I'm an Idiot
 

After 5 1/2 yrs of being ich free, I introduce ich to Doofus :sad:

2 weeks after I rearranged the tank, I received 2 boxes of corals and lacking any place to quarantine all of them for the required time and because some of them were in need of tlc I placed them in the tank. 2 days later doofus had a few spots, this morning (exactly 1 week later) Doofus is covered.

Sorry to hear that.
If its any consolation, I have done the same thing

Sorry to hear Marie. So Ich can be passed on from the water or frag itself?

Geez, another one.... I sure hate reading about this over and over....

If it is ich (sounds like it from your description), and you decide to QT, go the hyposalinty route, instead of chemicals that may do more harm than good. And hopefully you have a fully cycled canister that is available to prevent ammonia.

With chemicals (other than copper, which is bad for other reasons), you get false hope, as it recedes temporarily, and then comes back worse, often in the gills, and your fish will die quickly. With hypo, the 2nd leg, if you get one is milder, and then you are home free after that. The fish are much happier in hypo.

I've done both in the past, so not saying this from reading on the internet. I now QT religiously before adding new fish.

Best of luck.

Lastlight, I believe it was transfered on the rock some of the corals were attached to.

Reef Pilot, I have treated Doofus already with copper when I first got him. Now he is a 10" fish and I don't think he will do well in a 20g hospital tank.....especially when he has 4 other tank mates that would have to be treated as well......I also don't have a tank big enough to house him for the required 8 weeks. He's going to have to get through this on his own and my house is going to smell like an italian restaurant again form all the garlic :lol:

Well, if your fish are healthy, chances are still good for a positive outcome. With my 1st episode, I didn't have a QT, and had no choice but to treat with some "reef safe" chemicals. Fortunately, none of my original fish died, but the new ones did.

The product I used then was Medic by Polyplab at triple dosage for a full month. The new fish didn't survive, but after a few iterations on my original tank residents, the ich finally went away. I did UV at the same time. So not saying this product works, but in my case, at least all my original tank inhabitants survived.

try a product called rid-ich plus soaking food in garlic it is completely reef safe and will save you alot of headaches... i used it with my regal and was amazed

I thought ich can only be spread through fish, not transfered any other way,

+1, Here is a link from liveaquaria.com:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/g...ral_pagesid=78

This and many other articles discuss the treatment of fish and fish only, nothing with live rock or coral. As Ich penetrates the skin and gills of the fish, I don't think your ich is from your live rock or coral additions.

Is there a doctor in the house to validate my claims? Hmmm, I just can't find anything to validate ICH from rock or coral.

Ich has a stage in its life cycle where it is free floating in the water. It is at this stage where Ich can be found virtually anywhere there is water.

http://sleekfreak.ath.cx:81/3wdev/VI...GIF/12P167.GIF

The life cycle of ich is they feed on the fish then detach and lay offspring in the sand, then swim in the water column and reattach to other fish. It is very possible that they don't only remain in sand, sometimes also on coral rubble.

In Maries case, that is exactly what happened!

Kien is right, was thinking about it attaching to things other than fish... So yes, if you got ICH from the coral/rock, it wasn't from that, it was just in the water.

Sorry to hear about your issue, keep the fish happy and stress free and all should be fine. Crossing my fingers for you.

Ich can be anywhere that is wet, sand, rock, water, fish, depdening on stages of its life cycle. The following diagram shows the life cycle of ich and normal time it spends on each cycle. In the tomont stage, ich can attach to sand, rock, coral or tank bottom. Also there are some information in the last few years suggest that the tomont stage can last up to 72 days (vs. 28 days in the diagram).

http://i1139.photobucket.com/albums/...hlifecycle.jpg

Knowing Doofus is the ultimate ich magnet I have been reasonably diligent about quaranting everything wet that goes in the tank but I have become complacent. The corals and rock arrived cold and needed to be dealt with fast.....totally my fault, I knew better and if I lose Doofus I'm not sure I will keep the big tank

If it's ich, it's easily treatable with minimum stress to fish. The hard part is that you have to treat all the fish and leave the tank fallow for 8+ weeks. Don't feel bad. I think it all comes down to luck. I don't know of anyone who is quarantining their inverts or corals. I know some quarantine fish.

I have a spare 4 ft 90 gal sitting here if you want to setup a proper quarantine , would hate to see anything happen to good ol Doofus.

