Sick Ich

[ShannonFaas]

Hi all! I have a 70 gallon tank that we are really fighting right now. We have had a slow climb of nitrates which we have down to 80 right now but are still doing 2 water changes at 14 gallons a week each. Our blue hippo tang has lateral line disease which we think the nitrates caused. We had an undergravel filter that must have harbored the nitrate. We have been working with a local tropical fish place that said putting live rock with a lot of flow will help. All of our fish have been in our tank for approx 6 months or more. We put the live rock in about a month ago and have had nothing but problems since. Now our fish have ich. The coral beauty seems to be having the hardest time. The local place said to mince garlic in the brine shrimp and feed that once a day, we also do a pellet feed in the morning. Our blue hippo was the first to come down with it, then the sail fin...we increased the water temp, did the garlic, thought it was going away then woke up one morning a couple days ago with the coral beauty covered and looks to be blind in the left eye now...I am not sure if the live rock caused this...please give me any adivce you can...we are at a loss now..and don't want to lose anymore fish....the day after the people came to put the live rock in...we lost our fox face. HELP!!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Think this post gives you some good info and links...

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f16/heat-treatment-for-ich-122812.html

The live rock didn't cause the ich. If your fish have been in there for 6 months, then most likely you've had it all along and the fish were just strong enough to deal with it. But with the new aquascaping and mucking about in the tank, it probably stressed them out more than normal and their immune system just couldn't deal with it all. No different than humans, really.

 

[dannyb]

What sort of filtration do you have? You should have LR and LS. How many fish do you have?

 

[ShannonFaas]

OK, I am not good with short hand....I am not sure what LR and LS is...I have a canister filter, protien skimmer, used to have an under gravel filter but the "fish experts locally" said don't use it...they put in live rock and 2 power blowers, I also have one other aerator that was from a part of the under gravel that we kept the power head in and capped the bottom off.

 

[ShannonFaas]

I have 2 clowns, 1 blue hippo, 1 sail fin, 1 silver angel, 1 blue damsel, 1 coral beauty, 1 brittle star, about 60lbs of live rock, and inch and a half of live sand,

 

[thincat]

S, LR= Live Rock, LS= Live Sand. Was the LR cured or uncured?

 

[ShannonFaas]

Thank you for being so patient with me...I am new to this online aquarium talk. I have both LR and LS, the LR was cured. I saw it in the shop and the tank did not have a smell to it (learned that on a different thread). I really trust the guys that run the shop. They are very protective over their animals. I just can't get this under control. They don't open until 11 our time, so I wait. In the meantime I was hoping to get help. I have posted a couple pictures of my tank on my profile. The live rock is set up so they have pleanty of areas to swim through. This morning the Coral Beauty is still alive but breathing hard still. Covered in white spots. The Blue hippo and the sail fin have a few spots...less than yesterday but still have some. The water temp is at 85 degrees (my heaters won't allow it to go below that when they are on even low, we usually have it at 78 degrees with no heaters) The fish are swimming around as usual, do not look stressed other than the coral beauty. I also forgot to meantion our Puffer in my list of fish. He seems fine too. The coral beauty tried to eat this morning but seems off like it can't focus on the food. One eye is cloudy. At least it tried to eat though..it hasn't tried in a couple days.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I can't help much more than what I've already posted, but one thing you can do as soon as the shop opens is get new heaters. You need to get heaters that can keep the tank at a reasonable temperature. 85 is too hot... 78 is good. The higher the temperature, the less available oxygen in the tank - not a good thing when you're trying to keep the stress level down in the fish. If a heater set to low still keeps your water at 85... something is really wrong with that heater.

It sounds like your fish shop is trying to do the right things for you. Ditching the undergravel filter and switching to live rock was a good move. If they told you to elevate the temperature to treat ich, then they're confusing saltwater ich with freshwater ich. Bad advice, but it sounds like at least they're *trying* to get your tank back in shape.

Sounds like you might have too many fish in a 70g, but that's just my opinion and something you might think about when you get the current situation dealt with. I definitely wouldn't add more fish once you get things under control.

 

[melosu58]

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

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

ATJ's Marine Aquarium Site - Reference - Hyposalinity Treatment

Marine Fish Diseases and Parasites

 

[ShannonFaas]

Kurt, I have turned the heaters off, with no heaters my tank maintains itself at 78, I also have a bubbler going to hyper oxigenate the tank. The fish were handeling the temp ok, but with further research and looking at multiple references such as above (Thanks Mike) I tend to agree that the warmer water will not help my tank. I am going to attach more photo's of my tank....when they put the LR in, my foxface died that night..so the LFS is replacing that. My fish really don't seem to be bothered by their tank mates, or the ammount, probably because the fist are still pretty small. I will keep the advise not to add, other than my replacement foxface which won't be until I have the tank healthy again for at least 3 months. I have never had a problem with Ich before, we have had our tank for a couple years now. Our first batch of fish met their demise with a poorly orchistrated water exchange...but now we buy all our water from the LFS. Bully the star is our only origional member of the family. The rest we have had for over a year and a half, 2 of which were added on Mothers day this year. We did have a bottom feeder which committed fishicide....(actually we have had 3 and all have done that) and 2 tiny damsels have been eaten by the protien filter. We have fixed that problem as well. If you have any more advise, please let me know!!