Ich?

tdowning · Mar 11, 2018

Good evening R2R...I went down to say goodnight to the fish and I noticed this on my Powder Brown Tang...then I started looking at the other fish and seemed to see some of the same dots...I'm really hoping I'm not about to have an ich outbreak. Let me know what I need to share w/ the group, but I think this is ich.

Tank is 3 months old.

Inhabitants;

2 Frostbite Clowns
Powder Brown Tang
Desjardini Tang
Blue Hippo Tang
Magnificent Foxface
Clown Tang
Blackspot Lyre Tail Angels (Male and Female)
Sargassum Trigger
Fuzzy Dwarf Lion
Yellow Tang

Fishfinder · Mar 11, 2018

Yes it sure looks like it

DancingShark · Mar 11, 2018

Yup. It is.
Did you QT all those fish?

tdowning · Mar 11, 2018

No...no QT. I bought them all from a LFS where the guy I work with uses cupramine and paraguard dosed weekly in the system and so I thought they'd be fine. Ugh.

tdowning · Mar 11, 2018

Realistically, can I just turn my main display into a QT and treat the entire tank with all the occupants in it?

DancingShark · Mar 12, 2018

Yeah, it's a pain but doable. No corals or invertebrate will survive.

DancingShark · Mar 12, 2018

Depending on how much fish you have i
would just get 10 gallon tank and treat them separately tho. Sand will absorb copper. So would the rocks. Will also kill your invertebrates and corals.
Hypo would do the same.

tdowning · Mar 12, 2018

DancingShark said:
Yeah, it's a pain but doable. No corals or invertebrate will survive.

I’m looking at the Polyplab Medic.

HotRocks · Mar 12, 2018

Basically all of the treatments that will remove ich successfully, are best used in a bare bottom QT. Much easier to monitor/maintain therapudic levels when you don't have things present that absorb the meds. With the fish you have I would try to set up a 55 gallon QT. That clown tang is a fish that requires alot of swimming room to be happy. Then you could allow DT to be fallow for the 76 day period during fish QT. I have helped @4FordFamily set up a 55 QT and it can be done for a couple hundred bucks if you find the right tank/stand/canopy on Craigslist. Then buy heat, light, wavemaker, airstone/pump off Amazon. Or if you're like most of us in this hobby you may already have some if it laying around! Good luck!

Humblefish · Mar 12, 2018

You are going to need at least a 55 or 75 gallon QT for that bioload. A couple of 40 breeders would also work. Or you could always improvise and use large Sterilite containers.

That's definitely ich BTW: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-cryptocaryon-irritans.191226/

tdowning · Mar 12, 2018

Humblefish said:
You are going to need at least a 55 or 75 gallon QT for that bioload. A couple of 40 breeders would also work. Or you could always improvise and use large Sterilite containers.

That's definitely ich BTW: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-cryptocaryon-irritans.191226/

I picked up a 75 gallon from LFS . Do you think I need to move all of the fish over are just the ones that are showing signs?

HotRocks · Mar 12, 2018

tdowning said:
I picked up a 75 gallon from LFS . Do you think I need to move all of the fish over are just the ones that are showing signs?

All fish for sure. Its the only way to be positive you can get rid of it. Just because the fish aren't showing symptoms yet does not mean they are not hosting the parasites. Also necessary to rid your DT of it as well. 76 day fallow (Meaning fishless) DT to make sure all strains of itch die off with no fish present for the parasites to cycle.

Humblefish · Mar 12, 2018

HotRocks said:
All fish for sure. Its the only way to be positive you can get rid of it. Just because the fish aren't showing symptoms yet does not mean they are not hosting the parasites. Also necessary to rid your DT of it as well. 76 day fallow (Meaning fishless) DT to make sure all strains of itch die off with no fish present for the parasites to cycle.

+1

tdowning · Mar 12, 2018

Thanks for the help everyone! Here's to hoping I caught it early and none of my fish friends go to the big aquarium in the sky!

tdowning · Mar 13, 2018

Hospital tank is set up. I used 75 gallons from my display, going to let this run for a bit then start moving fish over...and other thoughts or advice for me?

Humblefish · Mar 13, 2018

I hate to have to tell you this, but your QT is too close to the DT: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/aerosol-transmission.190292/

tdowning · Mar 13, 2018

Humblefish said:
I hate to have to tell you this, but your QT is too close to the DT: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/aerosol-transmission.190292/

Well, that’s exciting.

Humblefish · Mar 13, 2018

Sorry

tdowning · Mar 13, 2018

So serious question then...if part of controlling disease is reducing stress on my fish...wouldn't it make more sense in my case to just treat my display tank with Paraguard? All of the fish are still actively eating...I feel like moving them from current tank to QT is going to stress them out even more. I don't mind if some snails or crabs die...I could also move my corals out for the time being as they are just frags if those would get affected as well. I just want to do what's right knowing that what I've already done is wrong, aka lesson learned for the future.

Humblefish · Mar 13, 2018

tdowning said:
So serious question then...if part of controlling disease is reducing stress on my fish...wouldn't it make more sense in my case to just treat my display tank with Paraguard? All of the fish are still actively eating...I feel like moving them from current tank to QT is going to stress them out even more. I don't mind if some snails or crabs die...I could also move my corals out for the time being as they are just frags if those would get affected as well. I just want to do what's right knowing that what I've already done is wrong, aka lesson learned for the future.

Paraguard has never been proven to do anything useful. Most proven methods of treatment are not reef safe.