Clownfish problem
 

I guess I have some ich infestation.


http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/16/7uge6yga.jpg


Can I resolve this if I get a cleaner shrimp?



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I think the first plan of attack would be to check out the water quality. Have you done any testing?

I'd start pumping the Garlic Extreme to your tank with your feedings if you can quarantine the fish.

I have the nitrates are the only one thats 20ppm. I did do water change. It's down to a 10ppm.

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Okay. Ill go to my lfs.

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I found a product Hikari Ich-X Saltwater has anyone used this?

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If your clownfish is looking that bad, most treatments will not be effective.

Pumping garlic will do nothing as it has no effect on ich . The only use for garlic is an appetite stimulant.

In my experience, the only effective treatment for ich that you can easily get your hands on is copper.

I bring in tons of clowns and have battled ich almost every shipment (mainly from tangs) and if the body is covered as bad as your clownfish, I rarely can save it.

All aquariums have ich, and its normal to get a few cysts on your fish once in awhile. If a fish is healthy and eating well, then it's own immune response will typically fight it off.

The main cause of ich overunning your tank is if a fish is stressed out and it takes over that fish. When a huge population of ich has formed on a single fish, its basically a breeding ground for it and thats how it "spreads and kills" all your other fish. Its the sudden increase in the ich population in your tank that will wipe out all the fish.

What I suggest you do is take the clown out and quarantine it with copper. If you do not have a quarantine, then I would put it out of it's misery before the cysts spread to your other fish.

I agree i would take the fish out as soon as possible and just hope the rest of the inhabitants don't get ich. You could also try Hyposalinity but if you do it be sure you read tonnes about it first if you PM me i will give you some more details on it. I would also contact "reefwars" as he will help you along with the Hyposalinity, as well as give you tips

your clown really isnt looking well.

to be honest just about any treatment right now will probably kill the clown , i would feed the crap out of him and then decide to qt, but be prepared to go 50/50 on whether he makes it or not , as mentioned he is in bad shape and looking the way he does his days are numbered.

he needs very little stress so make sure he isnt being picked on and is eating well, if he wont eat like krakken mentioned start on the garlic.

this is a very good reason why qt has to happen to all fish , if qt cant be done then you have to be very diligent on the fish you choose.

when buying clowns try to go tank bred as theres a less chance of a disease as breeders usually have that licked:)

most of the off the shelf meds are just that , a quick off the shelf hope lol truthfully there are only a few methods that will cure him all of which are a better preventative vs a actual cure when a fish is in rough shape as it always involves removing the fish , acclimating him to qt and then getting through treatment.

i should note that if you do want to treat , all the fish need to be done and the tank has to go fishless for under a dozen weeks.

good luck but not a whole lot of options.

From the top of my head I remember that I read a research paper stating that hypo had little to no effect on ich. I will cite it once I get back on my computer.

Hypo can work. What you're probably remembering is that there are numerous localities/subspecies (I forget which) of Ich that all have varying degrees of resistance to changes in salinity. So hypo might work on some ich outbreaks but not other. Best to go with copper as you've previously stated.

Already got copper med and cu test....damn these are expensive.

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Hypo definitely does work. I have used it many, many times in my QT with 100% success rate. The key is to take it down to 1.009 and keep it there for at least 4 weeks. Also you need an ongoing QT set up ready to go with a canister filter (or similar sponge filter) to ensure you have a mature nitrogen cycle. Otherwise you will be battling ammonia and pH swings, and mostly likely not successful. It is not something you can set up and use at the last minute.

The biggest downside to hypo is that it is a lengthy process. The total process usually takes 2 to 3 months for me (taking it down and then slowly bringing it back up again). I also do a Prazipro treatment in QT.

But the important thing is to use QT as a preventative with all new fish. Pretty hard to catch your fish in the DT, and they will indeed be highly stressed with a move at that time. Plus your DT is now infected anyway, and likely more fish will get ich.

Another method (besides copper which I don't like) that I have heard works well, is the tank transfer method. Only takes 9 days to complete. Might try that myself one of these times instead of hypo.

When I do hypo I actually use live rock as the filter I keep a couple extra pieces in my sump just for this reason alone I swap out the pieces every 3 to 7 days I also place a powerhead at the bottom of the tank and a airline to it so that it will pull in oxygen There are a few species of fish but do not tolerate hypo

I do eight eight to ten week treatment at 1,009 and keep up with weekly water changes I feed on a regular schedule as well

Here's a link for the TT method. It's actually more like 12 - 15 days. But that is still pretty quick.
http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/3daytransfer.html

And here is a recent thread discussing QT practices and this method, and where I learned more about it.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...ght=quarantine

Don't you worry about the swimming stage of ICH being on/in your live rock your cycling back into your DT tank water from putting back into the sump?

(For reefwars) sorry a post snuck in between.

Are you sure that isn't Brooklynella? I just went through it with a new clown. Where Ich tends to be very distinct white spots, my clown looked more like it was dusty. If it is brook copper is not effective. The recomended treatment is formalin, I used paraguard dips for a week or so and followed that up with tank transfers.

