Ich without treatment

[blecki]

Lastly, IF a person removes parasites from their tank, and their animals will no longer be exposed to those items, there would be no reason to keep exposing them right?

I'd boil it down as the tank is successful, but the owner doesn't necessarily understand why.

Personally I still think it's a feature of mature tanks to be disease resistant because they have a mature eco system full of things the disease organism has to compete with rather than being a sterile environment where they can proliferate unchecked.

 

[Slevv]

There is no way to assess 'risk' - however your question is different from the usual one. which is - what's the risk of not medicating with QT. In this case your fish has a disease.. And it puts the rest of the fish in your tank at risk (assuming you're correct in your diagnosis). More information is required here to determine 'risk' - and btw - there is also a 'risk' to your other fish. All should be put in a QT 'area' - as suggested by @vetteguy53081 it can be very simple.

But - I guess the question is - what is the risk of leaving it as it is. I can't give you a percentage - but - the risk is all of your fish will get Ich and die - depending on your tank conditions and your stocking density - which I feel is important. Since there are no known copper resistant Ich strains - it may be that you did not QT long enough - or at a high enough level. Not meant as criticism. Just a comment.

I believe in the complete opposite based off my experience even without Qt Good water quality uv proper/ adequate food you can live with ich without any issues

 

[MnFish1]

I believe in the complete opposite based off my experience even without Qt Good water quality uv proper/ adequate food you can live with ich without any issues

the complete opposite of what

 

[southeastfishaddict]

I’m going through the same thing with my tank .. I purchased a max 625 from Red Sea, 132 gallon during black Friday had it installed and over loaded it with fish .. about twenty five of them during a month’s time, without quarantine. During the past week a convict & a clown tang died suddenly, a blue throat trigger and a few others. & now i have a scopa, a naso, blue tang regal, a powder blue & a sailfin tang that have many spots on them. I’ve been feeding heavy about four times a day and they seem to all be eating well now, but I’m concerned about the water quality with so much feeding. I’ve been going to the LFS to get water test done, but they’ve been telling me that my nitrates are at 0. I find that very hard to believe with so many fish and deaths.

My other question is, would you recommend I keep the lighting on during the day? It’s a reef tank and it’s on an automatic schedule and the lights are extremely bright. Not sure if that will stress the fish out more. I already ordered the polyp lab treatment from Amazon. I’m waiting anxiously for it to arrive..

 

[Paul B]

Putting in so many fish in such a new tank will cause problems no matter what you do or don't so. Bacteria need time to adjust and different bacteria's and viruses and parasites need time to grow and finally settle down before they stop causing problems. Just my opinion.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I’m going through the same thing with my tank .. I purchased a max 625 from Red Sea, 132 gallon during black Friday had it installed and over loaded it with fish .. about twenty five of them during a month’s time, without quarantine. During the past week a convict & a clown tang died suddenly, a blue throat trigger and a few others. & now i have a scopa, a naso, blue tang regal, a powder blue & a sailfin tang that have many spots on them. I’ve been feeding heavy about four times a day and they seem to all be eating well now, but I’m concerned about the water quality with so much feeding. I’ve been going to the LFS to get water test done, but they’ve been telling me that my nitrates are at 0. I find that very hard to believe with so many fish and deaths.

My other question is, would you recommend I keep the lighting on during the day? It’s a reef tank and it’s on an automatic schedule and the lights are extremely bright. Not sure if that will stress the fish out more. I already ordered the polyp lab treatment from Amazon. I’m waiting anxiously for it to arrive..

Once you’ve begun losing fish to ich in a tank, you will not be able to feed the fish well to save the others.

Not all fish species are affected by ich to the same degree, but once the disease reaches this geometric growth phase, there isn’t a way to stop it without proper treatment - copper or hyposalinity (no inverts of course).

Lighting has no affect on the outcome of this disease.

Polyp Lab also has a poor track record in advanced cases like this.

Jay

 

[southeastfishaddict]

Thank you Gentlemen, for your responses. I currently have a few corrals and tons of rock work. It will also be very difficult to catch the fish. If I were to remove the corals, what would you recommend that I reduce the salt to and how suddenly would you say I should do it ? I’m aiming not to try and treat with copper, because it will be very difficult to take out once it’s in.

Thanks again, I’m aware now that I made a hasty move with the fish loading so quickly. We added in lots of live rock, a bio filter block, brightwell bacteria start and a few small fish (couple of clowns, fire fish, damsels & watchman goby) and they were doing fine. So I added more every week and it got me in this bad situation. The fish all seemed to get along with no agresión issues.

 

[blecki]

Not surprising, crowding can often reduce signs of aggression because it's spread out over more fish.

