When can I add fish again!!!

[tuwhada]

Well I recently royally messed up. Lesson learned! I have a 90g sw fowlr tank that has been up and running for almost 2 years. I intorduced a new fish with qt it and well..... ICK!!! Yup wiped out my whole tank! I so far have 2 fish left! Was so mad b/c these fish have been in here since hte beginning, inclduing a regal angel and a lollipop tang!
But again lesson learned. And now I have a spare setup soley to be used for qt.
But now the question is. I obviously want to add more fish and I am in no huge rush but how long should I wait to add new fish again. I had treated the tank by dropping the salinity and treating with vitamins and these guys just could not shake it. The 2 fish left are still showing mild symptoms but no noticeable spots. SO obviously I am not going to add anything until there are NO symptons at all. But how long after there are no symptoms would it be safe???

Thanks,
Christina

 

[quarryshark]

The 2 fish left may be resistant, but will still host the parasite and allow it to continue to survive. I would place them in qt for at least 6 weeks and leave the main fishless. This will allow the parasite to die off due to the lack of hosts.
If you leave the fish in the main, any new addition could become infected.

 

[melosu58]

I agree that your main must be fishless for 6-8 weeks. If you dont the new fish will have same thing happen to them.

 

[Brenden]

Also how low did you drop the salinity?

 

[tuwhada]

Well I slowly dropped it over time. It has been at the lowest for I guess a week or 2 now. Would having it dropped too long cause a problem?

Ok so setup a qt tank for the last two survivors what about the rock and stuff that doesn't matter right?

Thanks,
Christina

 

[quarryshark]

Nope, can leave everything else in there. Only fish can be hosts.

 

[cmor1701d]

You need to drop the salinity in the QT ro 1.009 for a period of 4-6 weeks. You need to keep an eye on the pH as well as the ammonia levels. Be prepared for a 2x/day PWC to begin with. The main tank should have the SG slowly raised back up. Do you have any inverts in there?

What are you using to check the SG of the tank? Anything less than am ATC refractometer is probably not accurate enough for a hyposalinity treatment.

Here's a good article on Hyposalinity.

 

[Maurice2]

The 2 fish left are still showing mild symptoms but no noticeable spots.

IMHO, the spots will get worse and the 2 remaining will die too - by the time it's visible it's too late. Get them into a QT and treat with copper.

 

[tuwhada]

Ok I don't have the qt tank setup yet. I will in the next week or so. One of hte two fish died today. The other last one is doing well.
Yes I am using a refractometer.

SO once I get the last fish into the new tank setup I should raise the sal in the display tank let it run for a few weeks?

Christina

 

[demodiki]

Do you have inverts or LR in your display tank? The display is not where you want to drop salinity. Get the salinity in the display up to normal (1.023-1.026, debateable I know) and let it run fishless for 8 weeks.

Scrimp on the time and you will probably just lose more fish.

 

[roka64]

Quick question...(not that this is a solution)....Will cleaner shrimp eat the ICH babys that are free swimming (I know there are hundreds of them), or only off the fish?

 

[melosu58]

They will only eat parasites off the fish.

 

[Brenden]

Cleaner shrimp is in no way a cure for ich.

 

[johnkristie]

How low did you take your SG down? And how early did you catch the ich symptoms? I had ich about three months ago and hypo cleared it up real quick.