gahhhhhhh

[Grins]

Ouch, sorry to hear it Mandy. Reading it makes me almost consider hypoing any new fish I get in QT

 

[journey0820]

Man oh man. That totally stinks. Are you just making stuff up to make me get a QT tank? Because it is working.

And what a mess to have to take everything apart. Ugh.

 

[WoodRight]

I think we might try the Hipo thing in our QT. I think it might be easier on them and kill any bugs and stuff that might be on them. Do you think it would help with the stress?

 

[Reefscape]

So, I swear, my tank is cursed (the 75g one). A few months back, I lost all my fish except 1 to Brook. The tank was fallow for around 10 weeks. That should have been plenty of time for that to take its course, which it did. I learned my no QT lesson. I restocked, with QT of all inhabitants for 4 weeks to make sure there weren't signs of ich or anything else. Well, I just put in my flame angel which had been in QT for 4 weeks and just about an hour ago noticed he had ich. I just tore all the rock out (90-100 pounds) to catch the freaking thing as well as a tiny chalk bass and bangaii cardinal to put in a 10g QT that I've had up that I dropped to hyposalinity.

Now, how the heck does that happen? Obviously there was ich in the tank somewhere, it got there somehow. Apparently I'm going to be going more than 4 weeks. So, because I'm a big baby I am not venturing into drugland to go to Walmart to get a bigger tub for my magnificent foxface and lunare wrasse. That has to wait until tomorrow as well as trying to catch my yellow headed sleeper goby. :devil:

Oh and the lunare wrasse decided he was none too happy with my hand in the tank so he decided to bite me, so I screamed like a little girl and went runnning like it could chase me. Frustrating, but I guess the good thing that comes out of it is I can rearrange my rock when the goby out not worrying I'm going to smash him or mess up his tunnels. That and I do believe I caught it early so now it'll almost be like I have 6 tanks, maybe more depending on any aggression issues with the Lunare in a smaller tank without his sand bed.

If the tank has been fallow, then there wont be much chance of Ich still being in the system, not after the length of time it has been fallow..It will of come from "a" fish, very possible the latest addition, and it was just not showing up in the QT tank...Some fish are known to carry ich parasites and not show the white spot as visual indicator.

Getting the fish to QT and hypo is the best solution...

 

[Reefscape]

Ouch, sorry to hear it Mandy. Reading it makes me almost consider hypoing any new fish I get in QT

I would not do that, they have enough stress from moving as it is...If it aint broke, dont fix it....

 

[Reefscape]

I'm not educated on many of the diseases that fish can get.

So...

How long can ich live absent of water?
<<Ich will die off pretty quickly with no water>>
Does all equipment need to be sterilized?
<<Equiptment etc do not need to be sterilized as the ich parsite cannot attach and host on it, hence why we use plastic pipes in QT instead of live rock/sand>>
What about handling the food containers, will one ich survive and then come activated if introduced to fish and water?
<<Pefectly safe as it cannot live in a dry environment>>

Can food bring it in?
<<Regarding Ich, no, food cannot bring this in, as its dry or frozen, I.E No living host>>
Can food bring in other diseases that can sleep through the drought? If so, what is the best company to buy food from? What about frozen brine or cyclopeze? Can ich hibernate throught he ice?
<<Marine foods go through a pretty stringent process before they arrive in the shops, this is something that you dont need to be concerned with>>

I swear I have more pods since cyclopeze. Can't prove that is where they came from. But....

Added some comments in red...

 

[Grins]

I would not do that, they have enough stress from moving as it is...If it aint broke, dont fix it....

Thats why I said almost.

 

[mandy21]

If the tank has been fallow, then there wont be much chance of Ich still being in the system, not after the length of time it has been fallow..It will of come from "a" fish, very possible the latest addition, and it was just not showing up in the QT tank...Some fish are known to carry ich parasites and not show the white spot as visual indicator.

Getting the fish to QT and hypo is the best solution...

So, would it not make sense that obviously one of the fish (the last 2 additions were a magnificent foxface and flame angel, so my guess is one of them would be the culprit) had ich. If I QT for 4 weeks each without a sign of there being ich, that slowly dropping new fish from "normal" salinity to hyposalinity would have potentially prevented me from having to rip the tank apart? Even had I QT for 3 months it may not have shown up, and the ich would have been happpy as could be going through the cycle at regular salinity. That is the only thing possible I can think of (other than not buying fish lol) that would have prevented this issue. Maybe being in a tank with other fish caused it to to actually show signs? The additional stress of some new fish.

 

[Grins]

Its hard to see how they weren't the source.

 

[Squawkbert]

I guess there may be a stocking strategy take-home lesson here (not that it does you any good now, Mandy) is to stock your tank w/ the most troublesome species first, after a hypo/med/whatever treatment, taking advantage of your display tank's was fallow, no need for QT just once rule. Then, after 5-6 weeks, add less troublesome tankmates (the good thing being that one or two can be in the QT for a large portion of your first addition's time in the display - a minor risk of having to do extended QT if there's an outbreak in the display tank).