Eel in tank with Ich..

[Shoki]

Hello Reefers! Being new to saltwater i hadn’t taken the proper QT precautions when adding my new fish to a 37g tank.

About 3 weeks ago i had noticed the cyst stage of marine ich on my 3 clownfish. Being naive i left them alone and obviously the infection got worse. I believe the free-swimming stage of the MI is thriving. I removed them and put them into a 10g hospital tank. treated with ich-x for 3 weeks, no improvement. Read about it, found out ich-x is useless. So i’m now aware that copper is my only choice.

I have 3 clownfish (i know 3 is a bad number of clowns but they’re fine currently.) 1 yellow coris, and a tiny ruby red scooter blenny.

Here’s where the problem comes in. I also have a 5-6” snowflake eel. I understand my tank size isn’t adequate for a snowflake but i’m upgrading to a 90g cube soon in the future. I am absolutely in love with my Eel. I have corals and inverts as well.

Planning to remove all fish and treat with Cupramine. But what should i do about my Eel? She is an incredible escape artist and demands to be fed every 2 days, no buts about it. She climbs into my HOB filter, i have it covered with mesh. I don’t have any biologically filtered sponge filters. The largest hospital set-up i have is 20g.. How do i keep her in a hospital tank for over a month?? How should i treat her?? I’m afraid of hyposalinity because i’m incompetent and don’t believe i can manage it. I don’t have an auto-top off. I think id be able to do the tank transfer method but would that be fully effective for my eel?

Tank parameters:
Salinity 0.25
Temp 78
PH 8.5
Phosphate 0.05
nitirite 0
nitrate 5
ammonia 0
unsure of alk and calcium, testing tomorrow when tests come in.
Tank is 4 months old.

Tank has no other issues besides marine Ich. Corals and inverts doing great. Eel and fish eating great. Coris and 3 clownfish obviously infected, red scooter blenny has no MI cysts.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Shoki Welcome to the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Forum!

The #fishmedic team and other knowledgeable members of our community will do our best to help you resolve your questions. Please provide as much of the following as you are able:

• Brief description of the issue you are observing and answers to the following questions:
  • How long have you had the fish with the condition?
  • Did you quarantine with medication when you first acquired the fish? (If Yes, which medication?)
• Current water quality measurements
• Clear photos of the issue taken using WHITE light and/or a short video of any behaviors (post in your response or on YouTube).

If you can help us by providing as much of the above info as possible, it will make diagnosing and providing recommendations for treatment MUCH easier! The Fish Medic team will get back to you as quickly as possible. In the meantime, other members of our community may also share their experience with similar situations and advice that they may have regarding your situation.

You may also feel free to provide a more detailed description of the condition if you wish to share more info than the above list.

Additionally, these links may be useful while you await a response:

• CURRENT QT PROTOCOL LINK
• HOW TO ASK FOR DISEASE DIAGNOSIS HELP LINK

 

[Thomas Jedlicka]

I have had eels and all sorts of fish, dealt with flukes and Ich. Ive never had an eel have an issue with anything. Granted mine were around the 2 foot mark and much tougher because of their size, I even ran them with copper at times and had no issues. If you pull out the fish and treat them and leave the eel or alternatively run hypo youd be fine. I ran all my fowlr systems around 1.017 and once did a severe hypo treatment around 1.013 and my eels were fine.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello Reefers! Being new to saltwater i hadn’t taken the proper QT precautions when adding my new fish to a 37g tank.

About 3 weeks ago i had noticed the cyst stage of marine ich on my 3 clownfish. Being naive i left them alone and obviously the infection got worse. I believe the free-swimming stage of the MI is thriving. I removed them and put them into a 10g hospital tank. treated with ich-x for 3 weeks, no improvement. Read about it, found out ich-x is useless. So i’m now aware that copper is my only choice.

I have 3 clownfish (i know 3 is a bad number of clowns but they’re fine currently.) 1 yellow coris, and a tiny ruby red scooter blenny.

Here’s where the problem comes in. I also have a 5-6” snowflake eel. I understand my tank size isn’t adequate for a snowflake but i’m upgrading to a 90g cube soon in the future. I am absolutely in love with my Eel. I have corals and inverts as well.

Planning to remove all fish and treat with Cupramine. But what should i do about my Eel? She is an incredible escape artist and demands to be fed every 2 days, no buts about it. She climbs into my HOB filter, i have it covered with mesh. I don’t have any biologically filtered sponge filters. The largest hospital set-up i have is 20g.. How do i keep her in a hospital tank for over a month?? How should i treat her?? I’m afraid of hyposalinity because i’m incompetent and don’t believe i can manage it. I don’t have an auto-top off. I think id be able to do the tank transfer method but would that be fully effective for my eel?

