal gramma, and one of my clowns are showing signs of ich. The tang has a lot of white spots and the rest of the fish have very few visible spots but have been rubbing on rocks/sand. What would cause all of the fish at once to have a flare up of ich? Water parameters are all good. Only recent change is that I added a DOS doser and started dosing Alk and Calcium but there have been no spikes. Alk has slowly been climbing over the last week form around 7 to 7.6 last I checked.

All fish are eating but are more timid, especially the tang. I started putting some garlic extract in the food to try to keep the appetite up.

 

[cshouston]

So, the recommended fallow period to eradicate ich is over two months (76 days) for a reason. It’s possible that the strain of ich your gramma was infected with had a long dormant period as a tomont. Now, it hatched a swarm of infective theronts and reinfected all of your vulnerable fish. I hope management works out for you, but I would consider quarantine and treatment with a fallow period. I am doing the same right now and it’s not really as bad as I originally thought.

 

[StrayAmoeba]

I know that this can vary greatly but what's the likely hood that fish will survive it?

As far as a qt I would be able to fit maybe a 20 gal... And I just don't think having 10 fish on there for 6 weeks would work well? I have a small/medium yellow eye kole tang as my biggest fish.

 

[cshouston]

Nobody can really tell you the likelihood. In my opinion, the right decision is to value the lives of the fish and treat them all as opposed to seeing which survive and which don’t. It has the potential to wipe them all out, or they may develop immunity. The only way to guarantee long term eradication and the safety of future fish is to quarantine and let the tank run fallow.

10 fish in a tank that size that’s only 3 months old is also probably too many. It’s likely there was stress involved in making them more vulnerable to the parasite. As for quarantining, it’s not prohibitively expensive to set up quarantine tanks. I just had to set up three 20-gallon QTs for my 5 fish, and each one ran me less than $100 for the tank, an inexpensive heater, a sponge filter, air pump, hide and some bacterial starter.

Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans)

Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) What You Need To Know: * Mild fish parasite which is often managed by using a UV Sterilizer, Ozone, Diatom Filter, Oxydator, herbal remedies, enhanced nutrition, etc. etc. * Can be treated in a quarantine tank using Hyposalinity, Chloroquine, Copper or...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a Reefer 350 with 10 fish, set up now for 3 months. I had noticed Ich on my Royal Gramma at one point but it went away and all was well for about 2 months. Within the last week my tang, blenny, royal gramma, and one of my clowns are showing signs of ich. The tang has a lot of white spots and the rest of the fish have very few visible spots but have been rubbing on rocks/sand. What would cause all of the fish at once to have a flare up of ich? Water parameters are all good. Only recent change is that I added a DOS doser and started dosing Alk and Calcium but there have been no spikes. Alk has slowly been climbing over the last week form around 7 to 7.6 last I checked.

All fish are eating but are more timid, especially the tang. I started putting some garlic extract in the food to try to keep the appetite up.

What would cause all?
Ich is contagious and spreads quickly. When you see it, you are seeing adult cysts who are reproducing hence CS Houston reasoning for 76 days.
Causes can be stress, chilling (water gets cold or cold added), new fish came in with it. Treatment rather than debate is essential. You could try polyp Lab MEDIC which is an effective treatment and reef safe

 

[StrayAmoeba]

Does the PolypLab Medic actually work? And safe with inverts? It would be so much easier to go that route if thats the case.

Otherwise I am looking at setting up a QT tank, thinking I'm going to get a 55gal tote, HOB filter, heater, and some cupramine. I read to just move over some media for a "cycle" but I'm assuming that wont be enough to actually have a cycle. How do you get around killing your fish with ammonia?? I was going to move over some tank water in an effort to bring over some bacteria.

 

[cshouston]

No. None of the “reef-safe” stuff actually kills ich. As for your tote, when I set up my QTs, I used Dr. Tim’s One-and-Only to start two, and BioSpira to start the other (they didn’t have enough Dr. Tim’s). I added a little bit of ammonium chloride and let it do its thing for a few days before putting any fish in. I haven’t had any problems with ammonia. I do recommend an AmmoniaAlert badge as most titration tests will read a false positive with copper. You’re also going to need a good copper test (highly recommend the foolproof Hanna copper checker as easiest to read and most accurate) ESPECIALLY with cupramine. If you can get a hold of Copper Power, it’s safer as its chelated copper and less toxic to the fish. After that, it’s just a matter of getting to the therapeutic copper level and keeping it there for 14-30 days. 14 if you transfer the fish to a sterile observation tank at that point, 30 if you don’t.

 

[StrayAmoeba]

Well... the Kole tang died. He looked the worst out of all the other fish by far. The rest of the fish are still eating and dont look to really have any spots on them with the exception of my Royal Gramma who was out yesterday but I did not see today when I fed the fish.

The QT Tote is almost ready, used about 1/3 tank water and 2/3 new water and also have it heated with a power head in there and some rocks and filter media from the main tank to try to get a cycle going. Getting Dr Tims today and ammonia today, plan is to test for a couple of days and move fish over as soon as the ammonia is very low. Also ended up buying Copper Power online as the QT wont be ready for a couple of days due to cycle so I can wait until Monday for it to arrive.

I'm worried catching some of these fish (Yellow Watchman for example) will require me to move some of the rocks... this makes me worried about a nitrate spike or other water chemistry issues if I disturb stuff too much. I'm making some fresh water now to have on hand if I notice parameter changes. Aside from that and trying to limit disturbing the sand as much as possible what else can I do to ensure I dont kill all my coral in the process of saving the fish?

Also any other pro tips to make this transition smoother? I got a fish trap on Amazon and plan to try to catch some of the other fish at night when they are settled in their spots and sleeping.