Please explain this one

George · #1 02-05-2013, 06:22 PM

How exactly did you quarantine the fish?

Spyd · #2 02-05-2013, 06:26 PM

Definitely caused by stress. Is it an Aussie or from the Phillipines? The ones from Phillipines are far more prone to disease. I wouldn't worry about it much at all. As long as it continues to eat, then it will be fine. You can also add some garlic puree to the food to help boost its immune system.

BlueWorldAquatic · #3 02-05-2013, 07:49 PM

defiantly stress.

It may subside quite quickly, if you can catch him give him a freshwater dip.

Add garlic to food, and add a supplement like ImmunaVital or similar to the whole system.

adding a neon goby in the system is always a definite asset also (Did I mention we have a large supply of captive bred neons in stock at all times)

globaldesigns · #4 02-05-2013, 08:03 PM

I would just leave him alone, try not to further stress the fish.

I, as with many, believe ICH is always there. This is an ongoing discussion, all of us with our own point of view. I don't worry about quarantining. I purchase my fish only from LFS that do their due diligence in treating, feeding and only letting the fish go for sale, when ready. These stores do exist, and I have only ever lost one fish due to disease.

Sorry to hear about your beautiful fish, I think it will be ok.

RuGlu6 · #5 02-05-2013, 08:15 PM

Get a UV light if you don't want to risk all you fish getting it.

sphelps · #6 02-05-2013, 08:50 PM

Regardless whether you believe ich is always there or not, it will more than likely show up in your display tank despite your best efforts. This certainly doesn't mean quarantine procedures are useless but ultimately when you're dealing with something as common as marine ich, which can be introduced without fish, at some point you have a significantly good chance of dealing with it.

My advice is to accept the fact and not attempt to fix it. Leave the fish as is, in a healthy system with healthy unstressed fish ich will not flourish to the point of casualty, rather it will come and go in a fairly harmless manor. A UV sterilizer properly designed and sized for the aquarium is a good investment. While it will not eliminate ich completely and using it all the time is not necessarily beneficial for reef environments using it periodically as needed will help prevent large outbreaks of ich, especially when stresses are potentially high which is typical when new fish are introduced.

ScubaSteve · #7 02-05-2013, 09:05 PM

IMO, Ich is like the common cold for fish. If you get stressed, you get sick. If you rest up and each well, you get better. I don't think you can completely eliminate ich from your tank. After a mystery disease killed off all my fish a couple of years back, I let the tank sit fallow for 3 months... if there was ich, it should've all been gone by then. I quarantined my new fish for 8 weeks, all signs were good, so I put them in. Bam! Ich. WTF? Seriously? But after a few days it went away.

I'll only attempt a dip if it's getting really bad and not showing any signs of going away on its own. My Coral Beauty get small ich spots from time to time. I don't worry. It goes away in a couple days.

IMO, quarantine is more for the nasty stuff like velvet and worms.

sully08 · #8 02-05-2013, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by George

How exactly did you quarantine the fish?

Quarentined him with about 30 lbs. of live rock, lots of flow and good filteration and did 10% water changes every week, always tested for ammonia and nitrites and there was never an issue

BlueWorldAquatic · #9 02-05-2013, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sully08

Quarentined him with about 30 lbs. of live rock, lots of flow and good filteration and did 10% water changes every week, always tested for ammonia and nitrites and there was never an issue

There is your problem, a quarentine system should be void of rock and sand.

Ich can survive on/in it when not on fish

A QT system "should" be a fresh system with places for the fish to hide, using water from the DT

Everyones QT system can vary though

Reef Pilot · #10 02-05-2013, 11:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sully08

Quarentined him with about 30 lbs. of live rock, lots of flow and good filteration and did 10% water changes every week, always tested for ammonia and nitrites and there was never an issue

That's not good enough. If you did not QT with copper or do the hypo routine, you could still transfer ich to your DT.

I had this happen to me last year. I normally do the hypo routine, and have been 100% successful with that. However, last year, because I was also QTing some new inverts at the same time, I couldn't do the hypo, and just kept them all together in QT for 6 weeks.

The new fish looked fine, and there was no sign of ich, so I transferred them to my DT. About a month later, I noticed some ich in my DT (which had been clean for almost 2 years) and before long I had a full blown ich outbreak. It took me 2 more months of diligent feeding and frequent water changes before the ich ran its course and subsided. Unfortunately, I did lose 2 of my favorite fish, but all the rest survived OK. Ironically, none of the new fish got ich or showed symptoms, but they were obviously carriers. Maybe they were already immune to that strain of ich.

So just QTing fish for 6 weeks, without any treatment does not guarantee anything. My recommendation is hypo, though, not copper.