Trying This Again

[all4wheels2]

Alright...round two with the ich.

First time...

All fish were fine (six line, clown pair, firefish, yellow tang). Then I added the blue tang and all **** broke loose. I moved all the fish to QT (no I didn't use one beforehand). Dropped the salinity down to what was probably too low...1.006/7. The ich went away in about a week, but so did my six line wrasse's fins. He didn't have fin rot..I checked.. but the stress of the low salinity and pH caused his fins to kind of break off ( I guess kind of how humans lose more hair when they are stressed). The wrasse finally just died on me - never a spot of ich to be seen. So I said to **** with it and put all the fish back in DT.

Well...this morning fish were ok, few spots on yellow tang. I have been using Ich Attack. Tonight when I got home, both of my tangs looked like freakin snowflakes...just covered in white dots!!

So now I'm going to try this again. Here's the plan:

Both tangs are going to go in their own QT since they are the ones that keep breaking out.

The firefish and clown pair will also go in their own QT since they have yet to show any spots.

Going to drop the salinity to 1.015 and keep the temperature around 80F.

Please tell me your thoughts - especially about the proper salinity. Thanks again for any information.

 

[FTMMWS]

WetWebMedia Forum - A General Guide to Hypo

Take few minutes and read this

 

[Greenturtle]

1.010 would be the LOWEST I would ever go, and that increases stress, adding to the stress of being put into QT. I would use a copper based ich medicine ONLY IN THE QT! good idea for the 2 QT tanks, though.

 

[ccCapt]

First and foremost, a 40g tank is way to small for any 1 tang, let alone 2.

When you put all these fish in your qt tank, was it cycled or was it a brand new setup? If the tank wasn't cycled, are you doing daily water change to control ammonia? The fins on the wrasse most like erroded from ammonia burn if the qt wasn't a well established tank capable of handling all those fish.

Dropping the salinity to 1.015 and raising the temp will do nothing. You need to be at 1.009 for proper hypo. Rasing the temp might work for freshwater ich, but does nothing for saltwater ich. Are you using a properly calibrated refractometer to measure your salinity?

Don't waste your money on so called "Reef Safe" ich cures like Ich Attach. They don't work.

Read this 2 part article....
Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

 

[FTMMWS]

1.010 would be the LOWEST I would ever go, and that increases stress, adding to the stress of being put into QT. I would use a copper based ich medicine ONLY IN THE QT! good idea for the 2 QT tanks, though.

No, this will not get it done,,please just read about hypo and don't assume you know how to do it...1.009 is the target and i have ALWAYS did 1.008,,i have done hypo dozens of times and never lost a fish

cc,i didn't even pick up on the tank size ,,,,good point
please read one of the 2 links

 

[Greenturtle]

I know about hypo, but I would just not do it. If I saw my QT with anything lower than 1.014 I would freak out. It is just not very healthy and stressful to the fish IME. I did hypo for a bicolor blenny, follwed all directions, but he died in about 4 hours. He didnt look very healthy to begin with, and I think the low salinity caused stress and that was the end of him :/

 

[FTMMWS]

I know about hypo, but I would just not do it. If I saw my QT with anything lower than 1.014 I would freak out. It is just not very healthy and stressful to the fish IME. I did hypo for a bicolor blenny, follwed all directions, but he died in about 4 hours. He didnt look very healthy to begin with, and I think the low salinity caused stress and that was the end of him :/

Lower salinity does not stress the fish,,it relaxes them and lets them breath easier,completely healthy ,,would much rather do this to them over poisoning them with copper...JMHO
hypoOSTtherapyart.htm

 

[Greenturtle]

Aggressive Quarantine Treatment Tank - Aggressive Saltwater Aquarium Quarantine Treatment

 

[FTMMWS]

Not sure what i was supposed to be getting out of your link??
I think i put a little more trust in the guys at WWM over About.com ,,thats just me

 

[Greenturtle]

It just said that 1.010 would be ok. About.com is where I get a lot of info if I dont get it from here. IMO It would just be harder to maintain. But whatever works for you, works for you

 

[FTMMWS]

Thats fine,,but like i said, for me proof is in the pudding...i have done hypo on every fish i ever got over a 6 year period..Not a single loss..
So to the OP ,,IME and IMO hypo is the best and safest way to treat your fish..When done " properly " it will kill ich and the fish will be just fine..
Good luck wheels

 

[all4wheels2]

Thanks for all the feedback! I've read all the links, and many more...and no one seems to be able to make up their mind. I've gotten 1.008 to 1.015. That's a big freakin' range!

