Lost all my fish!!!!

[enjoyfish]

In the last 2 weeks i lost all my fish , pygmy angel ,royal gramme two clowns all to ick. I tried everything to save them , put them all in there own tank and used meds , no luck. The only fish i had left was a mandarin goby , my favorite . I dosed the main tank 2 times did a 50% water change . then bought a damsel at the lfs , on the 3rd day it had ick real bad and was dead the next morning , But worse than that my mandarin was missing . I found him in my carpet anemon. that little fella was the hardest to loose . so now i dont know what to do about these parasites ?

This topic has been split from it's previous topic and moved to it's current forum.

[michealprater]

wow, that really saddens me to hear of that kind of loss. Is there anything else still alive in your tank. If so maybe put them in your quaritine system while you do a 100% water change and cycle the tank again. Not sure if thats correct, but its my best guess.

[enjoyfish]

well , i still have 20 turbo snails . had 30 , but lost 10 when i dosed , 1 carpet anemone blue , 2 curly cues , 1 pensil urchin , 1 banded shrimp , 3 brown featherer dusters , 1 brain , 3 clams and some mis. also 30 pds of live rock that seem ok .

[Yellow Eye Tang]

I'm very glad that you posted this message..... how hard can it be for a person to suffer such a loss?? My friend, i am in the excat same situation and have been reading the forums non stop to no avail.... i have been posting messages about the ICK myself. I've heard some very great advice and tried them all. I bought a yellow eye tang (wich i thought was going to be my best fish yet) and i think i got him WITH the ICK. He has since, tormented my tank with this desease. Finally, after 5 days of treatment to the main tank with Kordon's "Rid-ICK", i thought it was gone from him. (Through this process i bought a Cleaner Shrimp to take care of any extras) I then noticed all was gone on Saterday of this week. Later that night i came home to a Tang completely COVERED in ICK. I removed him immediately to a quarantine 10g tank. Since then i have treated him with straight Malachite Green hoping that i might save him. Tonight (Monday) i have come home from work to find out my Flame Angelfish (of two years) is covered. WILL I LOSE ALL OF MINE TOO? Am i doing the right thing? Do i need to pull the angel out of there too now? How do we rid ourselves of this desease once and for all? Im simply asking anyone out there to give me the THE BEST solution to the subject weather it be a new tank or quarantine of everything or what....... I have great conditions of water as far as i know and have performed the necassary water changes. Ok ive rambled long enough but i love my tank and am REAL worried. HELP 8O

[michealprater]

Thanks to timbo, i now know raising the temp of your tank over 80 degrees will help alot. I would pull the angel, put him with the tang. I use copper safe to treat ick in my quarintine tank. NEVER add copper to your main tank. Plus dont treat it till you find out if you can put copper in the quarintine since it has malatite green in it.

Could someone shed some more light on this. I understand how worried these guys must be, and it is our duty as a community to make saving these guys fish our first priority. After all, the point is, to try to get people to join the hobby, not chase them away cause they think its too hard. Just my two cents.

[enjoyfish]

Well ill let you know were im at . I got four 2 & half gal tanks at the lfs put what i had left in those tanks . i separated them by witch could handle stronger meds . cleaned my main tank , got some new sand , set it back up . and its looking good . I put a fire fish in there and no sigh of ick . But im going to be careful of what i put in my tank now . i set up a acclimation tank to make sure the fish are healthy before they go in the main tank . I hope that will do it . trial & era

[fishfreek]

The ICH life cycle is about 3 weeks from egg to death. One of the very last stages in the parasites life cycle is when its acutally visable on the fish. There is the egg stage where the parasite is dorment on the rock and substrate. Then you have the free floating stage where the parastie is in the tank looking for a host. The final stage is when the parasite has found a host and attached. THis is when you can see the ICH on the fish. After this stage the parasite releases its eggs back into the water and the cycle starts over again.

[Yellow Eye Tang]

Well,... i've lost my yellow eyed tang. I woke this morning after his second treatment of malachite green (last night) and he was gone. My flame looks healthy but he does have it. Im trying to decide on a 50% water change in the main. Perhaps the ICK is in its free flowing stage and i can gget rid of it but changing water. Of the other five fish in there i see no signs of it on them yet. Im kinda worried about putting my flame directly into the quasrantine because it has a high dosage of malachite in it. Is it ok to place him into it that way>? Anyways.... im going to continue to fight this. Sorry to "Enjoyfish" about your loss. Im going to try a couple of things but if i win this battle i thank ya for posting your suggestions. Im trying a little of each. Ill keep ya'll posted. Thank you

[melanie]

hi,
i've heard much on ick.. but may i know wat it stands for and wat are some of the symptoms of ick?

[targaboy78]

Hi melanie,

Ick/Ich is Ichthyophthirius multifilis or Whitespot Disease.

The symptoms;
Low levels of ich usually result in fish that scratch against inanimate objects in the tank, such as gravel and ornaments.
An outbreak of serious ich will look like white grains of salt on the skin of your fish, from 0.3 to 1mm in diameter.

For a more detailed answer, check here;
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art3529.asp

I hope this helps.

[reefrunner69]

Targaboy, SW and FW ick are two totally different critters. SW ick refers to one of two different parasites. Cryptocaryon irritans or Amyloodinium occelatum Cryptocaryon is what is generally referred to as "ick" and Amyloodinium is commonly referred to as velvet, but ick is a generic term for either. For more info in ick and it's treatment in SW see... http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=7

[targaboy78]

Hi reefrunner69,

Yes, I know.

Bottom line; melanie asked a 1 line question and I tried a 1 line answer.

Ich makes sense as an abbreviation for Ichthyophthirius multifilis. (Not so much for Cryptocaryon irritans).

If the simple answer was enough then no probs.
However, that is why I included the link.
For a more detailed answer, check here;
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art3529.asp