8 Week quarantine and I still ended up with ich in my display tank. What did I do wrong?

[Tctran]

Title says it all. I purchased a purple and yellow tang and put both in quarantine for 8 weeks. No spots on either fish for the 8 weeks. Feed them very well to fatten them up. Prior to putting them in the display, I ran a dip using safety stop. 40 mins for both the formalin and methylene blue solutions. Add them to a tank with a giant Sailfin (over a year old) and expected some fighting, but honestly wasn't too bad. When I added my foxface, it was chased much worst than the two tangs. I have a big tank so plenty of space for all the fish. 10 days later and I have ich on the purple tang (20 spots) and on the sailfin (10 spots) and looks like a spot or 2 on the yellow tang. Too much rock work to catch the fish. What did I do wrong? 8 week quarantine, and a safety stop dip and I still ended up with ich in the display. I don't like to stress a fish with copper / prazi unless it looks like there is illness.
I'm going to replace my UV bulbs, feed heavy, and if all else fails, dose with either H202 or copper. Anyone have any success dosing with h202?
Thanks
Tom

 

[hds4216]

Ich doesn't always present as spots. Oftentimes it resides in the gills, completely invisible. Could have slipped through that way.

 

[piranhaman00]

Always treat with copper. Regardless of spots.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Safety stop cannot remove 100% of external parasites, so any that make it through can start up the infection.
Observational quarantines, where the fish are not treated prophylactically often fail. The fish can harbor a subacute infection, and then the move causes stress which causes the infection to become acute like it did in this case.
Jay

 

[hds4216]

Title says it all. I purchased a purple and yellow tang and put both in quarantine for 8 weeks. No spots on either fish for the 8 weeks. Feed them very well to fatten them up. Prior to putting them in the display, I ran a dip using safety stop. 40 mins for both the formalin and methylene blue solutions. Add them to a tank with a giant Sailfin (over a year old) and expected some fighting, but honestly wasn't too bad. When I added my foxface, it was chased much worst than the two tangs. I have a big tank so plenty of space for all the fish. 10 days later and I have ich on the purple tang (20 spots) and on the sailfin (10 spots) and looks like a spot or 2 on the yellow tang. Too much rock work to catch the fish. What did I do wrong? 8 week quarantine, and a safety stop dip and I still ended up with ich in the display. I don't like to stress a fish with copper / prazi unless it looks like there is illness.
I'm going to replace my UV bulbs, feed heavy, and if all else fails, dose with either H202 or copper. Anyone have any success dosing with h202?
Thanks
Tom

H202 doesn't work. It can help reduce the number of parasites when its present, but it will not eliminate them. Copper, if kept at therapeutic levels for the requisite amount of time, would work.

 

[sp1187]

so I never QT, but I'm wondering if you put fish in a QT and don't medicate, what's the point?
if they have parasites, and you don't med, are the parasites necessarily going to show just because you have them sitting in a different tank for 8 weeks?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

H202 doesn't work. It can help reduce the number of parasites when its present, but it will not eliminate them. Copper, if kept at therapeutic levels for the requisite amount of time, would work.

And to add to that; I’m running some peroxide tests right now and found that a 5ppm dose (very low) nuked the biofilter of my test system after 6 days of daily dosing.
Jay

 

[Tctran]

I think there is a small population of fish enthusiast that use quarantine as an observation period, not necessarily a treatment period. The move to the QT itself is considered stressful for most fish. This is usually a time to observe the fish and treat as necessary. I assumed that if nothing shows up over a this time, then the fish is disease free. My assumption was obviously wrong. For me, it is most important to get a fish to eat when moved to a new tank. Moving forward, I'll feed heavy initially, get them strong, and then treat prophylactically.

 

[LeftyReefer]

I think there is a small population of fish enthusiast that use quarantine as an observation period, not necessarily a treatment period.

For me, it is most important to get a fish to eat when moved to a new tank. Moving forward, I'll feed heavy initially, get them strong, and then treat prophylactically.

I would maybe look at feeding foods spiked with GC/focus then. Most fish tolerate GC just fine. Can treat prophylactically and fatten them up at the same time. That's what I do while observing new fish.
Its not as good as copper, but its better than just feeding and not treating anything imho.

