ich problem

[sosgal721]

I have an ich problem in my 20G SW tank and I'm not sure what to do. Currently there is a neon goby, a damsel, a chocolate chip starfish, a camel shrimp, and some live rock in the tank. I have a 55G tank that is being set up and everything was going to move into there soon until I noticed the ich 3 days ago, the day after I added the live rock.

I started treatment with "Super Ick Cure" by API at half dosage to protect the shrimp and starfish. From everything I have read on here treatment should continue until there are no visible signs of the parasite left, but the last day of treatment (according to the box) is tomorrow, at which point it says to put the carbon back in.

I don't know whether I should continue treatment (one packet every 48 hours, which is half dose, and has active ingredients: 3.6 mg malachite green and 60 mg nitrofurazone) or try something else. The starfish is visibly upset by the chemicals and I don't want to lose it, but at the same time I don't want to risk having the fish die from not treating.

One idea that I had after searching on here is to dip the fish in fresh water to make the parasite fall off. I would then move them directly to the new tank that didn't have the infestation. The problem with this is that I don't know if the shrimp, starfish, and live rock can be dipped(or if they even need to be) and what to do about the filter media and two decorative rocks that would also switch tanks. The substrate for the 20G is crushed coral and that will not be moving over so there shouldn't be a problem there.

The last thing is I don't know where the ich came from. It showed up the day after adding live rock, which was also the day that a clown was traded back to the LFS after a week long stay were it was too aggressive to the other fish and had to be separated with a tank divider.

Sorry for the long post, but if anyone has any suggestions on any part of what I said please let me know.

Water Specs:
am: 0
Ni: 0
Na: around 10
Ph: around 8.1
temp: 80
sg: around 1.0245

 

[Grins]

I tried a different approach, there are many different ones discussed online as I'm sure you know.

I'd not think that modifying a dose would be advisable though. I'd not dip the inverts but I'd also not worry about putting them in the new system either. Ich could have come in on the live rock, although the rock isn't a host it could have been in an infected system and have fallen onto it and made it to you before it died off. It is one of the reasons to dip, clean or QT it.

When is the last time you added a fish?

By the way..how long have you had that chocolate chip and the shrimp in the same system?

 

[sosgal721]

I'd not think that modifying a dose would be advisable though.

It doesn't seem like it would be very effective either, but that is what the box said to do (for scaleless fish, which I assumed meant that inverts were just as sensitive)

I'd not dip the inverts but I'd also not worry about putting them in the new system either.

You mean that they wouldn't transfer any of the ich when I move them? I want to make sure that there is no way it will spread to the other tank.

Ich could have come in on the live rock, although the rock isn't a host it could have been in an infected system and have fallen onto it and made it to you before it died off. It is one of the reasons to dip, clean or QT it.

When is the last time you added a fish?

By the way..how long have you had that chocolate chip and the shrimp in the same system?

All 4 have been living together for about 2 months without a problem between them. The tank has been set up for about 3 months now with the damsel being the first to enter then the other 3 over the following month to prevent mini cycles. 2 weeks ago a clown was added to the mix and a 2 days later had to be separated with a tank divider because it attacked the damsel. In anticipation of trading the aggressive clown back in (LFS only takes trades on Monday so we had to wait a week) we got a yellow wrasse. About 15 minutes into its acclimation it jumped out of the bowl it was in and into the tank. 3 days later(a week and a half ago) it died after spending 2 days hiding in the substrate (but it didn't hide at all the first day and seemed fine).

Neither the clown or wrasse had any indication of ich, but I would assume it is possible that it came from them. As stated the live rock was added the day before the ich showed up and was purchased from the LFS. They had it in a tank with only other LR and a separate HOB filter for that tank. Unfortunately we don't have another SW tank right now, but were planning to set up a quarantine once everything was moved to the 55g.

 

[Grins]

When you allow a system to go fallow you allow everything to stay but the fish so yes I'd think it would safe putting the inverts back in. It doens't mean that they won't transfer any..but that it can't host on them. Were the clown or the wrasse introduced in the last 6-8 weeks? If so yes they were the likely hosts.

 

[sosgal721]

When you allow a system to go fallow you allow everything to stay but the fish so yes I'd think it would safe putting the inverts back in. It doens't mean that they won't transfer any..but that it can't host on them. Were the clown or the wrasse introduced in the last 6-8 weeks? If so yes they were the likely hosts.

The clown and wrasse were introduced in the past 2 weeks, so that looks to be the cause. Currently they are all(fish and inverts) in the 20g. The 55g that I am moving them into isn't set up yet. I could move the shrimp and starfish into the 55g when it is set up, but I only have one filter so they couldn't be separated for too long. How long would it take for the ich to die if I moved everything except the fish into the 55g?

 

[Grins]

A fallow cycle of 6-8 weeks is recommended. I only made it to week 6.

 

[sosgal721]

Update with a question:

I set up 2 smaller tanks with the inverts and liverock going into one to sit for 6 weeks and the fish going into another to be treated. The tank that they were in will be converted to freshwater soon after it is cleaned and I want to take the biowheel out and put it in the 55g aquarium that will be set up with liverock tomorrow.

Question: is there any way to remove any presence of ich from the biowheel relatively quickly without killing the bacteria present? I heard that turning the tempature up to 90 for a few days works for freshwater ich, but does this work for saltwater too? Are there any other bacteria safe methods that won't contaminate fish later down the road when they are added back?

I am not really interested in anything that takes longer than a week as the added time could just be used to cycle new biowheels without any risk.

 

[Grins]

I'd really not worry about that and I'd put the inversts and liverock into the big aquarium as soon as it is ready. If you're going fallow for 6-8 weeks the cycle will have completed without a host and they'll die off. If you're really worried though you could run the tank (sans inverts) on hypo at 1.009 for 4 days or so.

 

[got2envy]

I used Kick Ich..a miracle in a bottle..haven't seen ich since..my clown was covered and I lost 2 cleaner gobies, royal gramma, algae blenny to ich..make sure you follow the directions..i did the heavily infested version which is to dose every other day for a week and a half also do not run your skimmer or carbon..this is for someone who does not have the QT tank set up..IT is reef safe..did not lose one coral!!