Very Tired of dealing with parasites...

GreenSpottedPuffer · #1 09-16-2008, 09:59 PM

Long story but ever since my move about 7 months ago, things have never been the same with my tank. I have not been able to get rid of the ich in the system. Before the move, I QT'd everything that went into the tank even corals. I never had ich. That was about a year ich free.

After a disaster of a move where I lost a bunch of fish and all my corals, the fish that did make it, suddenly had ich! Where the heck did it come from all of a sudden???? Nothing was added. They were stressed though. So it must have been there all along. I QT's them in hypo for 6 weeks. LR was QT'd in a different tank and some was even dry. Two weeks after setting up the display, ich again. So I figured 6 weeks was not enough. I did it all over again for 8 weeks. After the 8 weeks, nothing new added, I put them all back in the display. After about two weeks, ich again! So I decided to just try to let them fight it off. They have done very well and the outbreaks are now very, very minor and only effect the two puffers. I don't understand why hypo is not working this time. I have calibrated my refractometer so many times and used my brothers as well. Got 1.008 every time. Im sure the salinity was low enough. It seemed to have gone. I never saw white spots for three to four weeks. But it always comes back.

Anyways I am sick of dealing with this and think I may give up saltwater for a while. I am traveling for work quite often now and may be away for 3 months at a time. I don't want to leave my fiance in charge of a tank with parasites...its not fair to her. I just don't have the time or energy for this right now.

So I think I am going to try to go back to freshwater puffers for now. I love Fahaka Puffers and think my tank would be perfect for one. Way cheaper to maintain and WAY less disease to ever deal with.

Anyways, how would you guys go about this? I need to first find homes for my fish and corals I guess and then sell my skimmer and whatever equipment I won't need. My dilemma is though, how do I find homes for fish that need to be QT'd again??? Should I do it myself before selling them? I just can't figure out how to go about this. Most of the fish have no signs of ich but I don't want to sell them and not tell people they have been exposed. What would you guys do?

And then the biggest dilemma for me is that I am very attached to my fish. Its going to be so hard to let them go even though I think its for their own good because I don't have the time to help them. But how likely is it that I can find a good home for them? I think I know of someone who may be able to take the Burrfish and I know will give her a great home! But as for the others I have no idea. I don't want to just post an ad and have them go to random homes. Man I have no idea what to do

Any advice or suggestions would be great right now. I don't know where to start to get these guys to a good home.

This is whats in the tank now:

4" Burrfish
5" Dogface
6" Niger Trigger
5" Blue Spotted Rabbitfish
2" Coral Beauty (will talk to original owner about him though)
3" Cleaner Wrasse
5" Fu Manchu Lion
4" Stripped Cardinal
A bunch of damsels

After writing this I am not even sure I can let them go...Maybe another shot at QT? I just don't have the space to QT them all. And I don't mean tanks, I mean physically in my place I can't set up a bunch of rubbermaids again. Not to mention I will be away a lot and not able to monitor QT which is so important.

Aquattro · #2 09-16-2008, 10:06 PM

Ya know, I'm not sure what I do or why I don't have problems, but my last ich carrier was a sailfin tang I brought home last month. I did nothing but feed a bit of garlic on nori, and turned the lights out for a day. Within two days, the ich was gone. I had the same thing with my powder blue. Ich gone in a day. Not saying it was garlic, since I only fed once to the sailfin, but I figure a calm tank, good water quality and an environment that provides hiding places causes the fish to relax and use it's own immune system to fight off the ich. Just my experience with this....

GreenSpottedPuffer · #3 09-16-2008, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Ya know, I'm not sure what I do or why I don't have problems, but my last ich carrier was a sailfin tang I brought home last month. I did nothing but feed a bit of garlic on nori, and turned the lights out for a day. Within two days, the ich was gone. I had the same thing with my powder blue. Ich gone in a day. Not saying it was garlic, since I only fed once to the sailfin, but I figure a calm tank, good water quality and an environment that provides hiding places causes the fish to relax and use it's own immune system to fight off the ich. Just my experience with this....

