Ich had ruined this hobby.

[ColdOceanReef]

If I remember correctly, someone once said, "ick always in your tank" keep your fish healthy and water quality is vital to their health. Move them to quarantine it you can catch them. There are products out there that are reef safe ick treatment. Soak their food in garlic and Keep up with water quality. Maybe considered an UV down the road.

 

[lolmatt]

If I remember correctly, someone once said, "ick always in your tank" keep your fish healthy and water quality is vital to their health. Move them to quarantine it you can catch them. There are products out there that are reef safe ick treatment. Soak their food in garlic and Keep up with water quality. Maybe considered an UV down the road.

There are no effective reef safe treatments for ich. Period. Anyone that says anything different does not know what they are talking about. I run a rather large uv already.

 

[lolmatt]

Tentative plan is to catch any the fish I can, remove all corals and invertebrates into my frag tank, and isolate it from the main system (there's a drain into the sump and feed from one return pump...I can close their valves and run fallow for 76 days).

I'll then run TTM on the fish I caught (then stick them somewhere for 2 weeks post ttm), run hypo for 30 days any fish I can't (and my rock and sand) @ 1.009 (I use a misco digital refractometer to test salinity...very accurate), hope for no losses, and if ich pops up again during weeks 5-11 of the 11 week fallow period I'll figure something else out.

Any input on this plan? Should I just run hypo on all the fish and cross my fingers that I don't have a resistant strain? @Humblefish @4FordFamily @ngoodermuth @HotRocks

 

[fostee]

Sorry that sucks so bad! I would take rocks and coral out. Drain 90% of water, catch fish and put into brute or 2 w some live rock / bio media and run hypo. Put coraLs and rest of rock back Into display and refill for fallow period. You’re smarter than a parasite, you can beat it. Will take several hours of work but it’s not the end of the world. Best of luck for you.

 

[jsvand5]

Sounds like it may be velvet with as fast as you are losing fish. Diseases are definitely frustrating. My advice would be to buy a good UV sterilizer. I was in a similar position as you before getting a TMC 110. It’s made keeping an aquarium so much more enjoyable and it will probably actually save you money in the long run just by having better survival of fish. I still QT the even with the sterilizer but it’s much more lax than it used to be and now I don’t even really worry about ich anymore.

 

[falconut]

Sorry you had this happen, I had a recent experience and had a similar though of just getting out.

I recently moved my fish from my 90 to a new 180 & switched from reef to FOWLR. All switched over & were doing great. Now we had a LFS that QTed all their fish for 30 days prior to selling. So, I picked up a couple fish from them & acclimated right into my DT. Within a couple hours the new fish were covered in ick. I was so angry. Within a few days it was gone. But next month about 1/2 the fish had it, so I had to yank all out and treated in my 90 that was still running. Left my DT fishless for 76 days. Was a PIA, but did the trick.

Now every fish goes through a 30 day copper (cupramine) treatment in QT, which I've had good luck with. The key for my copper treatment was to get the Hanna Copper Checker. I tested my levels the first day I got it & they were too low. It looked good on the Sea Chem kit, but is so hard to read the color differences. I'd rather loose a fish in QT than all the fish in my display.

Good Luck with your treatment.

 

[lolmatt]

Sounds like it may be velvet with as fast as you are losing fish. Diseases are definitely frustrating. My advice would be to buy a good UV sterilizer. I was in a similar position as you before getting a TMC 110. It’s made keeping an aquarium so much more enjoyable and it will probably actually save you money in the long run just by having better survival of fish. I still QT the even with the sterilizer but it’s much more lax than it used to be and now I don’t even really worry about ich anymore.

You must be replying to someone that commented (I too believe he's got velvet), I've yet to lose a fish but just saw symptoms yesterday. Definitely ich in my case.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

I wonder how ppl not on the forums even keep anything alive. Without having a commercial qt protocol as good as a public aquarium, how can a reef tank be kept successfully long term? Without fail, you will get ich or velvet eventually if you don't qt everything with a fail proof qt protocol. I'd wager under 10% of the ppl on this forum qt inverts and coral, and the forum represents under 10% of reef tank keepers. Are 99% of people keeping tanks successfully? If others weren't, if fish got sick on the regular fish stores would never stay in business.

