Ich?

[Jskinn27]

Hey guys, I’ve got a 75 gal with 2 clowns, flame angel, Midas blenny, longnose hawk, and I had a hippo tang and a powder brown. I went on vacation for a week and everything looked great. Come back and my hippo is covered in what I found out to be stress spots and breathing heavily (it’s 2am at this point). Wake up the next day and hippo tang is dead. I notice ich spots on my powder brown and a lfs tells me to keep feeding it a lot with some garlic supps and another supp (don’t remember the name right now). He was fine for a week then yesterday I notice he’s not swimming and breathing heavily. I run to petco and buy supplies for a quick qt tAnk and buy some quick cure. At this point I see large stress spots. I put him in the qt and he dies within 30 mins.

Now my Midas blenny is swimming to the bottom and appears to be scratching his head on the sand. What should I do? Qt all fish for 80 days and let ich die off? Kind of worried since my powder brown died within 30 mins. Idk if I’m doing something wrong... I’m trying to acquire this 30 gallon for a qt tank so I can fit all my fish in there.

 

[Jskinn27]

Oh, its a reef tank btw all coral are fine. All levels are good in my tank as well

 

[HotRocks]

Sorry to hear of your struggles. Had you recently added anything new to the tank before this started? Any coral, fish, rock, inverts etc?

 

[Jskinn27]

The newest additions were the tangs. I got them from a lfs about a week before I went on vacation.

 

[Dom]

I'm not so sure its Ich. Can you post pics?

 

[HotRocks]

I'm not so sure its Ich. Can you post pics?

I suspect velvet based on timeline and quickness of losses. That is pure speculation based on Op's description.

 

[Jskinn27]

Those were the pics I took the day hippo died and before the brown died

 

[Jskinn27]

But I don’t see anything on lenny (my blenny)

 

[Jskinn27]

I suspect velvet based on timeline and quickness of losses. That is pure speculation based on Op's description.

My other 5 fish are doing great. Eating and swimming like normal, with an exception of my blenny scratching

 

[Jskinn27]

Actually looking at the last pic I posted of my brown, is that white thing by his mouth anything?

 

[Kvnsu]

Best thing to do is like your LFS said feed medicated food since liquid supplements won't work since you have corals. Don't add any more fish for at least a month. Only time will really tell. Obviously, in the future, just QT everything!

 

[Jskinn27]

Yeah I know. I had a friend who told me he doesn’t qt anything. But now I’m starting. Should I pull all my fish and qt them with my quick cure?

 

[Big G]

Sorry but based on the pictures and the descriptions, you are dealing with velvet. Here's Humblefish's Emergency Velvet protocol:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/#post-2499399

The short version:

• 5 minute freshwater dip
• Immediately afterwards, perform a chemical bath (in saltwater matching SG/temp the fish came from). You have two options:

1. Acriflavine (preferred) - Do the bath for 75-90 minutes, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain acriflavine: Acriflavine-MS and Ruby Reef Rally. DO NOT mix acriflavine with any other chemicals.
2. Formalin - Do the bath for 30-60 minutes max, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain formalin: Formalin-MS, Quick Cure, Aquarium Solutions Ich-X, Kordon Rid-Ich Plus. Use protection (rubber gloves, face mask, eye protection, etc.) whenever handling formalin as it is a known carcinogen! However, you can add Methylene Blue to the formalin bath (1 capful per 2-3 gallons of bath water.)

• After the bath, place the fish in a QT pre-dosed at 80mg/gal using Chloroquine phosphate. In theory, copper (exs. Cupramine, Coppersafe, Copper Power) should work just as well as CP. However, due to how fast velvet can reproduce you don’t have the luxury of slowly ramping up the copper level as is normally advised. Therefore, the fish needs to be placed in a QT with copper already at minimum therapeutic levels. This is the advantage CP has over copper in this particular situation.
• While in QT, use a wide spectrum antibiotic (exs. Seachem Kanaplex, Furan-2) for the first week to ward off any possible bacterial infections. Secondary bacterial infections are very common in fish with preexisting parasitic infestations such as velvet.
• Keep the fish in CP or copper (at therapeutic levels) for one month. However, you can transfer the fish into a non-medicated holding tank for observation after just two weeks (explained below). DO NOT lower the CP or copper level before transferring.

 

[4FordFamily]

Sorry but based on the pictures and the descriptions, you are dealing with velvet. Here's Humblefish's Emergency Velvet protocol:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/#post-2499399

The short version:

• 5 minute freshwater dip
• Immediately afterwards, perform a chemical bath (in saltwater matching SG/temp the fish came from). You have two options:

1. Acriflavine (preferred) - Do the bath for 75-90 minutes, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain acriflavine: Acriflavine-MS and Ruby Reef Rally. DO NOT mix acriflavine with any other chemicals.
2. Formalin - Do the bath for 30-60 minutes max, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain formalin: Formalin-MS, Quick Cure, Aquarium Solutions Ich-X, Kordon Rid-Ich Plus. Use protection (rubber gloves, face mask, eye protection, etc.) whenever handling formalin as it is a known carcinogen! However, you can add Methylene Blue to the formalin bath (1 capful per 2-3 gallons of bath water.)

• After the bath, place the fish in a QT pre-dosed at 80mg/gal using Chloroquine phosphate. In theory, copper (exs. Cupramine, Coppersafe, Copper Power) should work just as well as CP. However, due to how fast velvet can reproduce you don’t have the luxury of slowly ramping up the copper level as is normally advised. Therefore, the fish needs to be placed in a QT with copper already at minimum therapeutic levels. This is the advantage CP has over copper in this particular situation.
• While in QT, use a wide spectrum antibiotic (exs. Seachem Kanaplex, Furan-2) for the first week to ward off any possible bacterial infections. Secondary bacterial infections are very common in fish with preexisting parasitic infestations such as velvet.
• Keep the fish in CP or copper (at therapeutic levels) for one month. However, you can transfer the fish into a non-medicated holding tank for observation after just two weeks (explained below). DO NOT lower the CP or copper level before transferring.

I agree, velvet. Sorry for your losses.

 

[Jskinn27]

dang really? Wouldn’t it get my other fish? And do I do the velvet protocol for other fish as well?

 

[Big G]

dang really? Wouldn’t it get my other fish? And do I do the velvet protocol for other fish as well?

Yep. Take them one at a time. Each fish will react differently to the parasites attacking them. Usually those with a thicker mucous coat have a bit more time to resist the parasite's attack. You need to consider working quickly. Velvet is an aggressive and quick killer. The darn things reproduce amazingly fast and are hungry. Many of us have experienced a velvet event in our tanks. The darn parasites are rampant in the industry these days.

 

[Jskinn27]

Thanks everyone. I’ll start with my blenny since he’s showing the worst signs. Do I need to keep my dt clear fish for a certain amount of time?

 

[Big G]

Thanks everyone. I’ll start with my blenny since he’s showing the worst signs. Do I need to keep my dt clear fish for a certain amount of time?

Fallow time for the DT is as follows:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fallow-periods-going-fishless.190324/#post-2183025

 

[Jskinn27]

And just to be clear, do I put all my fish in my qt at the same time?

 

[Big G]

And just to be clear, do I put all my fish in my qt at the same time?

Ideally you want them in QT asap. How many are left?