ich/finrot

[Sergie]

He foxface I bought on Friday had noticable signs of stress. His fins were decaying for a couple of days. Fins stopped decaying and seem to be healing. Just yesterday I noticed he had a lot of white dots that were sticking out. I have no doubt it was ich. Just this morning I saw the cleaner wrasse going to town on him. All white parasites are gone and only left dark spots where they were lodged. I understand that the ich cycle couldn't have been completed after only 12-18 hours. Would it be possible that the wrasse cleared the tank of ich? The foxface is swimming around alot more and has never flashed or shown signs of itching. I don't have a quarantine set up and it would be insane to break down the tank to quarunteen all the fish now. Should I just keep a close eye on all the fish? Nothing else shows signs of ich.

 

[stingrays4]

Hi i would just keep a very close eye on every thing and see how it settles down.

 

[all4wheels2]

As said, I would just watch them closely. Also, make sure you are feeding them well - lots of variety and nutrition. Hopefully, they will fight it off

 

[oO BRIGHTY Oo]

Do you have a UV steriliser?

 

[clownfishy]

I bought a UV steriliser after an extreme break out in my tank and i have never had a problem since. It was very reasonably priced too.

 

[Sergie]

I don't have one. He seems alot better today. He even tried to eat something. It was poop but atleast he's trying. So I threw some flakes in and he got one. I bout some seaweed in garlic. He hasn't eaten any of it but I'll leave it in and see what happens.

 

[oO BRIGHTY Oo]

I don't think the ich will cure itself, you will need to take steps to remedy the situation

 

[Sergie]

I'm not saying it will cure itself, but if the parasites were eaten before the reproductive part of their life cycle, then maybe I'll be in the clear. It happened before with my old coral beauty. Then I got a cleaner wrasse and a cleaner shrimp and no other fish was infected after that. And it's been months. I'll keep my fingers crossed for now. I'm hoping to avoid a tank tear down.

 

[Sergie]

Well it's been about 7 weeks and still no signs of ich coming back. Gotta give credit to my little cleaner wrasse, Wizard.

 

[stingrays4]

Hi that's great news How is the foxface doing now? Eating well?

 

[David S]

no thats not right,the spots are result of the parasite,at night the parasites drop off the host and basically breed,They multiply an awful lot.They then try to find another host a little while later,this can take days to weeks,becase the fall off at night its normally at the place your fish will rest for the night and will probably be the first again to be infected but not the last.the fish will again start darting around and rubbing itself against rock,glass or pipes,which is when you see scratch marks all over the fish,this process keeps happening until the parasites are destroyed.qt the fish,treat them and leave the tank empty for 8 weeks.
There are a lot of reef friendly treatments out there which may work,I'm trying one now,not sure if it will work but trying this before having to really stress my fish out trying to catch them.

 

[Sergie]

Yes it's awesome news! He's doing really well. He eats mysis shrimp, seaweed, algae and flakes. When I feed flakes I'll keep a pinch in my fingers and stick my hand in and he'll come right up and eat from my hand. Coolest thing ever.

 

[Sergie]

As stated it's been actually almost been 8 weeks in about 5 days since the parasites have been in my tank. They were only visible for about 10 hours. No itching or darting or scratching occurred. I believe the fish came into contact with ich at fish store. I don't think the parasite was ready for the reproductive part of it's cycle by the time my wrasse got to it.

 

[David S]

Ahh, sorry didn't notice the start date.Hopefully your right,maybe I could get a cleaner wrasse if they are ok with birdnose wrasses.

 

[Sergie]

It's all good. I think I got lucky with the wrasse. At the petstore he wouldn't even let their wrasse near him. He looked horrible. The owner didn't want me to buy him because of his bad state. But I had to try and help. My tank is much healthier than their holding tanks. Luckily my cleaner wrasse was persisant and within 10 hours he was picking away. Although I will admit that I didn't notice the ich until the day after I put him in and I definitely wouldve quarunteed him if I wouldve seen it. I got really lucky.

 

[melosu58]

I hope you have gotten over the ich stage but I can promise you that the cleaner wrasse was not the reason. The parasite multiplies far more than the wrasse can keep up. If you figure your parasites number in the thousands and 200 or more come from each one in a matter of days and then it starts all over again. Dont get me wrong he ate a few of them but not all of them. Here is some info on the parasite.

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: A Quarantine Tank for Everything by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

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

 

[Sergie]

The ich was introduced through the foxface. Ok, let's say the foxface had maybe about 20 of them on him. You can really "promise" me that he couldn't pick them all off in a matter of minutes of starting on them? This little guy can chase down 20 pieces of shrimp in 3 minutes. The outbreak on my foxface wasn't severe. He had seriuosly only had about 20 that got to adult size on him. Anything else wouldn't be in the reproductive part of the cycle. Even if younger parasites were to have fallen off, without a host to mature they'd die off.

 

[Sergie]

I'm not quite sure why you would assume that I had thousands of adult parasites...

 

[melosu58]

Believe me there is thousands in there. You might only see 20 -30 on the fish bit there are many in the tank you cant see. The ones on the fish are gourged on the fish`s juices and are getting ready to fall off. The ones that are not on the fish you cant see. When you read the article you`ll understand. I just dont want anyone to think that getting a cleaner wrasse will take care of ich in the tank. It wont.

 

[Sergie]

Trust me I've done plent of reading. And if you have also you would understand that it was introduced ON the fish in the begining of it's trophant stage. As it says in the article it needs anywhere from 3-7 days to mature till it's ready to fall off and begin it's reproductive stage of life. As I have stated multiple times, the ich was not noticible when bought, but appeared the day after, showing that it was in the begining stages of the trophant cycle. The wrasse picked them off before even day two. When would there have been a chance for there to be thousands in my tank? I'm not trying to dispute but you seem to be missing the facts that
1. No ich was in my tank prior too the foxface
2. Once the parasite was even visible on the fish it was introduced on, the wrasse ate them
3. The trophant stage could not have been completed
4. It's been about 8 weeks and I have no filtration. If the ich were in the thousands at that point, all my fish would be covered in it by now.