Ick and Morey Eel. Do I need to quarentine?

[stresco]

I noticed ick on my Purple Tang and harlequin Tuskfish two weeks ago and started feeding garlic soaked food and raised the temp of the tank to 82. They haven't shown any improvemnet as of yet, so have just moved them to a 10 gal hospital tank and i am using Cupramine to treat the little buggers. The question is this, i have a moray eel in my display tank as well as LR, Stars, Polyps, and various inverts. He, the eel. is not showing any signs of ick, and i just fed him, so i know he is eating. I have no other fish in the tank with him now. Do i need to remove him from my display tank as well during the quarantine period of the other 2 fish and treat him with the Cupramine? With him in the tank, will the life cycle of the ick parasites end or do they use him as well? Can i treat my display tank with anything without removing the eel? Should i be soaking his food with garlic as well? What about hyposalinity (is that lowering the salinity to 1.015)? Can i do that to my main tank without hurting anything? What do you think?

 

[Hara]

I have not every heard of an eel with ich. Someone else can jump in here and say differently, but I believe I would just leave him be until you at least see the first spot.

I would leave the temp at 82 and ride it out.

 

[stresco]

Hara, Thanks for your response. I think that i will do just that. Did you ever figure out what caused your tank to crash?

 

[Hara]

no, I think whatever it is that caused the inverts to die off will always remain a mystery, the rest of the tank dieing off had to relate to the resulting ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spike from the inverts. That is the best I can come up with.

 

[stresco]

I'm thinking of bringing the fish back to my LFS. Now that they are out of the tank, i have a lot more activity from my inverts. Crabs i havnt seen in weeks are out grasing on algea. And my skunk is out in the open again. Maybe the tusk was a bad idea in my tank? Another thought is that the Eel is stressing the fish out.

 

[Hara]

I dont know about the tusk, but my fish were never bothered or minded my eel, and he is 2.5 feet long....

 

[Richard]

82F ???

Hara, Why would you raise the tank temp. to 82F when the fish get ick. Does this help ward off the ick?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[fishfreek]

Increasing the tanks temp will increase the metobolic rate of the fish and the pareasite. Increasing the metobolic rate of the fish could increase its immune system and allow it to fight off the parasite better.