New Reef Ich Problem

[fabbroc]

I talked to an experienced reefer today who told me that he does not quarantine any fish before putting them in but instead adds herbtana as a preventative measure.
Its interesting how everyone has their own methods to treat and prevent illness.
The method I think im going to use is as follows; dose herbtana when fish are added as a precaution or when signs of sickness are shown, and any fish with more severe symptoms will be quarantined and treated accordingly to bring them back up to heath. If my tank was bigger and more costly I would not hesitate to quarantine everything.

On a good note it looks like my clown no longer has ich, just a secondary bacterial infection.
Im not going to post any pictures tonight but im positive its ich. The bumps on the engineer goby are qute large and pronounced.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by fabbroc

I talked to an experienced reefer today who told me that he does not quarantine any fish before putting them in but instead adds herbtana as a preventative measure.
Its interesting how everyone has their own methods to treat and prevent illness.

After having my tank hit with velvet, and seeing how the over the counter meds did nothing, I'm not sure that's a real good idea Adding herbs is kinda like my method of praying to reef gods. Might give you a warm fuzzy feeling, but doesn't help protect your reef.
Like I said in another post, ich is not something I'd worry about very much, and if it happens, I feed garlic. That's always worked for me. But velvet? Unless you're going to feed radioactive garlic, you will need to treat outside the reef with real medication. Copper or CP. Neither are reef safe, and trust me, it's better to not have put the fish in the display than to try and get it out later...

[fabbroc]

Yeah I understand. At best it's a weak medication. I guess I'm trying to justify not having to quarantine fish before I put them in my display. So during this quarantine period (how long?) what other than external parisites get killed and what can be completely eradicated from your display?
I heard cupramine is the best copper, but what is cp? Any other meds anyone would reccomend?

[Aquattro]

CP is chloroquine phophate, said to work against ich, velvet and brooklynella. I've just heard about and used it recently, and I'm happy with the results. I know that it's fun to come up with reasons not to run a q tank, I did for 12+ years. It always worked, until it didn't. I lost about $1000 worth of fish in a week over adding a fish I didn't really want in the first place, but made an impulse purchase. I will not do that again. Once I've added my new treated fish, I will not add another fish without treating it first. This will likely mean not adding another fish, since I really don't want to quarantine. But if I find a must have fish, I will.

[paddyob]

Rarely and never should be separate.

I never use one. Been lucky I guess. Although my coral beauty developed ich shortly after adding her, but it never spread and she beat it.

Neon goby and cleaner shrimp.

[daniella3d]

I think with velvet it is not really a matter of "if", but rather a matter of "when" it will happen. One could be lucky for years and years and as we saw recently, disaster strike.

These things can be prevented.

Now I wonder if a peroxyde dip and then putting the affected fish into a clean fresh tank with good cured liverock could have saved the velvet infested fish?

I got a really bad strike of discus plague after introducing some new discus to my stock (no quarantine!). They were all dying within about 10 hours later, so I did an extreme mesure and did a permanganate bath for 4 hours (strong oxydizer) and transfered all the fish into a clean tank. I did that each day and the fish all survived...did not lose a single one. At some point my prized show melon female was on its side floating on top of the water and I thought she was dead (not breathing). After the PP bath she revived and she spawned 6 weeks later.

Discus plague is a fast acting bacteria, and is can kill as fast as velvet, even faster.

I guess with velvet getting rid of the parasite fast (really fast) is a must.

I wish I could have a way to mesure precisely 50ppm of peroxyde. Anyone have an idea what concentration would need to be used with 3% peroxide to get 50ppm?

Also anyone ever tried permaganate potassium in saltwater?

Originally Posted by paddyob

Rarely and never should be separate.

I never use one. Been lucky I guess. Although my coral beauty developed ich shortly after adding her, but it never spread and she beat it.

Neon goby and cleaner shrimp.

[fabbroc]

Well looks like I will be quarantining all my fish from now on. Thanks for everyone's input.
So how long should fish be quarantined for? Does anyone medicate for prevention?

[Reef Pilot]

I QT any new fish at least 2 months, and put them through the hyposalinity (no chemicals for me) routine, whether they look sick or not. That also gives them time to get feeding well, and be healthy and strong when introduced to my display tank. I use display tank water at the end when raising the salinity, and that gets them acclimatized prior to the move.

[daniella3d]

now that's going to be efficient against velvet for sure...

herbatamachin won't do anything against marine velvet. It's a total waste of money. At least if you're going to do that, use some real medicine as a dip first, like formaline dip or Seachem Paraguard one hour dip, not snake oil.

Once you will notice sign of sickness, all the fish might be dead 24 hours later.

You don't quarantine after the fish are sick...you treat after the fish are sick..you quarantine BEFORE you put them in your tank so not all your fish become infected if one come out with velvet.

Originally Posted by fabbroc

I talked to an experienced reefer today who told me that he does not quarantine any fish before putting them in but instead adds herbtana as a preventative measure.
Its interesting how everyone has their own methods to treat and prevent illness.
The method I think im going to use is as follows; dose herbtana when fish are added as a precaution or when signs of sickness are shown, and any fish with more severe symptoms will be quarantined and treated accordingly to bring them back up to heath. If my tank was bigger and more costly I would not hesitate to quarantine everything.

On a good note it looks like my clown no longer has ich, just a secondary bacterial infection.
Im not going to post any pictures tonight but im positive its ich. The bumps on the engineer goby are qute large and pronounced.

[RSM]

I have never quarantined anything for over 4 years and have been lucky, but luck runs out. My skimmer pump blew up over night while I was sleeping, tripping the breaker. 8 hours later without any power all the fish have ich and look close to death. Such a sick feeling. Lost 3 fish so far and the rest are bouncing back. Its been a month since this happened. System is a 210 gallon mixed reef.