Garlic Ich treatment
 

You know the drill Marie but for the benefit of others.
Take some dried food and soak it for 10 minutes in garlic extract (from the health food store) or Garlic Extreme from the LFS.
Dried because it will absorb more garlic than wet food.
Feed very often. The idea is to get as much garlic into the fish as fast as possible.

Continue feeding for a couple of weeks even though the spots are gone.

Good Luck. I am she he will make it.
Wayne

OMG Marie Im so Sorry, I hope Doofy is going to be ok.

+1

The reason your fish has ich is because it's stressed for some reason.

If you have a tank full of healthy fish and dumped a gallon of ich infested water, nothing would happen.

You just made that up.....

Ich is all over the place in the ocean. If it was to be killing healthy fish, they'd all be dead

Just like healthy people with normal immune systems don't die from the common cold

Fish in the ocean have a vast area in which to swim, not contained in a small box with a pathogen population explosion..
Good theory, as far as theories go, but unless you have something to back that up, you made it up...

I would have to agree. I know that my tank has ich but I have seen absolutely no sign of it what so ever in over a year. The only time I ever see it is when I add a new fish to the tank and then my powder blue and purple tangs have a break out for a few weeks.

I made it up based on personal experience. And I'm not the only one that has this opinion.

If ich attacks healthy non stressed fish, then wouldn't all fish in a tank be effected at the same time?

What exactly do you think ich is :lol:
Ich IS a parasite......like fleas. Fleas are everywhere too but not every dog has fleas.
My dogs (and house)do not have fleas but if I found a carpet at the second hand store and brought it home without cleaning it properly there is a chance my dog will get fleas.

Ich is NOT a virus, it has no similarities to the common cold what so ever

Think of it this way. Marko lives on the planet. Venomous snakes live on the planet. Marko can probably avoid these snakes for most of his life, just going about his business. But...should we lock Marko in the bathroom, and then dump a bucket of venomous snakes in with him, well, Marko's gonna be dead.

I am so sorry to hear that Marie. please keep us updated on how he does. I did recently gone through the same with my show achilles, unfortunately my guy didn't make it. Now I have a 4 inch spicement which also contracted ick. I am gonna try uv and protomarin and hope for the best. I guess best of luck for both of us.

The way I see it is if there's and airborne diesease that kills normally healthy people. The entire world population would die fairly quickly.

I've see lots of fish survive ich untreated. I've never heard of a human surviving venomous snake bites untreated

And if you had 10 other people in the same bathroom. Why would the snakes only attack one person?

Oh this is classic! :lol:

Also true...Can't compare a closed system to the ocean.

ich is not a disease. It is a tiny microscopic critter that swims through the water :lol:
Why do mosquitos bite some people and not others?......why do some people swell up and are itchy for days after being bitten by a mosquito but others aren't?.....why would you have 11 people in a bathroom?!?!

smart snakes??

As Marie stated, ich isn't a disease, it's a parasite. It's like 10 people going for a hike in the swamp. Not all will find a friendly leech, but some will. Nothing to do with immune system or stress. It's a parasite.

It doesn't matter what it is. It's the method of transmission.

Air is to humans as water is to fish.

Virus is to humans as parasite is to fish.

If a deadly virus is in the air all humans around it will be effected.

If a parasite is in the water all fish should be effected.

But they're not, because healthy fish can resist and fight the effects of ich

You're still making stuff up to cover up for the other stuff you made up. Virii are not comparable to parasites in any form or fashion. Just not

I feel so sorry for you, Marie. You and aquattro's tank got ich just one after the other, it's terrible. It looks like people got this problem around this time of a year and into the spring.

It's true that some fish won't be dead because of ich infection. But that doesn't mean we are not going to do anything to prevent the infection. Ich can be eliminated from a tank if you know its life cycle. A fish can have ich and survive this time, but maybe not next time.
And I don't buy the theory that a fish can have immune to ich. Ich is not a virus or bacteria. it's a parasite and it can attach to anything it get in contact with.

Lol we'll go with your non made up theory that ich parasites are smart and only attack the fish they dislike most

A healthy fish has a slim coat over its scales and in its gills. Which keeps ich from attaching itself.

Stressed fish lose the slim coat and are more Likely to be effected by ich

Actually Casey8, Aquattro's fish has Marine Velvet...... much more serious problem then Ich. Ich really is like fleas and at least in my mind, not usually fatal unless there are other things going on to weaken the fish

Actually, I said snakes "may" be smart. Not ich.