Tank parameters:
Salinity 0.25
Temp 78
PH 8.5
Phosphate 0.05
nitirite 0
nitrate 5
ammonia 0
unsure of alk and calcium, testing tomorrow when tests come in.
Tank is 4 months old.

Tank has no other issues besides marine Ich. Corals and inverts doing great. Eel and fish eating great. Coris and 3 clownfish obviously infected, red scooter blenny has no MI cysts.

Eel and ionic cupramine will not mix well and suggested is to both place eel in separate isolation to observe for outbreaks and to leave display tank empty to allow parasites to die off without a host for 6-8 weeks
For clowns, treat at therapeutic level.45 for 30 days

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I would not use Cupramine or any ionic copper with eels. You can sometimes use amine-chelated copper products with hardy eels (coppersafe and copper power) but the eels will likely go off feed for a time. Hyposalinity will work, but if you are worried about that, then the only two other options would be chloroquine or TTM. Chloroquine will kill off all CUC and most invertebrates. TTM leaves you with the issue that it works faster than the time it takes to clear a tank of infective ich tomonts - so where do you put the fish in the meantime?

Jay

 

[Readywriter]

I dont think I have ever seen or heard of a snowflake eel having ich. The more I think about it the more certain I am that Ive never seen it.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I dont think I have ever seen or heard of a snowflake eel having ich. The more I think about it the more certain I am that Ive never seen it.

Morays don't typically develop full blown ich infections (they do get velvet though) but they can be "carriers" and then the infection can remain active until the treated fish are added back to the tank, starting the infection over again.

 

[Readywriter]

Morays don't typically develop full blown ich infections (they do get velvet though) but they can be "carriers" and then the infection can remain active until the treated fish are added back to the tank, starting the infection over again.

Thats what I thought was the case. I wonder what makes the difference with them and ich?

 

[Shoki]

Morays don't typically develop full blown ich infections (they do get velvet though) but they can be "carriers" and then the infection can remain active until the treated fish are added back to the tank, starting the infection over again.

I would not use Cupramine or any ionic copper with eels. You can sometimes use amine-chelated copper products with hardy eels (coppersafe and copper power) but the eels will likely go off feed for a time. Hyposalinity will work, but if you are worried about that, then the only two other options would be chloroquine or TTM. Chloroquine will kill off all CUC and most invertebrates. TTM leaves you with the issue that it works faster than the time it takes to clear a tank of infective ich tomonts - so where do you put the fish in the meantime?

Jay

I’m planning to move my fish, (3 clowns, coris, and ruby red blenny) into a 10g with 2-3 small PVC pipes and treat them all with Cupramine for 30 days. My blenny is significantly smaller than my other fish, so if i should treat him separately, let me know.

I’m going to let my tank run fallow for at least 6 weeks. If i do hyposalinity for the eel in a separate tank, what does the salinity have to be? I’ve read that is has to be at 09 and if it goes higher then it could be ineffective. I’m intimidated by hyposalinity and chloroquine and also i personally refuse to use anything containing copper on my eel.

I can set up 4-5 hospital tanks. i have 10 and 20g setups. How should i do the TTM if i do? Do i need 3 tanks instead of two? I’m not worried about my Eel having a MI infection herself, just worried about her being a carrier and never being able to eradicate MI.

Would hyposalinity be better than TTM?

Should i read more about hyposalinity? I’m just intimidated and uneducated.

Thanks everyone for the information and support

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thats what I thought was the case. I wonder what makes the difference with them and ich?

IDK - it could be their lack of scales, but other scaleless fishes get ich easily. Sharks and rays are also resistant to ich.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I’m planning to move my fish, (3 clowns, coris, and ruby red blenny) into a 10g with 2-3 small PVC pipes and treat them all with Cupramine for 30 days. My blenny is significantly smaller than my other fish, so if i should treat him separately, let me know.

I’m going to let my tank run fallow for at least 6 weeks. If i do hyposalinity for the eel in a separate tank, what does the salinity have to be? I’ve read that is has to be at 09 and if it goes higher then it could be ineffective. I’m intimidated by hyposalinity and chloroquine and also i personally refuse to use anything containing copper on my eel.

I can set up 4-5 hospital tanks. i have 10 and 20g setups. How should i do the TTM if i do? Do i need 3 tanks instead of two? I’m not worried about my Eel having a MI infection herself, just worried about her being a carrier and never being able to eradicate MI.

Would hyposalinity be better than TTM?

Should i read more about hyposalinity? I’m just intimidated and uneducated.

Thanks everyone for the information and support

The problem with TTM is that you need to have an ich-free tank to move the fish into for the balance of the fallow period which can run up to 60 days.

In case you haven’t seen it, here is my post on hyposalinity:

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com