Help with sudden Ich explosion and upcoming vacation

[Areseebee]

Hi All, I am looking for some advice. I have been setting up a 100 gallon tank and over the last two months had been adding fish. Nothing was quarantined (I had always done this in past tanks, why I didn't this time is a whole thing), and I came home from a 3 day vacation to find my "healthy" tank with 2 fish dead and one dying. The remaining fish are a clown fish and a cardinal. Both are showing signs of disease (visible on the clownfish, cardinal is just... kind of clutching up and clearly not great). The problem is that I leave for a week on Saturday. I ordered a UV sterilizer that I was planning to hook up tonight that would hopefully hold the illness at bay until I returned and I can actually treat the fish, go fallow and quarantine going forward. However, I did have another idea. I have a small 10g that has been running without issues for maybe a year and a half. I had planned to take it down (transferred the cardinal from there to the 100g) but just hadn't had the time with the vacation. Would it be smart to transfer them there tonight and that way I can buy some time in the life cycle of Ich and give them a break? Is it smarter to leave them be and run the UV? Any other suggestions? Appreciate the help.

 

[W31Olds]

The UV is not going to help much at this point and I don't know what size you ordered but to effectively suppress ich and velvet you need a large one with low flowrates. I'd probably move them and treat that small tank with Copperpower, etc. The only concern with moving your fish to me is the Biological Filter still up to the Task.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi All, I am looking for some advice. I have been setting up a 100 gallon tank and over the last two months had been adding fish. Nothing was quarantined (I had always done this in past tanks, why I didn't this time is a whole thing), and I came home from a 3 day vacation to find my "healthy" tank with 2 fish dead and one dying. The remaining fish are a clown fish and a cardinal. Both are showing signs of disease (visible on the clownfish, cardinal is just... kind of clutching up and clearly not great). The problem is that I leave for a week on Saturday. I ordered a UV sterilizer that I was planning to hook up tonight that would hopefully hold the illness at bay until I returned and I can actually treat the fish, go fallow and quarantine going forward. However, I did have another idea. I have a small 10g that has been running without issues for maybe a year and a half. I had planned to take it down (transferred the cardinal from there to the 100g) but just hadn't had the time with the vacation. Would it be smart to transfer them there tonight and that way I can buy some time in the life cycle of Ich and give them a break? Is it smarter to leave them be and run the UV? Any other suggestions? Appreciate the help.

Before any assessment, please post pics and/or video of fish under white light intensity, no blue please
Are remaining fish breathing normal or elevated?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi All, I am looking for some advice. I have been setting up a 100 gallon tank and over the last two months had been adding fish. Nothing was quarantined (I had always done this in past tanks, why I didn't this time is a whole thing), and I came home from a 3 day vacation to find my "healthy" tank with 2 fish dead and one dying. The remaining fish are a clown fish and a cardinal. Both are showing signs of disease (visible on the clownfish, cardinal is just... kind of clutching up and clearly not great). The problem is that I leave for a week on Saturday. I ordered a UV sterilizer that I was planning to hook up tonight that would hopefully hold the illness at bay until I returned and I can actually treat the fish, go fallow and quarantine going forward. However, I did have another idea. I have a small 10g that has been running without issues for maybe a year and a half. I had planned to take it down (transferred the cardinal from there to the 100g) but just hadn't had the time with the vacation. Would it be smart to transfer them there tonight and that way I can buy some time in the life cycle of Ich and give them a break? Is it smarter to leave them be and run the UV? Any other suggestions? Appreciate the help.

+1 on us needing to see a clear video to try and determine what disease is going on here. Once fish loss begins, UV really won't work.

 

[Areseebee]

Ok so here is some pictures

I have videos but need to figure out how to upload them.

 

[Areseebee]

Here's the 10g I would move them to. I'm worried about setting a hospital tank, dumping them in therapeutic copper and then leaving for 7 days. My hope was that moving them to a healthy tank would at least give them a break from the heavy infestation they are experiencing... almost like one step of a ttm (where I acknowledge I'll miss the first transfer date).

Edit: I just noticed this is an ultra ugly picture. Glass isn't scraped, color balance looks off, whatever I just wanted to show that this tank is (I think) pretty well established. I still feed it the frozen food run-off water before feeding the bigger tank).

 

[Areseebee]

Also the uv I bought is 36w. I figured I probably had a 200-300 gph power head somewhere downstairs that I could just run it off for now. However I do see everyone saying it won't help... It was all I could think of for a quick intervention that I could set up in the short time I'm here.

 

[Areseebee]

 

[Areseebee]

 

[MnFish1]

Gong to be blunt. No offense - it's for others not your situation specifically.