 

[Tctran]

thanks Lefty. I do feed with metroplex from time to time, but will definitely consider feeling with GC.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Safety stop cannot remove 100% of external parasites, so any that make it through can start up the infection.
Observational quarantines, where the fish are not treated prophylactically often fail. The fish can harbor a subacute infection, and then the move causes stress which causes the infection to become acute like it did in this case.
Jay

Exactly

 

[aquaskilz]

Title says it all. I purchased a purple and yellow tang and put both in quarantine for 8 weeks. No spots on either fish for the 8 weeks. Feed them very well to fatten them up. Prior to putting them in the display, I ran a dip using safety stop. 40 mins for both the formalin and methylene blue solutions. Add them to a tank with a giant Sailfin (over a year old) and expected some fighting, but honestly wasn't too bad. When I added my foxface, it was chased much worst than the two tangs. I have a big tank so plenty of space for all the fish. 10 days later and I have ich on the purple tang (20 spots) and on the sailfin (10 spots) and looks like a spot or 2 on the yellow tang. Too much rock work to catch the fish. What did I do wrong? 8 week quarantine, and a safety stop dip and I still ended up with ich in the display. I don't like to stress a fish with copper / prazi unless it looks like there is illness.
I'm going to replace my UV bulbs, feed heavy, and if all else fails, dose with either H202 or copper. Anyone have any success dosing with h202?
Thanks
Tom

What happened was your tank still had the parasites in the substrate and maybe rock work and then reattached themselves to the fish. So you do have to remove the fish and retreat them and then the tank separately w/o any fish so the parasites can go through its cycle and die. The parasites' will die if there's nothing to attach to.
Treat your tank with Pollyp Lab for 30 days with no fish in it. Then reintroduce the fish after using Copper Power. DONOT OVER DOSE!

 

[hds4216]

What happened was your tank still had the parasites in the substrate and maybe rock work and then reattached themselves to the fish. So you do have to remove the fish and retreat them and then the tank separately w/o any fish so the parasites can go through its cycle and die. The parasites' will die if there's nothing to attach to.
Treat your tank with Pollyp Lab for 30 days with no fish in it. Then reintroduce the fish after using Copper Power. DONOT OVER DOSE!

I wouldn't do that. Just leave DT fallow for 76 days.

 

[aquaskilz]

I wouldn't do that. Just leave DT fallow for 76 days.

Just leave DT fallow?? What does that mean?

 

[hds4216]

Just leave DT fallow?? What does that mean?

Take all the fish out and put them in quarantine. Treat with copper power/cupramine, or tank transfer method. Leave the display tank fallow (fishless) for 76 days, which is the max time ich can survive without a host.

 

[aquaskilz]

Take all the fish out and put them in quarantine. Treat with copper power/cupramine, or tank transfer method. Leave the display tank fallow (fishless) for 76 days, which is the max time ich can survive without a host.

Oh OK...that will work too!

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Oh OK...that will work too!

Read and search "humblefish" on qt.

Copperpower
Hanna copper test
Seachem focus
Seachem metro and prazi or General cure

Those are your basics for prophylactic treatments. You got 76 days, might as well...

May want antibiotic on hand.

Lots of salt water handy, good flow, mechanical filters, for qt's. Cheap skimmers i think on qt's really help. Keep water quality high, run carbon when meds let you (copperpower is fine to run carbon with, culpramine is not) and/or do water changes, just check copper levels with hanna tester daily and use dose calculator on website.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Just leave DT fallow?? What does that mean?

Oh OK...that will work too!

The 76 days period is being shown to be an error. The actual time needed is around 45 days. It is discussed here:

45 Day Fallow periods

I've been doing some research into the "76 day fallow period". I never heard of that prior to coming to Reef2Reef this past summer. I had always used 32 days as the maximum time for a tomont to remain viable under tropical conditions, and then I would round up to 45 days to help ensure that...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Copper or chloroquine phosphate treatment is a necessary part of quarantine and are the only 2 proven methods of ich/velvet eradication

 

[PBnJOnWheat]

+1 on copper. I don’t QT but if I did I would do copper and nothing else. I’ve used kick ich rally pro, other medications and nothing. Copper is the way to go IF you’re gonna quarantine.