Hi all,
I'll try to make this as quick as possible. I had an ich or velvet outbreak when I was on vacation recently. Was gone for 4 days but when I came back 3 had died that night (powder brown, royal gramma and starry blenny). It came out of nowhere and I was only gone for 4 days. You can see the pic of the purple tang. I know I had ich in the tank but they were doing relatively fine for over a year - growing and really not showing signs of it for well over 9 months after initially having signs for a few weeks. If it wasn't ich then velvet is likely due to the aggressive nature of their demise (coral was purchased the week prior and put in the DT). To save the explanation of what I drew a pic of the timeline. Basically I treated the 8 remaining fish with copper power (level between 2.3 and 2.6 for 15 days) with additional treatments of prazipro, kenamycin, and general cure (wrasse had developed an infection - source unclear).
The "hybrid" or combo part was really in response to so many failed attempts documented on this webpage. The general theme over and over seems to be "I had my tank fallow for 70+ days and treated them and as soon as they go back in they get ich again". I'll save the debates about proper treatment, cross-contamination, etc. Jay had posited that perhaps ich lays dormant in an anaerobic environment so the rationale is that it had not cleared the DT. The stories over and over seem to point to the DT as the issue, especially when fish are showing no symptoms at all in their QT. I am a pharmacist by trade and I lean heavily on evidence-based approaches but there just aren't a lot of good studies (as Jay and others have established exhaustively) to identify the cause - other than human error. But I do believe there may be something there, people do make mistakes but again, there seems to be a consistent story with these failed attempts.
That leads me to what I have tried to do here. It consists of doing all of the following:
1) Copper treatment (with FW dip prior)
2) Tank Transfer
3) Prazipro
4) 90 - 100% water change in DT
5) UV Sterilizer
6) Rip cleaning the sand with tap water and rinse with RODI
7) Clean (as best you can) the DT and sump
This also assumes that everything listed above is done correctly, i.e., coper levels appropriate, other med dosing appropriate, duration of treatment appropriate, no cross-contamination, proper UV sterilizer size and pump settings for tank size, etc.
I am not going into detail on each of these other than to say all the information and process for each is on this website. For the most part this has gone well so far. I have eight fish in 30 gallon QT - purple tang - blue jaw trigger - YWG - blueside fairy wrasse - blue star leopard wrasse - clownfish - 2 cardinalfish. Clownfish did get air bubble trapped in his eye but he recovered. The blueside fairy wrasse somehow got an infection (hence the kenamycin and general cure). But he does seem to be improving (two pics below). I know they need to get out of there as soon as possible though and eventually I think the stress may get to them.
Finally, you can see the timeline posted in the pic - but I wanted to get thoughts on how to finish this out. I plan on waiting 75 days but I am considering another copper treatment at day 61 and then having them go right into the DT at day 75 (provided they are tolerating things well). Also considering another tank transfer closer to the end? I don't want to overdo it but they took to the first treatment well. Also curious if others have rip cleaned the sand as part of their QT treatments and if it was successful?
Before kenamycin and General Cure
After - taken today
Last day in the DT back in August
I'll try to make this as quick as possible. I had an ich or velvet outbreak when I was on vacation recently. Was gone for 4 days but when I came back 3 had died that night (powder brown, royal gramma and starry blenny). It came out of nowhere and I was only gone for 4 days. You can see the pic of the purple tang. I know I had ich in the tank but they were doing relatively fine for over a year - growing and really not showing signs of it for well over 9 months after initially having signs for a few weeks. If it wasn't ich then velvet is likely due to the aggressive nature of their demise (coral was purchased the week prior and put in the DT). To save the explanation of what I drew a pic of the timeline. Basically I treated the 8 remaining fish with copper power (level between 2.3 and 2.6 for 15 days) with additional treatments of prazipro, kenamycin, and general cure (wrasse had developed an infection - source unclear).
The "hybrid" or combo part was really in response to so many failed attempts documented on this webpage. The general theme over and over seems to be "I had my tank fallow for 70+ days and treated them and as soon as they go back in they get ich again". I'll save the debates about proper treatment, cross-contamination, etc. Jay had posited that perhaps ich lays dormant in an anaerobic environment so the rationale is that it had not cleared the DT. The stories over and over seem to point to the DT as the issue, especially when fish are showing no symptoms at all in their QT. I am a pharmacist by trade and I lean heavily on evidence-based approaches but there just aren't a lot of good studies (as Jay and others have established exhaustively) to identify the cause - other than human error. But I do believe there may be something there, people do make mistakes but again, there seems to be a consistent story with these failed attempts.
That leads me to what I have tried to do here. It consists of doing all of the following:
1) Copper treatment (with FW dip prior)
2) Tank Transfer
3) Prazipro
4) 90 - 100% water change in DT
5) UV Sterilizer
6) Rip cleaning the sand with tap water and rinse with RODI
7) Clean (as best you can) the DT and sump
This also assumes that everything listed above is done correctly, i.e., coper levels appropriate, other med dosing appropriate, duration of treatment appropriate, no cross-contamination, proper UV sterilizer size and pump settings for tank size, etc.
I am not going into detail on each of these other than to say all the information and process for each is on this website. For the most part this has gone well so far. I have eight fish in 30 gallon QT - purple tang - blue jaw trigger - YWG - blueside fairy wrasse - blue star leopard wrasse - clownfish - 2 cardinalfish. Clownfish did get air bubble trapped in his eye but he recovered. The blueside fairy wrasse somehow got an infection (hence the kenamycin and general cure). But he does seem to be improving (two pics below). I know they need to get out of there as soon as possible though and eventually I think the stress may get to them.
Finally, you can see the timeline posted in the pic - but I wanted to get thoughts on how to finish this out. I plan on waiting 75 days but I am considering another copper treatment at day 61 and then having them go right into the DT at day 75 (provided they are tolerating things well). Also considering another tank transfer closer to the end? I don't want to overdo it but they took to the first treatment well. Also curious if others have rip cleaned the sand as part of their QT treatments and if it was successful?
Before kenamycin and General Cure
After - taken today
Last day in the DT back in August