I use to think about this just like you. "People have to be succeeding, it's just my bad luck". Over the years I have seen so many failed FOWLR tanks. The only reef tanks I've seen belong to people who are on the forums and reading articles. There are a lot of people not keeping tanks successfully. There isn't a flood of new hobbyist but the LFS still sells massive amounts of fish every month. Where are all these fish going? At this stage in reef keeping I have realized that success is obtainable but you have to be setup for it. Taking shortcuts once in a while is okay, but if a tank is all shortcuts then it will never have long term stability. Most hobbyist are out within their first two years. What you see on the forums are people within their first 2 years or the 10% that found a way to make it work, and even some of those tanks aren't perfect.

I am a very strong believer in medicated QT, because it is simple but effective. Hypo can work for cryptocaryon but you have to be spot on, and then you may get a strain that is resistant. If you don't have cryptocaryon then hypo will not help. TTM can be effective but the slightest cross contamination and it's over. If it's not cryptocaryon then once again it is pointless. CP or copper is a shotgun that can take out a lot of nasties. 80% of fish have worms so might as well use prazi or GC as well.

 

[infinite0180]

I recently added a new fish after successfully practicing ich management. Well the new fish caused major problems and i lost a fish. I made the decision to set up a small qt and im glad i did. Im two weeks into copper using the hanna checker and my fish look great. Honestly, i knew it was inevitable. I was trying to avoid doing it until i bought a house and moved the tank but i couldnt watch fish die... now its just a waiting game. Once the qt is running smoothly you can throw anything you want at the fish and not stress it. Im feeding medicated foods and plan on using prazi after the copper. Ill sleep better at night knowing i helped them. Im not going to lie though, there is no way i can set up a coral/invert qt. If i bring something in on that then ill just have to pull the fish again and do it over. I willing to risk that. I dont have the space in my apartment for another tank. My wife would loose it haha. Anyways, i feel your pain but trust me once its up and going its not soo bad!

 

[BayouReefer]

Tentative plan is to catch any the fish I can, remove all corals and invertebrates into my frag tank, and isolate it from the main system (there's a drain into the sump and feed from one return pump...I can close their valves and run fallow for 76 days).

I'll then run TTM on the fish I caught (then stick them somewhere for 2 weeks post ttm), run hypo for 30 days any fish I can't (and my rock and sand) @ 1.009 (I use a misco digital refractometer to test salinity...very accurate), hope for no losses, and if ich pops up again during weeks 5-11 of the 11 week fallow period I'll figure something else out.

Any input on this plan? Should I just run hypo on all the fish and cross my fingers that I don't have a resistant strain? @Humblefish @4FordFamily @ngoodermuth @HotRocks

You just tagged all the right people their knowledge of this topic is immense. The system they use has helped many people successfully bring their fish through the quarantine process.

 

[jsvand5]

You must be replying to someone that commented (I too believe he's got velvet), I've yet to lose a fish but just saw symptoms yesterday. Definitely ich in my case.

Oh sorry. But regardless a good UV sterilizer makes this hobby much more fun. Mine was about $500 with the pump to run it. I probably lost that much just in livestock from my ich/velvet outbreak before the UV. I have not lost a single fish since I hooked it up. My only problem now is that I am out of room to add more fish.

 

[wasafuzz]

Wow, how depressing. was thinking about upgrading, now going to revaluate this whole idea. Might have saved me thousands.

 

[Bob Weigant]

They say low concentration of copper does more harm than good. Usually keeps the parasite/disease at bay and undetectable until copper is stopped and it comes back full force. Something to that extent.
I would imagine it to work somewhat like chemotherapy.

I haven't heard that. So many things to learn in this hobby no matter how long Ive been in it

 

[Saltyreef]

I haven't heard that. So many things to learn in this hobby no matter how long Ive been in it

Some importers and shops like to run low doses of copper in their holding tanks so a full blown infection doesnt wipe everything else while in temporary holding. Hypo salinity does the same thing.

