All my fish are sick with ich and internal parasites

[Figsreef]

I just set up my reefer 750 3 months ago and transferred all of the livestock from my reefer 350. Unfortunately, when I added new livestock 4 weeks ago, my sailfin started showing signs of ich and the sohal I bought was chasing everyone. The ich that started on my sailfin got to all my fish about 3 weeks ago but I didn't worry as all my fish were eating just fine. Just yesterday, I noticed white stringy poop coming from my clown fish. Today, my blue hippo tang who usually gets excited over food decided not to eat and rather just looked at the food. I am left now with no easy options as with what to do. I know how crucial quarantine is and had always done this with my old reefer 350 but did not want to do that with the fish I added 4 weeks ago. The reason I didn't quarantine the recent fish I added was because the store said all their fish are quarantined before they are listed for sale. At this point, it would be nearly impossible to get every single fish out of the tank and into quarantine since I am not willing to take down my aquascape that I spent 12 hours on. Please let me know of any ideas as to how to get these fish better. All advise would be greatly appreciated during this frustrating process.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Unfortunately you have 2 choices, you put in the work to catch them and treat them in a QT or you hope and pray that they pull out of it. I think the latter will not be a good outcome.

I have a few LFS around here that say they QT their fish, only to find out that their definition is way different from mine.

 

[LAReefer4Life]

Unfortunately you have 2 choices, you put in the work to catch them and treat them in a QT or you hope and pray that they pull out of it. I think the latter will not be a good outcome.

I have a few LFS around here that say they QT their fish, only to find out that their definition is way different from mine.

+1 I am sorry you're dealing with this. I've had a similar issue in past and decided to pull them out and place in QT. I don't regret it for a minute. They are all healthy and happy. Good luck!

 

[cancun]

Wow! I am sorry you are going through that! Very frustrating for sure. I have the exact same tank, so I get how tough it would be to get all your fish out. What is your stock list? Are all your fish affected?

Since the QT isn't a option you want to take. There is some good info out there on ich management that might be useful....In the meantime try adding garlic guard to the food and also Selecon and/or Vitachem to the food and seaweed sheets.

There are some "reef safe" ich treatments you can add to your tank, but I am not sure how affective they are though. Hopefully others will chime in.

 

[Figsreef]

Thank you all for your quick responses. The fish that I carried over from my old tank were the blue hippo, a powder blue that died 4 weeks ago after becoming skinny, flame angel, yellow tang, 2 clowns, 1 royal gramma that I think died, 2 cardinals, and a mandarin goby. The fish I added 4 weeks ago were a sohal tang, purple tang, sailfin, 2 picasso clowns, 6 chromis', a bluethroat trigger and 2 anthias which both died a week ago. My fish are all suffering while my corals are doing better than ever popping out with colors I never imagined seeing out of them. I'm considering getting a fish trap or turning on the red leds at night and trying to catch the fish off guard without taking down my aquascape.

 

[Figsreef]

I think my picasso clowns have brooklynella as they appear to have splotches that look like velvet and have white poop while breathing heavily. Who knows how many diseases this tank has.

 

[King Turkey]

I used some seachem stuff that seemed to do the trick for my tank dosed for 30 days boom fish are good. I think it was called ParaGard and I also use this medicated food from seachem once I got them to eat it. I did it all in display tank

 

[Figsreef]

@crabcore just wondering, were your corals impacted at all?

 

[HotRocks]

Sorry to hear about your struggles.

Can you upload some pics of your infected fish?

 

[Figsreef]

Both of the picasso clowns dead as of this morning. Last night they both appeared to be breathing heavily and there slime coat looked glazed in white.

 

[Figsreef]

The blue throat trigger also appears to be glazed in this white stuff that kinda looks like velvet. It was not really eating either. My hippo tang is also a lost cause as he will not come out of hiding, not even to eat.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

From the spots I think I see on the side of the dead clown I’m going to say Velvet. You will need to setup a QT tank and start treating with copper. I’m sure @HotRocks will chime in with his opinion also but either way you should start working on getting a QT setup.

 

[Figsreef]

My old 30 gallon quarantine system that I used for my old reefer 350 wouldn't work for the set up I have. Would have to purchase a 50 gallon quarantine system.

 

[Figsreef]

Also, any advice on how to get these fish out would be appreciated. The sick fish are much harder to catch since all they do is hide.

 

[Figsreef]

Heres what the blue throat trigger looks like. Not sure if its velvet.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Heres what the blue throat trigger looks like. Not sure if its velvet.

Whenever I’m not sure if it’s brook or velvet I look at the fins. When there are too many spots to really count it is velvet. You can always do “low tide” to try to catch your fish. Drain your tank down so they can’t really swim around and away from you. Coral should be fine while doing this.

 

[Figsreef]

Almost positive its velvet then. Too many small spots on fins. Can't be ich because it looks like the fish have a layer of white film over them.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Almost positive its velvet then. Too many small spots on fins. Can't be ich because it looks like the fish have a layer of white film over them.

You need to get them into copper ASAP as Velvet is a quick killer. I use copper power at 2.0 ppm and would recommend the Hanna high range copper tester also. Once you get them into QT and the copper raised to 2.0ppm over 2-3 days keep them at that level for at least 14 days then transfer to a sterile tank. If you cannot transfer keep them in copper for 30 days. Your DT will need to be fallow for 6 weeks. You can also do a FW dip before going into QT to give them some relief.

 

[Figsreef]

Was able to catch a little less than half the fish in the tank to move to qt. The sohal tang and blue throat trigger are still in my dt with the chromis' and other small fish that I couldn't catch.

 

[artieg1]

Having been in this exact same place, I strongly (STRONGLY) urge you to... slow down. You need a 4 month plan, not a 4 minute plan. I find that some survive Velvet and some don't, and I'd be shocked if interventions at this stage will change that outcome. I am assuming you want fish in the future, so your only plan is a four month plan. Get *all* the fish out of the tank, one way or another. Not to save them (although that may be a secondary benefit), but to save your tank for future fish and starve out the parasite. It is ok if it takes 2 weeks with a fish trap to catch them all (again, been there, done that, shirt is for sale on Ebay). Or take out the water until there's just a little left. Once the last fish is out, you let the tank go fish-fallow for the requisite time period (search other forums). Treat all fish in QT while you wait out the fallow period. This is a long haul approach, but you won't regret it. I am one year out from the protocol above, and there's not a spot on any of my fish. Not saying your LFS lied; but whatever they did, it clearly didn't work.