I have a problem in my tank but not sure if this is ich, or something else

[Legonch]

Ive got a 75 gallon live rock and fish only tank. In the tank, are two clowns, singapore angel, latticed butterfly, a goby, coral angel, blood shrimp, starry blenny, royal gramma, two chromis, and some hermit crabs and a couple snails. Two weeks ago, my singapore angel died over night. Last week, my gramma looked off, and had some white small dots on its head only. It hid for a day, the next day came out and looked fine. The following day, it showed the white dots on its head, and went back to hiding. I started treating the food with kent garlic extreme thinking this may be a ich thing. Also added one drop garlic per gallon to the tank. Tested the water, and I have zero ammonia, zero nitrite, 5 nitrate, phosphates barely detectable on my kit. Took the water to the local fish store to verify my tests, and they came up with the same results.

Yesterday my butterfly wasn't eating much, and was just swimming in once place all day. This morning it was dead. My gramma has the white spots back on its head, my two clowns have white dots on them, and their fins look ragged. My blenny has a rip in its tail. All the fish are acting fine, no glancing off rocks, etc. They are also eating fine, etc.

Is this an ich problem? Some other bacterial problem?

The only thing I added about 10 days before all these problems started was two hermit crabs and the blood shrimp.

Im stumped here. I dont want to lose any more fish. I have a qt tank I have running, it is not cycled though. I know to treat the fish, the shrimp and crabs will have to come out of the dt. Please help if you can. Thank you in advance.


Ill try and attach some pictures.

 

[Fourthwind]

Sure looks like ich. I would look at your parameters in the tank. A break out like this is usually an indicator of something else that went wrong and dropped the livestock's immune system.

 

[MuralReef]

Had you quarantined the angel that died? I recall you posting about it recently. Even if it was a few weeks ago that could have been where it came in. I would suggest getting some Dr. G's antibiotic food it comes in frozen or fish roe. I know you can get the frozen at a couple of local shops but call ahead to make sure they have it. The garlic is a good start but not much of a cure.

 

[Legonch]

I didnt quarantine the angel, it was in a tank with another fish for 4 weeks before I purchased it. The only new additions were the blood shrimp and two hermit crabs, and those just went in the tank minus the water from the fish store. Can inverts carry ich?

If this is ich, why would it show up on my gramma one day, gone the next, then back again? Is that typical? I just saw this stuff on my clowns today, they have been in the tank since September. Tank was started way back in August I think.

Im thinking the angel had something also.....

Can I take my inverts out and put them in the quarantine tank? Feed them algae pellets and leave all the fish in the tank and treat?

 

[MuralReef]

Everyone has their own methods for treating ich. I would read up on different methods before I did anything. This is a good reference but doesn't include medicated foods. http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/
I wouldn't treat your display ever. You may not have coral now but if you ever want coral you can forget about it if you treat your display. Depending on the size of the QT I would remove and treat your fish in the QT if you decide against medicated foods. Medicated food like Dr. G's can be fed in tank without fear of harm to inverts. The problem is you will always have ich in your tank if you don't remove the fish and run the tank fallow for like 2+ months. I have had ich a couple of times and never removed my fish and only treated in tank. Once the fish are strong and healthy it isn't a problem and you won't see the symptoms.

 

[szavoda]

I would suspect Velvet in this case - it looks very much like Ich but kills much faster and appears on more fish that typically do not show Ich symptoms.

I just got a case myself - either from Turbo Snails, Fighting Conch or a new Clam - all of which I did not QT appropriately. I lost 7 of 10 fish within 10 days.

My remaining 3 fish were bad off - dusty white specs all over. Tang had cloudy eyes. I put them in a QT tank with CP (Chorloquine Phosphate) and they are great now. I ended up breaking down the main tank entirely and just refilled with water. It will still be a bit before it gets any population.

If you need any advice / info, drop me a line....

 

[Legonch]

Thank you for the replys. I live up by Loveland. Do you know who carries the Dr. Gs food?

 

[Andrew_bram]

Great white carries it in Fort collins

 

[Legonch]

Thanks Andrew! I will be picking some up today.

