Not sure if I have ich

[Jay Williams]

Anyone ever had and ich-type breakout in a reef tank? Meaning the typical spots on the fish appear and disappear within the same day? Scopas , Sailfin and a Powder brown all eating like normal and swimming peacefully… any suggestions? Do I need a QT?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Anyone ever had and ich-type breakout in a reef tank? Meaning the typical spots on the fish appear and disappear within the same day? Scopas , Sailfin and a Powder brown all eating like normal and swimming peacefully… any suggestions? Do I need a QT?

Hi, welcome to Reef2Reef!

Marine ich, Cryptocaryon, can certainly show up in a reef tank. Typically, it gets there attached to the mucus of new corals, or from being brought in as a sub-acute infection on new fish.

The life cycle of ich is such that at first, all of the trophonts living on the fish's skin are the same relative age. That means, they tend to all drop off at the same time to become tomonts. Then, those tomonts release the infective tomites/theronts and the infection cycles back around and the fish get new spots. Eventually, if the disease progresses, these life cycles become more out of sync and the fish develop spots all of the time and the number of spots increases and then the fish start to die.

Sometimes, people are able to stop ich at this early stage - using powerful UV sterilizers and some of the more effective reef safe medications (there are a lot of snake oil medications that just do not work).

In Canada, you will have difficulty getting true ich medications. My go-to treatment is to move all of the fish to another tank and treat with coppersafe. If done properly, and early enough, the success rate for this is 100%.

Two reef-safe medications that you could consider trying are: Ruby Reef Rally Pro and Polyp Lab Medic. These treatments are not nearly as effective, but much easier to administer. I would suggest that you combine these treatments with nightly siphoning of the surface of the substrate (replacing the water with new seawater). This can help remove many of the resting stage tomonts before they have a chance to release their infective stages.

Jay Hemdal

 

[Jay Williams]

Hi, welcome to Reef2Reef!

Marine ich, Cryptocaryon, can certainly show up in a reef tank. Typically, it gets there attached to the mucus of new corals, or from being brought in as a sub-acute infection on new fish.

The life cycle of ich is such that at first, all of the trophonts living on the fish's skin are the same relative age. That means, they tend to all drop off at the same time to become tomonts. Then, those tomonts release the infective tomites/theronts and the infection cycles back around and the fish get new spots. Eventually, if the disease progresses, these life cycles become more out of sync and the fish develop spots all of the time and the number of spots increases and then the fish start to die.

Sometimes, people are able to stop ich at this early stage - using powerful UV sterilizers and some of the more effective reef safe medications (there are a lot of snake oil medications that just do not work).

In Canada, you will have difficulty getting true ich medications. My go-to treatment is to move all of the fish to another tank and treat with coppersafe. If done properly, and early enough, the success rate for this is 100%.

Two reef-safe medications that you could consider trying are: Ruby Reef Rally Pro and Polyp Lab Medic. These treatments are not nearly as effective, but much easier to administer. I would suggest that you combine these treatments with nightly siphoning of the surface of the substrate (replacing the water with new seawater). This can help remove many of the resting stage tomonts before they have a chance to release their infective stages.

Jay Hemdal

Hi, welcome to Reef2Reef!

Marine ich, Cryptocaryon, can certainly show up in a reef tank. Typically, it gets there attached to the mucus of new corals, or from being brought in as a sub-acute infection on new fish.

The life cycle of ich is such that at first, all of the trophonts living on the fish's skin are the same relative age. That means, they tend to all drop off at the same time to become tomonts. Then, those tomonts release the infective tomites/theronts and the infection cycles back around and the fish get new spots. Eventually, if the disease progresses, these life cycles become more out of sync and the fish develop spots all of the time and the number of spots increases and then the fish start to die.

Sometimes, people are able to stop ich at this early stage - using powerful UV sterilizers and some of the more effective reef safe medications (there are a lot of snake oil medications that just do not work).

In Canada, you will have difficulty getting true ich medications. My go-to treatment is to move all of the fish to another tank and treat with coppersafe. If done properly, and early enough, the success rate for this is 100%.

Two reef-safe medications that you could consider trying are: Ruby Reef Rally Pro and Polyp Lab Medic. These treatments are not nearly as effective, but much easier to administer. I would suggest that you combine these treatments with nightly siphoning of the surface of the substrate (replacing the water with new seawater). This can help remove many of the resting stage tomonts before they have a chance to release their infective stages.

Jay Hemdal

Hey thanks man! For the advice , I’ve heard removing all the fish from the tank and using a copper medication is the only real way of eradicating ich. although I’ve also heard it can stress the fish out more:/. I’ve seen videos on people using i
Reef safe ich treatment but I’ve never tired any or looked for any and polyplab and Ruby Reef I can’t find it anywhere. Might just have to resort to getting them all into a Qt, I have 3 tangs a damsel and 2 lionfish :/

 

[DrZoidburg]

Reef safe ich treatment

Guessing these mean the herbal remedies. Short answer those don't work to kill ich only promote fish immune system. Also they are not 100% reef safe. Residual essential oils in these very toxic to some inverts.

 

[Jay Williams]

Guessing these mean the herbal remedies. Short answer those don't work to kill ich only promote fish immune system. Also they are not 100% reef safe. Residual essential oils in these very toxic to some inverts.

Yeah that’s what I’ve heard thanks! QT probably going to be the only way, how big should the QT be though? I have a lot of fish

 

[DrZoidburg]

Is yours getting these spots? How big are all your current fish? Me personally I wouldn't go less than 75 gallons. Other people use 20's. To many fish for that though.

 

[Jay Williams]

I mean the scopas , Powder brown are smaller whereas the sailfin is medium size and the two lionfish are small.