Help..... Ich running ramped..

[briandh76]

I have a 75 gal reef tank. I noticed the other day that my tang had ich. I moved all my fish except the damsels (i couldn't catch them) to my qt. However while in the qt it develped a sudden break/crack that obvisily leaked water all over the place. Luckily it's kept in my basement and the mop cleaned up the mess. Now my problem is I had to place the fish back into the 75. I don't have the money to go out and buy another tank untill I get paid next week. What should I do? I talked to the LFS and they advised be to do a freshawater dip. I had success with doing salwater dips when I had my freshwater fish. There are only 2 fish showing signs of the ich. my yellow tang and my clownfish. My damsels,and dragonet look fine so far. So what should i do?
All my levels turned out normal. My salinity is 1.023

 

[Phyl]

I take it by "reef" that you've got corals and inverts in there? Can you go out and buy a 20g rubbermaid container for 3-5$ at Walmart or Target? That sounds like it would be your best option. Nothing saying that you have to put them into a "tank" per se. If you had a 30g garbage can that you used to mix saltwater in that would do just as well (clean, never used for garbage).

Hopefully you come up with some alternate container for them soon. You'll have to catch the damsels if you have hopes of clearing your main of ich though. Good luck.

 

[steve-s]

You may have a two fold problem there. The clown is showing signs of another parasite. The white patchy area's are indicative of Uronema (most likely) or possibley Brooklynella. Have you seen any cloudiness surrounding the clown or red sores?

Cheers
Steve

 

[briandh76]

Well thanks for the help. I'm sd to say that they clownfish did not make it.
I am going up to the lfs and buying a new tank when I get off work. (I forgot I had an instore credit). So hopefully I can save the other fish. Now as far as filling the new tank can I just pull water off the main tank? I will be treating the follwing fish:
2-damsels (if I can catch them), 1 yellow tang, and 1 Dragonet.
Hopefully everything goes well and I don't lose anymore of the fish.
The tang looks alot better today than yesterday I might add. She is the only fish left that shows signs of ich so far.

 

[quarryshark]

Sorry for your loss.

Now as far as filling the new tank can I just pull water off the main tank?

Yes. If you are medicating the qt anyway.
What med are you gong to use?
I like Steve and suspicious that you may have 2 problems here. Can you get us a pic of the tang? It makes a difference in the way that you treat.

 

[briandh76]

I'll get ya a pic of the tang when I get home from work. There isn't much to see on her. But I will get a pic if I cn get her to come out of her hiding spot.

 

[briandh76]

tang pics for ya.

 

[quarryshark]

Nice tang.
She looks pretty good, is she eating Ok?
Keep an eye on her until you can get that qt set up. If she keeps keeps eating, thats a good thing.

 

[briandh76]

Nice tang.
She looks pretty good, is she eating Ok?
Keep an eye on her until you can get that qt set up. If she keeps keeps eating, thats a good thing.

Yea she's eating good and hiding good to. She does seem a bit stressed out over somthing. I also lost a hermit crab today as well. I think my sally crabs are getting a bit agressive. When I came home from the lfs one of my sallys was on top of the hermit crab just going to town. Sigh...
This isn't going to well so far.

 

[quarryshark]

BTW, what are your specific water parameter?

 

[briandh76]

ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrites- 0 ppm
Nitrates - 20
temp - 80 f
ph- 8.0
salinity - 1.023
My lfs tested them for me last night, he told me that that the nitrates need to come down a but everything else looked good.

 

[EXVISOR13]

I had the same problem, I was lucky to catch it asap ,ive been down that road before so i look my fish and corals over with a magnify glass
Anyway long story short I saw a few spots on my nasa tang only, i did not want to put any chemical in the tank and my qt tank is small so I would only be able to house a couple of fish only ,i was not able to catch him to put in another tank, he's fast and knows the tank to well so I went up and got a few parasite eaters and the minute I put them in they went to work, tank doing great other then a few wounds that the parasites were removed from
I have a 40 watt uv so why I even had any parasites does not make sense but all is well and have not seen anything else now for a few weeks so im hopping it was a one time wont happen again thing