Oh I hear this all the time but its just not working for me. I feed very heavily with garlic and all kinds of vitamins. I do water changes once a week now to keep nitrates down to 5 or below. Usually 0 though. There is no aggression in my tank. The fish usually seem fine and happy but right now my dogface is not looking great and thats why Im feeling like I want to give up for now. It had been soooooo long since I saw ich and then last night to find it again was horrible. Temperture does not change more than 1 degree a day, EVER. I have the tank set up better than ever. Big skimmer, ozone, big refugium. Water quality is better than I have ever kept it but still they just keep getting ich.

My burrfish seems to have IP again too. I have heard they have to be dewormed throughout their whole lives sometimes though. I don't know if thats true but this would be the third time she has to be medicated for IP in about 6 months. She is a VERY tough little fish though. So active and nothing seems to bug her.

Aquattro · #4 09-16-2008, 10:18 PM

Ya, that's weird. My temp hit 90 over a couple of days, no ich for me. Other than getting the fish home with ich, I've never had it pop up. Maybe something else you haven't considered? Electrical shorts, etc?

GreenSpottedPuffer · #5 09-16-2008, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Ya, that's weird. My temp hit 90 over a couple of days, no ich for me. Other than getting the fish home with ich, I've never had it pop up. Maybe something else you haven't considered? Electrical shorts, etc?

I have checked that too

I have everything on GFCI, so if there was stray current, it would shut down. Especially everytime I put my hands in the tank.

I just can't figure it out. I think all the "wasted" time QTing is what has really discouraged me. About 4 months for most of the fish. Plus I have been still QTing the last few new additions even though ich is already in the tank. Just didn't want to make it worse. Amazingly the rabbitfish has never had it. The Niger did for a day but otherwise nothing I can see. The coral Beauty none either. Its really just the puffers and I see the damsels flashing a lot too.

GreenSpottedPuffer · #6 09-16-2008, 10:25 PM

It kind of makes me miss freshwater where I never QT'd and never once had any disease in all the years I had freshwater. Not to mention how much cheaper it is. Feels like Im paying so much money just to keep sick fish.

Chad · #7 09-16-2008, 10:46 PM

Maybe find a friend who has some spare moments every day to help you with your QT? Place a few in different peoples care.. then in a month and a half or so bring them back home to your tank. Where by this time the ich should have cycled out.

The QT would need to be hypo, so your QT babysitters need to have the ability to maintain that.

GreenSpottedPuffer · #8 09-16-2008, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chad

Maybe find a friend who has some spare moments every day to help you with your QT? Place a few in different peoples care.. then in a month and a half or so bring them back home to your tank. Where by this time the ich should have cycled out.

The QT would need to be hypo, so your QT babysitters need to have the ability to maintain that.

Yeah I had thought of something like this but I don't want to ask people to do this even for pay. Its a lot of responsibility. And if anything happened to them during QT I wouldn't want someone else to feel really guilty.

If I do decide to QT, I will try to QT them myself. I think if I set up my ozone in the QT then I can keep the water quality up. It would be crowded but Im not as concerned about that as I am about water quality.

robert J · #9 09-17-2008, 12:00 AM

Just need to set up an UV Sterilizer (more than 30W) with 55 GPH only, ich will be gone in 2 weeks. After that you still need to run for another month or so to make sure ich is gone forever. It worked for me, I never used any medication or quarantine.

GreenSpottedPuffer · #10 09-17-2008, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robert J

Just need to set up an UV Sterilizer (more than 30W) with 55 GPH only, ich will be gone in 2 weeks. After that you still need to run for another month or so to make sure ich is gone forever. It worked for me, I never used any medication or quarantine.

Thats no different than using ozone though and actually ozone should be way more efficient than UV. I could give it a shot (and thanks for the thought) but with ozone already running, I don't really see the point. I do think ozone is the reason the ich is not as bad as it could be. The problem with both ozone and UV is that ich is that they both only kill what passes through them and Ich does not stay in its free swimming stage very long.

It may be worth a shot though. It can't hurt anything. But if I do decide to keep this tank up, I am going to just go ahead and QT them once again. Maybe for 10 weeks this time! Apparently 8 was not enough