 

[fcmatt]

The picture of that clownfish does not look like ich.

 

[Cory]

Ich to me was just a compass if something was off elsewhere. Back in 1990 it was there and it was there in the 60s too. But ich imo didnt kill the hobby. Id say velvet ir brook could but not ich. Funny thing is ive introduced a fish which got brook and not one of my other healthy fish got sick from it. Unfortunately the clownfish died from it but none of my other healthy, unstressed, and well fed fish did.

 

[Squidward]

If I remember correctly, someone once said, "ick always in your tank" keep your fish healthy and water quality is vital to their health. Move them to quarantine it you can catch them. There are products out there that are reef safe ick treatment. Soak their food in garlic and Keep up with water quality. Maybe considered an UV down the road.

Whoever said that had no idea what they were talking about. I couldn't stand managing ich. The constant worry of your fish being ok everyday will not do me any good. I want an ich free tank. So far so good. I've done TTM on all my current fish and my corals are still in QT. I don't keep Sps so I'm not gonna worry about the QT stress of SPS. I hope everything works out for you though. Don't let this stop you.

 

[lolmatt]

Ich to me was just a compass if something was off elsewhere. Back in 1990 it was there and it was there in the 60s too. But ich imo didnt kill the hobby. Id say velvet ir brook could but not ich. Funny thing is ive introduced a fish which got brook and not one of my other healthy fish got sick from it. Unfortunately the clownfish died from it but none of my other healthy, unstressed, and well fed fish did.

Yeah that's a really good point. I think I went a little too far with my rant on this post, my fish haven't shown any signs of ich other than spots, which I'm not convinced aren't either lympho (which I know a few of my fish have) and/or a worm of some sort. No flashing, no heavy breathing, etc.

I still think that ich and certainly velvet have had a really negative impact on the hobby...if our lfs took the opportunity to treat the fish better, it would result in a much more positive experience for the average hobbiest.

 

[knowen87]

I took all my fish out and went fallow 2 times in 6 months. I pulled them all up had quarantine systems in different rooms. Treated the fish with copper and still had ich after both times. It was very difficult and completely worthless. I'm not saying that it is not possible to quarantine fish but I am saying that it is easy to get wrong even if you do everything right. I currently am trying a reduced stocking rate and UV but I 100% understand your problems. I have killed more fish in copper QT than i ever did just dropping them in the tank. I do see the merit in at least some QT though. My QT is observation only while allowing them to learn to eat. Fish illness is by far the most frustrating thing that i deal with in the hobby.

 

[lolmatt]

I took all my fish out and went fallow 2 times in 6 months. I pulled them all up had quarantine systems in different rooms. Treated the fish with copper and still had ich after both times. It was very difficult and completely worthless. I'm not saying that it is not possible to quarantine fish but I am saying that it is easy to get wrong even if you do everything right. I currently am trying a reduced stocking rate and UV but I 100% understand your problems. I have killed more fish in copper QT than i ever did just dropping them in the tank. I do see the merit in at least some QT though. My QT is observation only while allowing them to learn to eat. Fish illness is by far the most frustrating thing that i deal with in the hobby.

I 100% agree with everything here. A couple days after writing this post I discovered my uv bulb had died...I wonder if I've had ich longer than I realize and the sterilizer going out caused a flare up...new bulbs should come Friday (I ordered a spare too).

I'll keep updating this post on the status of my fish. As of yesterday (and since feeding metro flakes, lrs, nori with selcon, and live black worms daily, added 1 micron filter sticks) no fish had any dots that could have been ich. Yellow tang lympho definitely flaring up (few cottony marks on her face), blue hippo had a few marks the day before but one had grown to the point that it might also be lympho. Purple tang still splotchy, desjardini still hard to tell. No flashing on any fish, and no external signs on any of the other fish (9 halichoeres wrasses, 2 leopards, copperband, harlequin tusk, long nose hawk, clowns [though the female is late spawning and very fat, full of eggs presumably], springeri damsel, starcki damsel, juvi bristletooth tang, randalls assessor).