now what.... ich AFTER fallow

[JumboShrimp]

I just posted for help with my Bi-Color Angel, as I await the end of my third {you read that right} Velvet-related fallow period in my 90 gallon. I feel your pain. My wife thinks I need a “check-up-from-the-neck-up” over this little thing we all call our ‘fish hobby.’

 

[Jeff_H]

While that time frame can be accurate, Cryptocaryon can really be encysted for much longer. 72 days is more like it. Up to 90 in some cases. They haven't answered on how they treated these fish, hopefully we know soon.

Wow... 72 to 90 days! I’ve never read anything that reported time periods that long. If this information is available online, Can you point me (and others) to it? It sounds like I need to rethink my QT protocol duration.

Thanks for sharing this information.

 

[HotRocks]

Wow... 72 to 90 days! I’ve never read anything that reported time periods that long. If this information is available online, Can you point me (and others) to it? It sounds like I need to rethink my QT protocol duration.

Thanks for sharing this information.

76 days is a pretty safe bet for a fallow period. Here are good articles by @Humblefish

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/coral-invert-quarantine-time-frames.334584/unread

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fallow-periods-going-fishless.190324/unread

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

yeah.. 90 days i have NEVER heard of. even the 72 days was only one case and at lower temps then normal. statistically speaking it is ridiculous to follow advice from one single study... yet here i am staring at a fish trap and a full 300g tank

 

[Jeff_H]

i appreciate the story of the battle scared achilies but even though my achilies is the meanest fish on earth, I honestly dont feel right knowing that i could do soemthing about it but choosing not too. These fish are fragile and beautiful. The fish industry is A MEAT GRINDER. These guys made it all the way to my tank so i guess in some silly way i feel i owe them. Plus.. imagine how high my horse will be after two rounds of doing the right thing!!

sigh.....

So in the interest in helping others there are a couple things that could have caused my tank to become reinfected. I will list them so hopefully people will take precautions if they are in a similar situation. They are in the order of what i see as risk.
1. non QT frags. the tank was just empty so of course I bought some colonies. always dipped, almost always cut the plug off. I put a torch in about 2 weeks before the fish.
2. the missing blenny... tore the tank apart, couldnt find this blenny. took ALL the rock out of my 100 gallon fuge and left it out for about 30 mintues, looked around, no sign of him.
3. new trigger.. i put a trigger into QT 2 weeks before all the fish went in. full copper treatment.
4. cross contamination with nets... bought the wife a new tank, putting them in QT, yadah yadah yadah...maybe nets?
5. aerisol transmition. this just seems like the "to hell with this hobby" risk but it is a risk. If i need a clean room to QT fish.. I'm out.
6. being a horrible person. i made fun of disabled people as a kid, was racist, hated gay people.. your basic midwest youth stuff. Maybe now it is all coming back to haunt me??

Brain, thanks for sharing the additional information. I feel your pain, and always try to go the extra mile to provide the best environment for my livestock. Some of the guys at the LFS make fun of me for it, but I feel I’m doing it right so I don’t loose sleep over the harassment .

I’m sure you will be successful on this next attempt!

 

[HotRocks]

yeah.. 90 days i have NEVER heard of. even the 72 days was only one case and at lower temps then normal. statistically speaking it is ridiculous to follow advice from one single study... yet here i am staring at a fish trap and a full 300g tank

45 days is sufficient for most parasite related pathogens. Just the one rare strain of ich that can get you.

I've always played it safe. Used the rule of 76 days for anything wet that isn't a fish. Hasn't failed me yet...

 

[JumboShrimp]

I’m doing 90 days— but only because this 3rd time around I’m mad at the world!! (Lol )

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I’m doing 90 days— but only because this 3rd time around I’m mad at the world!! (Lol )

Mann that is rough. its almost like you should have two display tanks.. copper and non copper. i dont mind treating the fish and all that, it is catching them that is the aweful part.

we should start a fallow tank support group!! for reals..

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Brain, thanks for sharing the additional information. I feel your pain, and always try to go the extra mile to provide the best environment for my livestock. Some of the guys at the LFS make fun of me for it, but I feel I’m doing it right so I don’t loose sleep over the harassment .

I’m sure you will be successful on this next attempt!

thanks man. it helps.