Anyways, this morning both of the tangs were dead I guess they just had too much on them - I haven't even gotten the salinity down. My other fish (clown pair and firefish) are doing well STILL

Even though the clowns and firefish are well and have never shown any spots of ich throughout two outbreaks, should I still keep them in QT? Maybe 4 weeks since they have no spots? I'm guessing I need to leave my display tank empty for at least 8 weeks??

So lesson learned, I'll quarantine from now on (it only took $90 worth of dead fish to figure that out )

 

[carey]

So sorry to hear about your fish, really stinks. :-(

It took me loosing 6 fish tostart a qt practice. sorry you learned the hard way.

Good luck, and again sorry about the tangs....beautiful fish

 

[FTMMWS]

Thats a bummer..sorry to hear that..,but like Carey said,,its how so many of us the learn.."the hard way" ..

Yes ,leave your DT empty for 8 weeks,,trust me ,it seems long now ,but in a year from now when its full of healthy ich free fish it will be a distant memory.

 

[ccCapt]

Thats fine,,but like i said, for me proof is in the pudding...i have done hypo on every fish i ever got over a 6 year period..Not a single loss..
So to the OP ,,IME and IMO hypo is the best and safest way to treat your fish..When done " properly " it will kill ich and the fish will be just fine..
Good luck wheels

I agree 100%. I've always gone down to 1.009 (measured with a properly calibrated refractometer) and never had any issues.

 

[all4wheels2]

Thanks all.

I decided to just redo my main tank while my fish are sitting in QT for 6-8 weeks. I completely broke it down and am setting it back up and re-cycling it. I guess I'm going to be ich paranoid now, and want to do everything possible to get rid of it, even if I have to start over

Will definitely use a QT from now on Don't want any more dead fish.

I only had a few pieces of live rock (which I'll put back in the tank), but the rest was all dry rock, so it should be ok left out right?

I syphoned the top layer of sand, but didn't want to replace it since I have hermits and snails in there.

 

[Unicorn]

If u r cycling with snails and hermits than they will die.
Also your base/dry rock had beneficial bacteria on it. When u leave it out of the water for too long it's dead

Ick is also a sign of stress! Make sure your fish aren't stressed e.g. Dont place tangs in a 40g

 

[all4wheels2]

Snails/hermits - replaceable since there are only a handful in there.

Dry rock bacteria - it grew once, it can grow again. Besides, I don't think it has that much since I originally started the tank back in July this year.

I got the whole stress thing, what I don't get is the tang thing - definitely a finicky fish, especially the Regal Blue (Dori). My yellow was actually quite fine in the tank...until I put the blue one in. And I'm not so sure it was my tank size that stressed him out, as he was in a smaller one in the fish store with more fish in it and had been there for a while. I'm more leaning toward just the stress of another change, and they seem to be very un-hardy fish.

But alas, I won't be adding anymore tangs until I get my 200g. But probably not even then, I've had my fill of them lol

 

[Unicorn]

Snails/hermits - replaceable since there are only a handful in there.

Sad how some people just don't have respect for any life... Every creature deserves better than that. There are 6 billion people out there, who cares about a few hundred dying in war...

 

[all4wheels2]

Wow...taking some things way to seriously. If you have that much regard to life, then why are you keeping wild animals in a box???

Oh, and if you must know, my snails and hermits are doing just FINE. Still alive and very active.

Thanks for your input