I bought a fox face that looked good to go but a couple days later I started seeing ick on it and my uv light did a great job getting rid of it I also put garlic guard on my plankton before I feed every day so my fish r all secreting garlic out of them at all times I have 55 fish in my 200 gal mixed reef that has been running since 2008 and I have never seen a sick fish since the uv light was installed so my thoughts r to quarantine the clown if possible and treat as the others say or sad to say flush him. I strongly recommend purchasing a uv sterilizer light before buying fish and also check the fish out really good before buying and putting in with your other fish. I know this fix may not help your clown but will help you in your future reefing

Cheers,ryan

also thinking something else rather than ich from the picture.

About as worried as I would be as if it came in on a random coral etc that's the reason why I keep the hypo so low while others keep it a little bit higher

Looks more like Brooklynela or Velvet to me from the pics. If it's Brook then you will see pieces of skin start to fall off and the Copper will not help. Formalin would work but it may be too late by the looks of the fish.
If its velvet then the Copper should do the trick, but you will need to remove and treat all of the livestock and leave the DT empty of fish for the treatment period.

Yup both clowns passed away... probably not going to get livestock for a bit. Now how can I tell if DT is free from ich? Or how can I clear the ich problem. The corals survived. And inverts.

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If the tank is fishless now is the ideal time to let it stay hat way to make sure the ich is gone and look into doing a quarantine tank for new arriving fish it's also a good time to start focusing on doing corals and inverts more while the fallow period Is happening

Is there a test to check if the ich is gone?

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No there is no test that I know of any ways

If you plan on adding anything else in the tank other than fish, you will always have ich in the aquarium.

- About the hyposalinity, I couldnt find the research paper that cites it however I believe you are correct in that it was only a certain strain that they tested.

If your fish truly had icy, your tank should not have any fish introduced to it for 8 weeks at least.
Read this:
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...ths-facts.html

Looks like ich to me....not the expert by any means though.What has worked like a million bux for me, was hyposalinity. All natural. No chemicals, less risk, fewer long term effects. Anything I have read up on this all leads to "there is no quick fix" Not to mention your display will HAVE to run fallow (no host) for a minimum of 4 weeks anyhow, 6 on safe side unless u wanna kill everything in ur tank with copper and just run fish only forever... Follow directions TO THE LETTER and seeing as the little guy has been hit fairly hard, drop salinity very slowly. Lower saline actually reduces stress on fish (to a certain point at about 1.08)
My tw bits for what its worth....

I shouldve started this garlic before doing crap like cupramine and doing a qt. Xtreme garlic worked well.

after the death of my clowns, I was so devasted that I bought a set of livestock. Lol! This time I both pajama cardinal fish. I have two in my system. And it happened again white spot came and started filling up the their bodies. I was wanted to try the cheapest way is garlic xtreme. It worked well. A few days I thought it was going to be another lost. But by day 4 spots dissipated.

Before
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/28/emy5epa2.jpg


After
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/28/tyrysape.jpg

they are now eating healthy.



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Not to sound rude ,but if you had just been patient and gone fishless for the recommended amount of time your new fish wouldent be sick now . Ich has different stages ,the spots disappear and return at different stages of its life your fish might not be out of the woods yet.

^ is correct. Garlic only acts as an appetite stimulator...It has no effect on the ich itself. Normally speaking, a fish that is healthy can fight off ich on its own which is why I say its normal to have a few spots of ich on fish once in awhile. Its when they overtake the fish (while the fish is stressed) that you should remove the infected or quarantine.

If your Pj's survive, then that just means your fish was able to fight off the ich through its own immune system.

Understood just giving an update. Hehehe ty

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Would a fresh water dip work ?

I totally disagree. That's all I have ever used for ich and it has worked great every time. In my tank as well as others. My fish get garlic every meal

Just curious, what garlic do you use and how exactly do you prepare the food before feeding? I have tried soaking food in various garlic liquid products in the past, and my "finicky" eaters wouldn't touch it. Same goes with Selcon. They eat the food normally, but not when I soak it with something else. I know,... sounds strange,... especially when I keep reading how much fish are supposed to love garlic.

As for ich, I QT all my fish, and that is the only sure way that has ever worked for me. In the past I have had ich in my DT, and as others have stated, the healthy fish can usually fight it off.

But one time I put a fish through QT with just observing it for a while (no hypo or copper). Then after a few weeks in my DT I had a serious ich outbreak, and lost a couple of my healthy longer term residents. So it seems this fish was a carrier of a more virulent form of ich. Ironically, the new fish never did show any symptoms and was just fine the whole time. Maybe he had already gone through the immune phase with that strain of ich...

I used to use Kent Garlic Extreme and my last batch of food I made I used SeaChem Garlic Guard. I only feed homemade frozen food and it's added with the recipe. I've also just put a couple of drops on the food as it's thawing out in the past.

I tried the Kent Garlic Extreme, and it didn't work for me. But sounds like your fish get it all the time, and are trained on it. Some of my fish (the butterflys) are so finicky, that they only eat one type of pellet food or mysis. When I changed brands, they wouldn't eat it. And ironically, the pellet food that they do eat does contain added garlic.

I think some fish get very used to certain foods,... and don't like to change... That's why I try to feed a variety of different foods right from the beginning.