 

[theMeat]

Weird how some people never qt, never treat, and never get major problems.
While others go to great length and have nothing but

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Weird how some people never qt, never treat, and never get major problems.
While others go to great length and have nothing but

I dunno, there seems to be a lot of threads about..hey is this velvet? Plus, I suspect a lot of the ardent "i never qt" folks just keep quiet when they have a problem.

 

[HotRocks]

It also depends on how often you add things and where you source them.

Most LFS don't QT. Some do. They are few and far between. So if someone sticks to only their LFS who does have proper QT practices they stand a chance.

Also tons of people for years got away without QT. 10 years ago @4FordFamily never QTd anything. It eventually will break. The distribution system is so polluted right now. The need for QT today is much higher than say 10 years ago... Or even 3 years ago...

 

[theMeat]

I dunno, there seems to be a lot of threads about..hey is this velvet? Plus, I suspect a lot of the ardent "i never qt" folks just keep quiet when they have a problem.

Yeah idk neither, that’s an interesting take but seems to me that hobbyists with some time under their belt have done the treatment/qt enough to grow tired of it. Then with the advantage of a mature tank stop treatments, or at least for the most part, and find more success. Has been my experience that people who do little to no prevention/treatment grow tired of trying to explain that to newer hobbyists.
In my thirty + years in the hobby can tell you after my last full blown ich infestation, followed by copper, hypo, fallow, blah blah blah, just to see it reappear, I swore i’d never do it again. That was a decade ago. Since then have had ich, flukes and who knows what else that went untreated with no casualties. Just a big unstressful tank with plenty of flow, a uv, and as good a diet as can.
Find it hard to believe that we can remove any possible problem that can arise, without also removing things that’r Helpful. And who knows what is harmful and what is helpful, and in what quantities. Like my granny used to say, “if you don’t eat 2 pounds of dirt by the time you are 3, you’r not going to be healthy

 

[SeaJay]

Mann that is rough. its almost like you should have two display tanks.. copper and non copper. i dont mind treating the fish and all that, it is catching them that is the aweful part.

I kinda do. The idea of my fish in totes just didn’t sit well with me. I went to petsmart during one of their clearance sales and they had some really, really good deals. I got a 36 gal bow front with stand, hood and filter for about $150. My QT is now in my master bedroom. My wrasse would not settle down in the bare tank, so I put in a container of sand. After days of coaxing and showing him where it was he just wasn’t getting it, so I said screw it, put sand in and bought a Hanna checker. So I still get to feed and enjoy my fish daily in my bedroom instead of in the big DT in my living room. Checking copper is just part of my daily routine now. I haven’t found that the sand really affects it that much.

 

[Singspot]

Stupid hi flow, good diet, and uv is your options

Hi There, I am suffering from similar situation (DT infested with ich and something else possibly that has been making fishes breathe heavy) ...

Can't we treat the DT with hyposalinity (1.009)?

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

you can do hypo salinity if you dont have any inverts or corals. I am not a huge fan of hypo though, i dont think it is as effective as copper.

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

i read your first post.
so you had your fish in tote for 68 days. did you treat the fish for parasite while they were in qt?
i didnt read anything about treatment.
68 days fallow is long enough but my 2 cents is that the fish were never really cured in qt and when brought back over to main tank got infected again.

 

[tdowning]

If you don’t want to pull the fish out you could always give Polylabs medic a go. Some people will tell you they’ve had success, others will tell you it’s a waste of time but it’s your reef and you can ultimately do what you’d like. I had a similar issue where I had an ich outbreak, moved all my fish to QT, had to take apart the whole tank and take out all live rock to get them, 8 of my 12 fish died in QT. I went fallow for 80+ days, put the fish back into the DT and noticed some spots a week afterward on my blue hippo, I treated my DT with medic for 20 days and haven’t seen any spots since. That’s my story, I feel your pain and wish you the best!

 

[pecan2phat]

76 days today, getting ready to put them back in tomorrow.
I did a round of Chloroquine Phosphate then 2 doses of General Cure, another round of CP and finally 4 doses of Furan-2.
They have been in non-medicated QT for the last 7 days now but I have lost 5 out of 14 during all the medication period.
If I see spots, I'll have to smash the DT.

 

[pecan2phat]

I've tried PL Medic on 3 different occasions over the past 10 years and after $500 in Medic and 3 totally failed attempts, I've shelved that product along with Kick-Ich and Herbtana.