Moving fish to treat disease

[Jvesche20]

So recently some of my fish have gotten ich. I just built a QT my question is do I need to move all the fish or just the ones that look infected? From the looks all of my tangs look like they have ich. None of my clowns, goby or eel look to be infected.

 

[JumboShrimp]

“All”— or you will pay the piper later

 

[HotRocks]

All fish need moved. Gobys and clowns are very resistant to ich. They tolerate it due to thick slime coat.

If you don't treat all fish then when you put tangs back after treatment they will be afflicted again.

So all fish to QT for treatment. Then allow DT to be fallow for 76 days.

 

[Coralreefer1]

It is best to remove all livestock to prevent the likelihood of your other tank mates from getting the ich. Eels are not likely to get ich which is a good thing, though if you have livestock death, then the elevated ammonia and nitrites could prove fatal to your eel.
Having said this, unfortunately, you need to let the ich cycle take its course which usually lasts anywhere from 7 days to many weeks based on water temperature. The ectoparasite cycle tends to speed up under elevated water temperatures plus minimizes the chances of reproducing though, this can bring about reduced dissolved oxygen in your water column. Their are certain times during the life cycle of this parasite when you can treat it effectively through the use of Formalin and hyposalinity(dropping the salinity level) or copper treatment plus garlic also helps, just to name a couple. A word of caution...IF You remove your livestock from your main tank and then reintroduce them into your main tank again without making sure the ich cycle has completed or the parasites have died he to no host, your fish WILL get the ich again.

 

[Maritimer]

You'll want to remove _all_ of the fish, if you want to be certain of removing "ich" from your system.

Humblefish's excellent write-up on "ich" (Cryptocaryon irritans) is here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-cryptocaryon-irritans.191226/#post-2192627

While raising the temperature of the tank may be all that's needed to effect a cure when dealing with _freshwater_ ich, it does nothing against Cryptocaryon. In fact, by reducing the oxygen levels in the water and raising the fish's metabolism, raising the temperature in a case of saltwater "ich" can make things worse.

Some fish can handle some medications better than others. Eels, IIRC, do not handle copper well, and should be treated with Chloroqine Phosphate (often referred to as "CP"). Regal blue/hepatus tangs don't handle CP well, and should best be treated with copper (other tangs seem to be OK in CP). Other fishy sensitivities can be found in the chart here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-and-treatment-guidelines-with-chart.283450/#post-3449648

You'll want to keep your fish out of your display (termed "fallow") for at least 76 days, in order to be relatively certain that all of the "ich" tomonts (encysted form, attached to substrate or other hard surfaces) have hatched and starved.

~Bruce