Another Sick fish after 76 day Fallow Period

optimisticdingo

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About 3 months ago we had an ICH outbreak in our 40 gallon Breeder that claimed the lives of all of our fish. After the devastating loss of every fish in our first ever saltwater aquarium we decided to do the full 76 day Fallow Period and let the parasite die. Now, after the period is over we are seeming to have problems again.

One of our new fish, a midas blenny, is sick with something. It isn't ICH, there are no visible white spots, but he is flashing, trying to scratch his face, and breathing rather hard. My guess is flukes but I'm not sure. I've treated the tank with Prazipro and given him a freshwater dip. However, in the process of catching the Midas Blenny I also noticed that one of our green chromis also was looking I'll. He too received a freshwater dip. The Midas Blenny has been in the tank for about 2 to 3 weeks whereas the Chromis has only been in the tank for a few days.

My water parameters have been stable and I really can't seem to figure out what is causing our bad luck. Am I doing something wrong? Is this normal? What should I do differently?
 

TerraFerma

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What was QT for your new fish? Not sure about your blenny but if your chromis is from indo/phils virtually all of them succumb to uronema in short order.
 

Jeff Jarry reef

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Sorry to hear about your lose ! Are you getting the fish at same LFS maybe there fish are all sick ? And what are your parameters thanks
 

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Doesnt sound like you QTd the new fishes starting with the blenny.
Someone brought another disease or parasite in
 
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optimisticdingo

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Sorry to hear about your lose ! Are you getting the fish at same LFS maybe there fish are all sick ? And what are your parameters thanks
Most of our fish are purchased from the same LFS, it's pretty much the only one in town other than Petco. Ive got a friend that works at the store and he's had few customers have as many problems as we have. Maybe we are just unlucky.

Here are our parameters:
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:10 (I do a water change every time it gets above 20)
pH:8
kH: 12 dKh
Temp: 78⁰F
Specific Gravity: 1.025
 
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optimisticdingo

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Doesnt sound like you QTd the new fishes starting with the blenny.
Someone brought another disease or parasite in
My wife and I debated on starting a QT but didn't want to deal with the hassle. We decided instead to change the way we buy fish. In our first go around we were very careless and often bought fish that had just came into the LFS that day. One of the fish we got on stocking day came in sick and that's what killed our entire tank. Now we try to only buy fish that have been in the store for over a week and usually if I'm looking at buying a fish I'll come into the store every few days and watch it for a while to see how it acts. However, it seems that even with being more careful with fish buying the efforts weren't good enough.
 

TerraFerma

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There's your problem - if you don't QT new additions after fallow the fallow ain't going to help you much
 

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From reading on the disease board and other boards people kill more fish by treating them with copper for various incorrect reasons, just for ich whether the fish has it or not. Forget going fallow for "76" days as you see and read it really doesn't work to be guaranteed and what if a new fish or old fish have an ich spot or 2 is another fallow period the answer?
If your water is pristine, your fish are fed really well with good food and you add a uv sterilizer ich is really not that big of a deal. Assuming the above are met the vast majority of fish will conquer the ich and build an immunity. I dont quarantine and can't remember the last time I had a fish die from ich. I could probably drop a million ich parasites into my tank and the fish would probably laugh at them!
Heres a vid of them getting ready for and going on a feeding frenzy.

20210224_155511.jpg
 
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optimisticdingo

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From reading on the disease board and other boards people kill more fish by treating them with copper for various incorrect reasons, just for ich whether the fish has it or not.
If your water is pristine, your fish are fed really well with good food and you add a uv sterilizer ich is really not that big of a deal. Assuming the above are met the vast majority of fish will conquer the ich and build an immunity. I dont quarantine and can't remember the last time I had a fish die from ich. I could probably drop a million ich parasites into my tank and the fish would probably laugh at them!
Heres a vid of them getting ready for and going on a feeding frenzy.

20210224_155511.jpg

I really don't think this is ICH. after the mention of uronema I'm worried that might be the culprit. My wife was noticing a red spot near the gills of the Midas Blenny. I was wondering if it might just be inflamed gills from flukes but I showed her pics of uronema and she said it looked very similar.
 

TerraFerma

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Check out Jay Hemdal's forum for fish disease/parasite info.

Tank ain't dead with Uronema. The majority of healthy non chromis fish aren't taken down by it. But virtually every chromis and some damsels coming in nowadays have it and succumb to it. If you introduced non QT fish back after the fallow period you have potentially re-introduced ich/oodinium. So if you care about that maybe do another fallow (which doesn't need to be 76 days...) and only introduce fully QT fish. Some people manage ich with out QT. I've done it before and it often isn't a problem until something goes wrong like a power outage and the temp drops.

Very sorry you ate the 76 day fallow and are having these issues.
 

Tamberav

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My wife and I debated on starting a QT but didn't want to deal with the hassle. We decided instead to change the way we buy fish. In our first go around we were very careless and often bought fish that had just came into the LFS that day. One of the fish we got on stocking day came in sick and that's what killed our entire tank. Now we try to only buy fish that have been in the store for over a week and usually if I'm looking at buying a fish I'll come into the store every few days and watch it for a while to see how it acts. However, it seems that even with being more careful with fish buying the efforts weren't good enough.

It is kind of pointless to go fallow but then not QT. You should either practice disease management (not easy for new tanks) or QT yourself or purchase from online QT vender such as TSM or dr reef.

Disease management has to do with very diverse aged live rock and natural sea water, live foods, UV and such but many new people to the hobby don’t start tanks this way.
 
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optimisticdingo

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We purchased a QT setup today and have quarantined my flame angel and begun treatment with ICH-X. All other fish in the DT have been given Kick-ICH and Rally Pro. We woke up today and pretty much all of the fish in the DT had ICH.....again. We've purchased a UV Sterilizer and are going to try our hand at managing ICH with the sterilizer once the medication treatments are done. So far no casualties, which is better than the last time we went through this. If we lose everything again we're going to do another fallow period and then QT all fish before placing them in the DT
 

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From reading on the disease board and other boards people kill more fish by treating them with copper for various incorrect reasons, just for ich whether the fish has it or not. Forget going fallow for "76" days as you see and read it really doesn't work to be guaranteed and what if a new fish or old fish have an ich spot or 2 is another fallow period the answer?
If your water is pristine, your fish are fed really well with good food and you add a uv sterilizer ich is really not that big of a deal. Assuming the above are met the vast majority of fish will conquer the ich and build an immunity. I dont quarantine and can't remember the last time I had a fish die from ich. I could probably drop a million ich parasites into my tank and the fish would probably laugh at them!
Heres a vid of them getting ready

What they don’t tell you is this ich management mess doesn’t work for new tanks. I’ve got a 29 gallon tank and did weekly 5 gallon water changes religiously. Soaked pellets and frozen fish food in selcon. Ich still about took me out.
 

greetl01

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We purchased a QT setup today and have quarantined my flame angel and begun treatment with ICH-X. All other fish in the DT have been given Kick-ICH and Rally Pro. We woke up today and pretty much all of the fish in the DT had ICH.....again. We've purchased a UV Sterilizer and are going to try our hand at managing ICH with the sterilizer once the medication treatments are done. So far no casualties, which is better than the last time we went through this. If we lose everything again we're going to do another fallow period and then QT all fish before placing them in the DT
That stuff only works in freshwater. Get you some copper power.
 

TerraFerma

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Give that a read. My experience backs up Jay's thesis. Greetl01 is spot on about ich management/new tanks.


Don't feel too bad. Fish the last 10 years have been coming in with every malady in the book. It wasn't like this 20 years ago.
 
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