Without sounding like an idiot.....Does this food eventually kill off all the ich in the tank by killing the live parasites on the fish? Or is this just killing the parasite on the fish, and eventually the ich will return as its in the tank, in the sand, etc? Im somewhat clueless to how this works. Id love to not have any ich in the tank, however my qt tank is only a 20 gallon, and its not cycled. Putting the fish in there would be more stressful on them than leaving them in the dt probably.

Thank you.

 

[Balz3352]

Thanks Andrew! I will be picking some up today.

Without sounding like an idiot.....Does this food eventually kill off all the ich in the tank by killing the live parasites on the fish? Or is this just killing the parasite on the fish, and eventually the ich will return as its in the tank, in the sand, etc? Im somewhat clueless to how this works. Id love to not have any ich in the tank, however my qt tank is only a 20 gallon, and its not cycled. Putting the fish in there would be more stressful on them than leaving them in the dt probably.

Thank you.

Im pretty sure the food doesn't kill the bug persay but really helps boost fishes appetite and immune system therefore helping them rid tje the bug naturally.

Might look into a uv sterilizer to help control ich

 

[Legonch]

If by using this food and boosting the fishes immune system, will any new fish i put in the tank get ich then? From what Im reading, the only way to get it out of the dt is either take the inverts out and medicate the entire tank, or remove the fish, leave the inverts, and treat the fish in a qt tank. Id really like to have my dt completely free of ich. Im not sure though if my 20 gallon qt tank which is still cycling would cause to much stress versus just using the medicated food for now.

Any suggestions?

 

[mabaeza15]

This looks like ich to me I would get ich when I would add a new fish or when I would add to many fish at one time but I used Watkins ground ginger and I would add it to my fishes mysis shrimp and with a big of garlic and they been ich free ever since even my hippo doesn't get it anymore and I give them garlic sheets weekly and it works great

 

[Legonch]

Just went and bought some Dr. Gs medicated food. Fed the fish and they ate it quite a bit. The fish with the most ich on it is my gramma, and it will hardly eat anything for the last week. Never has been a big eater.

 

[MuralReef]

Unfortunately we all learn some lessons the hard way. They key to success with fish is setting up a QT system and keeping any new fish isolated for observation and to be medicated if need be. I have learned this lesson the hard way too. I lost 9 fish over a couple of weeks because I didn't quarantine. Now I will only add fish from a trusted source(I hesitate to do this too) or I will set up a QT before adding any others.

 

[Legonch]

In trying to figure out what caused all this ich stuff to start, sounds like a result of stress....

I totally forgot this bit of info. My t5 light I have had worn out bulbs. Algae were growing everywhere. So, while waiting for new bulbs to order, I used algae fix to slow down the growth. It must have killed everything, because I had a diatom outbreak a week later just like when I first started the tank. Would that have caused a big ammonia spike that I missed? I usually test once a week for everything, and never saw a spike. Could that have been the source of stress in these fish?

When I picked up the angel that died, I did have my water tested and it was fine, no ammonia, no nitrite, and below 5 on nitrates. Phos was barely detectable.

 

[Legonch]

Okay here is an update....

Royal Gramma died....it wouldnt eat for the last few days, and had ich spots all over him.

This is day three of the clowns having white spots on them still. They are eating the Dr. Gs food great. None of the other fish are showing signs of being sick. How long does it take for the spots to fall off?

Still not sure what to do here. Pull the rock and inverts and cupramine the entire tank to kill any remaining ich? Or just keep dosing with the Dr. Gs food? Any ideas?

Ive talked to quite a few lfs, and some say ich is always in any tank. Some say you can get it out of the tank. I have no clue to what to believe at this point. I need some help i guess.

Thanks.

 

[Andrew_bram]

The food kills the ich parasite while it is on the fish teens chloroquine phosphate which was really coming back in the seventies and eighties for reef tanks because it also killed all algae with this food your dosing the fish instead of the tank so even though it will come back as long as you continue feeding the food it will kill all the ick in the tank. Think of it as treating the patient not the patient's house chloroquin phosphate is an anti malaria drug which is in the same family as ick

 

[Legonch]

Thank you. Ill just keep feeding the fish this food. How long does it take for the spots to fall off? Should I feed this food for 30-45 days?

 

[Andrew_bram]

There are directions on the package I think it says 6 weeks