I recently had an ich outbreak in my 55. Killed 5 fish. Now all I have left is a fire fish goby and a neon goby. Neither of them have ich and they have been doing fine for about a week. Can I add fish? What do I do??
Ich in my 55 gallon
- Thread starter jcosta26
- Start date
- Tagged users None
I recently had an ich breakout in my 55. It killed 5 of my fish. All that I have left is a fire fish goby and a neon goby. They have no sign of ich and have been fine for about a week. What do I do? Can I add more fish?
reef208
Community Member
Ich is commonly present in aquariums, but doesn't affect the fish unless their immune system is weak for some reason. First thing you need to do is figure out why your fish's immune system became weak. Otherwise, anything new you add may also end up with ich.
Some potential causes:
1. A Powerhead, pump, filters, or heater could be leaking voltage
2. Temperature is too high/low or not stable
3. pH swings or the pH being too high/low
4. High nitrates/nitrite/ammonia
5. Salinity issues such as allowing the salinity to fluctuate too much between topping off or if your hydrometer/refractometer is out of wack and giving inaccurate readings
Do some investigating and see if you find any red flags.
Some potential causes:
1. A Powerhead, pump, filters, or heater could be leaking voltage
2. Temperature is too high/low or not stable
3. pH swings or the pH being too high/low
4. High nitrates/nitrite/ammonia
5. Salinity issues such as allowing the salinity to fluctuate too much between topping off or if your hydrometer/refractometer is out of wack and giving inaccurate readings
Do some investigating and see if you find any red flags.
Could have been ich. However, velvet - which looks similar to ich - is far deadlier. Did you take any pics of the fish before they died? Were the fish completely covered in sprinkles, or were the sprinkles more "here & there"?
In either case, I suggest you QT/treat the remaining 2 fish with copper (ex. Cupramine) for 4 weeks. The DT should be left fallow (fishless) for 72 days.
d_adler
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2014
- Messages
- 403
- Reaction score
- 100
- Location
- south floirda
- What state or country do you live in
- Florida
I had velvet in my tank and with a few days 6 fish had died. I would recommend leaving the tank 6-8 weeks fallow in order to rid the DT of any more ich. In the mean time set up a QT and put some fish in quarantine till the appropriate time
reef208
Community Member
Personally I would not recommend moving the remaining fish out of the tank. Moving a fish to a different tank is exactly the type of stressful event that can allow the ich to overtake the fishes immune system. If they are healthy and eating, you have nothing to worry about at the moment. If they get ich, it just stresses again that you need to find out what in your system is causing the stress to the fish.
I don't have pics, but I did notice s few things
-bodies were completely covered
-eyes were glossed over
-some brownish/black speckles
-fins looked like they had been bitten
-cleaner shrimp was eating the parasites off them
This suggests velvet.
This suggests a secondary bacterial infection; common in fish with ich/velvet.
Your two surviving fish may have built up temporary immunity. IME; It is becoming more common for a fish or two to survive a velvet wipeout. However, they may still be carriers and serve as a host to infect any new fish you add.
Get the remaining 2 fish out of the DT and into a QT. Because it is likely velvet you are dealing with here, you will need to treat with either Chloroquine phosphate or copper (ex. Cupramine) for 4 weeks. The DT should be left fallow (fishless) for 72 days to starve out any remaining parasites. All corals/inverts can be left in the DT.
Moving forward, I would QT all future fish purchases as outlined here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine.189815/