 

[ErikVR]

Just a quick update:
The visible signs of ich did not spread to any other fish. The purple tang has been clean for 4 days now.
Is it possible for such a mild infection to occur? Or should I still be worried of an explosion any day now?

 

[Paul B]

It depends on who you want to listen to and how your tank is set up, how old it is and a couple of other things.

 

[southeastfishaddict]

Paul B. are you all about naturally treating the fish or are you okay with medicating in extreme cases?

 

[Paul B]

I am all about Natural and run my tank so everything is immune so I never have to medicate anything as nothing will ever get sick

If I get a fish, usually for free that is severely infected with something I will medicate it in a separate tank.

 

[blecki]

Is it possible for such a mild infection to occur?

Of course it is. There are probably as many strains of ich as there are posts about ich. It's the covids that kill your tank not the colds... thing is, the fish can have many cases of ich 'colds' and never show symptoms at all because they aren't able to tell us they have the sniffles.

 

[amdp9]

I feel your pain man, not sure what got in my tank lost everything. I have invest about 2.5k in 32G bio cube feel stupid spending and feeling woeful about it. There are expensive Corals in the tank couldn’t use copper or meds to help the fish. QT wasn’t an option for me because I didn’t have another spare tank. Everything was normal until last week how things turned like a horror show seeing my loving pets die one by one was the most horrible thing.
This is your second time, and I understand what you are going through. I have a feeling whatever went in my tank will return later as well. Feeling discouraged and sad about the hobby. Hope you find your peace and figure out the cause and solution. If you do please share there are many like me and you who will need better support and suggestions what to do.

 

[newreef1]

So here we go again. Even after being super careful and following all quarantaine protocols, I just noticed ich on my purple tang in the display tank.

I'm so done with this. I finally have corals in my tank so I can't do hypo or copper treatment. There is no chance of getting the fish out for quarantine without completely tanking out the rock work. Not going to do that.

What are the odds if I just leave everything in there and don't treat the fish? Will it be a death sentence to all?

I read someone posted here that all tanks despite all precautions get infected by something at some point. They mentioned something along the lines of managing diseases instead of trying to eradicate them. I liked that POV because sometimes QT and medications and everything can get a little stressful, we don’t want to stress our fish so stress ourselves instead for many days. Most people here also have tanks with ICH which do complete fine. I feel if your fish are eating, not showing visible signs of sickness/stress, if you keep the tank clean, them well fed (add nutritional additives to their food) and don’t stress them out, they should do fine. If it’s in the earlier stage, focus on feeding them more and try to keep the tank clean, the fish should be able to fight it, they do in the nature. Don’t stress over it too much.

 

[tmhickey2023]

Odds = risk
How long did you treat and at what copper level?
Can you post pics to verify what you have?
Even a clear tub will suffice if you don’t have a treatment tank but if indeed ich, other occupants have been exposed

Hi! I have a solar wrasse who started swimming vertically. He has been eating well but today I noticed some white spots. Not sure if it’s Ich or Brook? Attaching some pics. I was able to remove him but do not have a QT tank. Could use a small cooler with some aeration.
Any recommendations for treating him and/or the display tank which has softies, LPS, and a couple nems? Other fish seem fine currently.
Thanks for any advice.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi! I have a solar wrasse who started swimming vertically. He has been eating well but today I noticed some white spots. Not sure if it’s Ich or Brook? Attaching some pics. I was able to remove him but do not have a QT tank. Could use a small cooler with some aeration.
Any recommendations for treating him and/or the display tank which has softies, LPS, and a couple nems? Other fish seem fine currently.
Thanks for any advice.

I can’t see any spots on my phone, but if the fish is still eating, but is swimming oddly, you should read this post about UNWD:

Unknown Neurological Wrasse Disease (UNWD)

Unknown Neurological Wrasse disease (UNWD) There is a disease that afflicts newly acquired wrasses, usually Cirrhilabrus fairy wrasses or flasher wrasses, Pseudocheilinus, but occasionally other species as well. The gross visual symptoms are always the same; the fish shows a rapid onset of...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Jeremy_d]

Hi! I have a solar wrasse who started swimming vertically. He has been eating well but today I noticed some white spots. Not sure if it’s Ich or Brook? Attaching some pics. I was able to remove him but do not have a QT tank. Could use a small cooler with some aeration.
Any recommendations for treating him and/or the display tank which has softies, LPS, and a couple nems? Other fish seem fine currently.
Thanks for any advice.

Hard to really tell from the pictures but it looks like brook. Ich is more spotty and brook almost looks like a they walked though a spider web and it bunched up on them