Hi All, I am looking for some advice. I have been setting up a 100 gallon tank and over the last two months had been adding fish. Nothing was quarantined (I had always done this in past tanks, why I didn't this time is a whole thing), and I came home from a 3 day vacation to find my "healthy" tank with 2 fish dead and one dying.

Right.

The remaining fish are a clown fish and a cardinal. Both are showing signs of disease (visible on the clownfish, cardinal is just... kind of clutching up and clearly not great).

That is not a known symptom - what does clutching mean? A video or pictures would help - and unfortunately this is one of those times I cannot see picture you might have posted, etc.

The problem is that I leave for a week on Saturday. I ordered a UV sterilizer that I was planning to hook up tonight that would hopefully hold the illness at bay until I returned and I can actually treat the fish, go fallow and quarantine going forward.

Without knowing the illness. I would say no It will not have any positive effect.

However, I did have another idea. I have a small 10g that has been running without issues for maybe a year and a half. I had planned to take it down (transferred the cardinal from there to the 100g) but just hadn't had the time with the vacation. Would it be smart to transfer them there tonight and that way I can buy some time in the life cycle of Ich and give them a break? Is it smarter to leave them be and run the UV? Any other suggestions? Appreciate the help.

Unfortunately - if the fish have a disease- they are likely to die

And I want to apologize - since I said up front it was going to be blunt.

 

[Areseebee]

I don't find it blunt but I'm more worried that you say you can't see the pictures and videos?

 

[Areseebee]

That is not a known symptom - what does clutching mean? A video or pictures would help - and unfortunately this is one of those times I cannot see picture you might have posted, etc.

To my understanding, clamped or clutched fins is a common symptom of ich, but maybe I'm wrong or maybe "clamping" is more common lingo.

 

[W31Olds]

Looks a lot like ich to me from your video. You must begin treatment ASAP. By the time you return from vacation those fish those fish may have died also or will shortly thereafter. You need to remove the inverts from your small tank if you treat them. Your best bet may be to try and rehome them locally with someone that has a QT Tank setup and can treat them.

 

[Areseebee]

This is a great idea. There is a store "near" me that will do this and so I can bring them tomorrow for treatment. Thank you so much for thinking of that. Now in the meantime, should I set up and move them to a 10g quarantine for the night? I don't have copper powder sadly but I could at least maybe let them get out of the current cycle of infection for the night?

 

[JayM]

This is a great idea. There is a store "near" me that will do this and so I can bring them tomorrow for treatment. Thank you so much for thinking of that. Now in the meantime, should I set up and move them to a 10g quarantine for the night? I don't have copper powder sadly but I could at least maybe let them get out of the current cycle of infection for the night?

Assuming Ich is the correct diagnosis, moving them without medication won't bring any relief. It's the parasites currently on the fish that are the issue - not what may be in the water.

 

[Areseebee]

Assuming Ich is the correct diagnosis, moving them without medication won't bring any relief. It's the parasites currently on the fish that are the issue - not what may be in the water.

Ok I thought it would prevent reattachment from new tomonts in the same way ttm works to get rid of it.

Edit: based on ich life cycle I thought the current tank probably has tons of tomonts ready to hatch and reattach whereas if I move them to a qt now there'd be a 2 day (or however long I forget the exacts) delay before more tomonts could spawn... This reducing burden.

 

[W31Olds]

It would probably help some but the tradeoff is the stress on the fish moving them. You might buy a bit of time since you have no medication on hand.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

This is a great idea. There is a store "near" me that will do this and so I can bring them tomorrow for treatment. Thank you so much for thinking of that. Now in the meantime, should I set up and move them to a 10g quarantine for the night? I don't have copper powder sadly but I could at least maybe let them get out of the current cycle of infection for the night?

With you leaving, that makes an effective ich treatment very difficult. Can you bring in somebody who knows fish to provide care while you’re gone? If not, can you move the fish to a store?

In some cases, there just isn’t going to be a solution…..

Hyposalinity might be an option, but you literally would have to begin dropping the salinity now, and continue during the night and into tomorrow night to get to 1.009

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hyposalinity.880546/

 

[Areseebee]

I actually found a fish store near me that I remembered will do copper/qt treatments for people so I will bring them tomorrow morning. Still debating if I should just transfer them a 10 gallon qt tonight just for some temporary relief (and maybe to make catching them tomorrow easier... I hate catching fish when I'm in a hurry).

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I actually found a fish store near me that I remembered will do copper/qt treatments for people so I will bring them tomorrow morning. Still debating if I should just transfer them a 10 gallon qt tonight just for some temporary relief (and maybe to make catching them tomorrow easier... I hate catching fish when I'm in a hurry).

I would do that, it will reduce the infection by doing a tank transfer.