Hello friends, i have a couple of questions about ICH, I have a 200 gals system and the habitants are Powder Blue Tang, Yellow Tang, Imperator Angel Fish (Juvenile), Banana Wrasse, Mandarin, Auriga Butterfly fish, Damsel, two Perculas, Goby Engineer and a couple of blue throat Triggers.
My last addition was the two Triggers and the banana wrasse, they had been in quarantine for 30 days, I used Prazy Pro and after the 30 days they move to the DT, they did not have any symptoms of ICH.
After two more weeks in my DT everything was great (30 days in QT plus 15 days in the DT) suddenly I watched a white spot on my PBT!!!! He is a big fish and the boss he is 6+ years and he had Ich once in the first month to be with me (I did not QT him 6 years ago) I mange to save him with Dr G´s antiparasitic food, metronidazole in the water (every two days) and garlic on the food, at that opportunity he was the only one with white spots the infestation lasted about two weeks and I gave the medicines for another 20 days (counted from the last time a spotted an spot).
But now the things are a little bit more complicated, after I saw the first spot, he continued developing more white spots (and dropped them) like the ich life cycle has to be, I started the Dr. G´s 6 days ago and the metronidazole 2 days ago, so is early to say if the approach is working or not, he is eating like always and he is a bull he is bulling all his tanks mates like he always do, no stress color, no elaborated breathing or scratching against rocks.
The difference this time is that the Yellow Tang developed today a couple of white spots, the Auriga Butterfly had one and dropped it 3 days ago but did not have any new again, 6 years ago I had the same Yellow Tang (he is 10+ years) and he did not had any sings of ICH and that time he is acting normal too eating well, he is shy but he always be in the other hand the Auriga is young (6+ months) she developed the ich mark on the yellow area, of course he could have on the white area and I am not noticing it, she is not eating the Dr. G´s medicine since she only eat flakes, she don’t even eat mysis or nory, only ocean nutrition flakes so I feel at some point she could get really sick.
The emperor angelfish is a juvenile he is 6+ months he came with the Butterfly, they had an extended QT period with two rounds of prazy pro, he grows from something like 1 ich to around 3 o 4 inches he eats anything and he does not have any visual signs of ICH but he developed HLLE not a really bad case but is there, it started the next day he eat the Dr. G´s medicated food, so I am not sure if is related to the medicine or to the ICH (he does not have any visual sings of it but it could be there stressing him)
The other fishes (even the new ones) do not have any visual signs of ICH.
I am confident with my approach since translate them to a QT tank is out of the question, first because it will be really difficult catch the fishes without taking all the rocks out, then I am pretty sure my old fishes will be very stressed and I am unable to locate an aquarium big enough to avoid major cases of aggression since the main DT will have to be fishless for around 6 months to kill the parasite, so I know even if I kill all the parasite I could have re infestations in the future.
So what do you guys think to add paraguard from Seachem to the recipe as far as I understand from the Seachem web site this medicine does not affect the biofilter, I don’t have any corals or other invertebrates the only ones are a few Mexican turbos that I can move to my Reef temporally I am thinking in add this to combat the parasite out of the fish body but I am not sure if this work like this or only works inside the fish body, my other idea is cupramine but sadly I can buy the cupramine but I can not buy the test (ironically at my country the LFS´s only sell the cupramine and not the test), of course I can import from amazon the cuprasorb and the test its an easy task but I will take around two weeks, I know the live rock will absorb it and release it with the time but I don’t have and will not have inverts in this tank, anyway I am afraid I will kill all the microfauna and my last option is wait and see and assume the risk of re infections after my fishes end the treatment, like I told before I was in this same situation around 6 years ago and I did not have any reinfections until now.
at last question what do you think went wrong with my QT procedure?
Thanks a lot for any advice and help in advance.
Alex
My last addition was the two Triggers and the banana wrasse, they had been in quarantine for 30 days, I used Prazy Pro and after the 30 days they move to the DT, they did not have any symptoms of ICH.
After two more weeks in my DT everything was great (30 days in QT plus 15 days in the DT) suddenly I watched a white spot on my PBT!!!! He is a big fish and the boss he is 6+ years and he had Ich once in the first month to be with me (I did not QT him 6 years ago) I mange to save him with Dr G´s antiparasitic food, metronidazole in the water (every two days) and garlic on the food, at that opportunity he was the only one with white spots the infestation lasted about two weeks and I gave the medicines for another 20 days (counted from the last time a spotted an spot).
But now the things are a little bit more complicated, after I saw the first spot, he continued developing more white spots (and dropped them) like the ich life cycle has to be, I started the Dr. G´s 6 days ago and the metronidazole 2 days ago, so is early to say if the approach is working or not, he is eating like always and he is a bull he is bulling all his tanks mates like he always do, no stress color, no elaborated breathing or scratching against rocks.
The difference this time is that the Yellow Tang developed today a couple of white spots, the Auriga Butterfly had one and dropped it 3 days ago but did not have any new again, 6 years ago I had the same Yellow Tang (he is 10+ years) and he did not had any sings of ICH and that time he is acting normal too eating well, he is shy but he always be in the other hand the Auriga is young (6+ months) she developed the ich mark on the yellow area, of course he could have on the white area and I am not noticing it, she is not eating the Dr. G´s medicine since she only eat flakes, she don’t even eat mysis or nory, only ocean nutrition flakes so I feel at some point she could get really sick.
The emperor angelfish is a juvenile he is 6+ months he came with the Butterfly, they had an extended QT period with two rounds of prazy pro, he grows from something like 1 ich to around 3 o 4 inches he eats anything and he does not have any visual signs of ICH but he developed HLLE not a really bad case but is there, it started the next day he eat the Dr. G´s medicated food, so I am not sure if is related to the medicine or to the ICH (he does not have any visual sings of it but it could be there stressing him)
The other fishes (even the new ones) do not have any visual signs of ICH.
I am confident with my approach since translate them to a QT tank is out of the question, first because it will be really difficult catch the fishes without taking all the rocks out, then I am pretty sure my old fishes will be very stressed and I am unable to locate an aquarium big enough to avoid major cases of aggression since the main DT will have to be fishless for around 6 months to kill the parasite, so I know even if I kill all the parasite I could have re infestations in the future.
So what do you guys think to add paraguard from Seachem to the recipe as far as I understand from the Seachem web site this medicine does not affect the biofilter, I don’t have any corals or other invertebrates the only ones are a few Mexican turbos that I can move to my Reef temporally I am thinking in add this to combat the parasite out of the fish body but I am not sure if this work like this or only works inside the fish body, my other idea is cupramine but sadly I can buy the cupramine but I can not buy the test (ironically at my country the LFS´s only sell the cupramine and not the test), of course I can import from amazon the cuprasorb and the test its an easy task but I will take around two weeks, I know the live rock will absorb it and release it with the time but I don’t have and will not have inverts in this tank, anyway I am afraid I will kill all the microfauna and my last option is wait and see and assume the risk of re infections after my fishes end the treatment, like I told before I was in this same situation around 6 years ago and I did not have any reinfections until now.
at last question what do you think went wrong with my QT procedure?
Thanks a lot for any advice and help in advance.
Alex
