Possibly Ich?

melypr1985 · Feb 20, 2016

MikeyB said:
Alright thanks for all the info again. I think im going to keep an eye on everything for now as i dont think i could ever catch every fish without tearing apart my tank and that's something i'd rather not do at the moment.

No problem.. Happy to help

I know just what you mean... I did it and it sucked major. I never did get my rocks back the way I had them.

MikeyB · Mar 2, 2016

Well, i wish i could come here with good news.. Alas, that is not the case. I dont think what i saw was Ich, i think it was Marine velvet, as it has wiped out 90% of my tank the last day and the half. They would get pale looking, like they lost a lot of color then bam, dead out of nowhere.

I pulled out what i had left and i have a friend holding onto them for now as i couldnt get a QT system set up in time. Hopefully we can save the couple fish that's left.

My question is now, i know i need to let the tank go fallow now for 76 days, but what should i do with all my coral? My tank is pretty much all SPS.

Humblefish · Mar 2, 2016

MikeyB said:
My question is now, i know i need to let the tank go fallow now for 76 days, but what should i do with all my coral? My tank is pretty much all SPS.

All your corals/inverts can remain in the DT for the 76 day fallow period. They cannot host parasites the way a fish can. You can ghost feed the tank a pinch of flake or pellets every few days to maintain bacterial levels, but I suspect your SPS will enjoy the poop free clean water conditions of having no fish. Best SPS reef I ever had was fishless.

It is very difficult to distinguish between ich and velvet sometimes, especially in the early on. And by the time you figure out its actually velvet, it may be too late to save your fish. That's why when in doubt, treat with either copper or Chloroquine phosphate as those chemicals treat both ich & velvet. Better safe than sorry.

MikeyB · Mar 2, 2016

Humblefish said:
All your corals/inverts can remain in the DT for the 76 day fallow period. They cannot host parasites the way a fish can. You can ghost feed the tank a pinch of flake or pellets every few days to maintain bacterial levels, but I suspect your SPS will enjoy the poop free clean water conditions of having no fish. Best SPS reef I ever had was fishless.

It is very difficult to distinguish between ich and velvet sometimes, especially in the early on. And by the time you figure out its actually velvet, it may be too late to save your fish. That's why when in doubt, treat with either copper or Chloroquine phosphate as those chemicals treat both ich & velvet. Better safe than sorry.

Thanks for the tips on SPS. In hindsight, i had to tear apart my tank anyway to find some of my missing & dead fish so i should of done it sooner and probably could of kept many more fish alive. Not much i can do now sadly, but wait and start again.

Does it seem strange that it came from a frag though? I did a little research and found out it can come from anything wet, fish, coral, etc... Now going forward is there anything i can do, coral wise, to make sure that doesn't happen again? Would any coral dips do anything to help?

I have a little room behind my tank where my ATO and breaker box for my house is, so im going to reorganize that this weekend and setup some qt/hospital tanks so if i ever have anything like that come up again, i have everything readily available

Humblefish · Mar 2, 2016

MikeyB said:
Does it seem strange that it came from a frag though? I did a little research and found out it can come from anything wet, fish, coral, etc... Now going forward is there anything i can do, coral wise, to make sure that doesn't happen again? Would any coral dips do anything to help?

Ich & velvet both have a tomont stage (i.e. parasite eggs) which can encyst to any hard surface: Exoskeleton of a crustacean, snail/hermit shell, rock, SPS frag would be ideal. The only thing you can do to alleviate this risk is to isolate all corals/inverts in a "fishless" frag tank for an extended period of time; to wait out the tomont excystment (the free swimmers die quickly without a fish host to feed upon.) I place all corals/inverts in this 29 gal for 76 days before they go into my DT. Just cheap T5 lighting, Koralia powerhead, HOB powerfilter, heater, rock/sand and a frag rack gets the job done:

Coral dips probably do not eradicate parasite tomonts, as not even copper is capable of killing that stage.

MikeyB said:
I have a little room behind my tank where my ATO and breaker box for my house is, so im going to reorganize that this weekend and setup some qt/hospital tanks so if i ever have anything like that come up again, i have everything readily available

All QTs need to be housed at least 10 feet away from the DT due to aerosol transmission: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/aerosol-transmission.190292/