IS it ick?

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badamsios

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Dec 9, 2009
Messages
52
Location
Oakdale, Ca.
Please see photo... It does not shoe the extent.

1. I’ve had the fish for about 3 months. I don’t know if it was tank raised or not. I bought it from the local fish store and they said they don’t know either.

2. Its tank mates are a dwarf lion, an eibli angelfish and a Clown trigger the latter 2 of which have died yesterday and today respectively. Wednesday, just 3 days before I noticed this I added a brittle sea star, and 4 shaving brush plants that I bought from liveaquaria.com.

3. It is eating, it eats frozen brine shrimp, Aqueon Marine flakes, Aqueon Chichlid jumbo sticks, and algae which it keeps well under control.

4. PH is at 8.1, no ammonia, no nitrites and nitrates are always around 20. SG is 1.0235, I use a digital job, trust me it’s accurate. I don’t know the brand of the test kit anymore, I tossed the box some time ago.

5. It’s showing grains of salt size spots but not all are white. A lot are just darker spots of its yellow scales. The dwarf lionfish looks like the eyes may be clouded but I’m so paranoid right now…

6. The angel was flashing.

7. It’s swimming around, but not excited like normal. Rather sluggish and disinterested.

8. No quarantine, I’ve added no medication, I just noticed these spots yesterday when I had to search for the dead angel. The Trigger died today.

9. I always use Dr. Foster and smith’s drip method, spending around an hour to acclimate. This was done with the star fish as well as the plants.

10.Tank is 125 gallon, well lit with T5’s, both actinic and white. Substrate is crushed coral and I have around 40 lb.’s of live rock. I use a sump with ceramic heptagons (lots), it’s lit with a “grow” lite because I have an algae in it that is supposed to help fight nitrates, but I don’t know what it is anymore. I also use the Fluval G6 which contains ceramic heptagons, and a Coralife superskimmer 220.

11.On Sunday before the arrival of the starfish…etc., I did a 12% water change as I do every 3 weeks. I siphon the coral at that time. At a week and a half I (halfway between water changes) add Kent Marine essential elements.

12.Please note also that on Thursday my protein skimmer crashed.

13.The tank has been up and running for 7 months.
 

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Unfortunately, he does have ich. The death of two fish in a limited time frame like that means there is something going on in your tank. I would do a large water change of around 50% for starters and run some carbon to try and get whatever is poisoning them out of the water. Whenever you have multiple casualty's, it's never random.

Here is a link to an article that explains the disease and how to treat it, good luck!
Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com
 
Yes, that does look like Ich. Sorry for your losses.

Do you have a QT/ hospital tank you can transfer ALL remaining fish to?
You need to get all out oout of the tank for 6 - 8 weeks and treat the fish in isolation.

I beleive that Hyposalinity is the best cure for Ich.

Everything except coral should be placed in Quarantine for 30 days before beding added to the DT. Corals should be dipped (Revive & CoralRx, etc.)then swished in some tank water in a bowl before beign added.

Quarantine article1 and two


ICH articles
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2003/mini1.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2003/mini2.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2004/mini3.htm
Aquarium Fish
Aquarium Fish


Good luck. Please keep us posted.
 
I have a tank I can use for treatment and I like the hyposalinity option. However, the articles do not say if the move to lower salinity should be gradual and/or how gradual. Ideas?

Thank you VERY much!
 
I have a tank I can use for treatment and I like the hyposalinity option. However, the articles do not say if the move to lower salinity should be gradual and/or how gradual. Ideas?

Thank you VERY much!
The lowering of the salinity is done over a 36-48 hour period. You lower the salinty about .002 every 4-6 hours. So if your starting at 1.026, take it down to 1.024, then wait 4 hours, then 1.022, rinse and repeat til you get down to just under 1.009 then maintain that level for the treatment.

When your taking the fish back to normal salinity levels after treatment, the salinity change is more gradual and takes about 2-3 weeks to get back to 1.026.
 
Regarding a quarantine tank… If, as the article says, one should tear down the tanks after using it, when setting it back up and introducing a critter, won’t the ammonia and so forth develop stressing the critter? Does one do a partial water change once a week or something?

What if one WERE to leave it up? Would any problems arise if the tanks were empty but filtered and aerated for several months? Or would the bacteria’s die, thus defeating the purpose?
 
Read the link to Hyposalinity in my first post. It tells exactly how to bring the SG down and back up.

When first setting one up you need to do at least a 20% daily PWC. Twice daily would be beter (before going to work, and after coming home). You need to keep up that routine for a week or two till you have an established biological filter. I use a HOB with one of those bio-wheels. I keep the bio-wheel in my sump should I need it or stupidly make an impulse purchase and just have to get something that should be QT'd.
A sponge filter kept in the sump will do the trick.

If you leave the tank running like you might while first stocking a disply tank, you need to feed the bacteria a small pinch of flake food or frozen, etc. I do mean small. You want to keep the bacterai alive without causing ammonia spikes.
 
Got it, thanks. I think I read the article so may times, I'm starting to forget more than I ever knew.

Brian
 
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