Ich management moving into new tank

[Gone Reefin’]

Ok all, here is the situation. I am currently procuring a larger tank (150). This will be more fish focused (vs. coral) so disease management will be all the more critical. I will be moving one fish (small clown trigger) to the new tank.

Old tank HAD ich. As in 6 months ago. I successfully employed ich management, heavy feeding, uv, even polyp lab medic. Did not lose a fish. Certain it was ich, as several had it, including a blue tang. It went through 5-6 cycles over several weeks after which it disappeared. New fish have even been added without breakout. So the question is, after 6 months without a spot, what should the “qt protocol” be for introducing my clown trigger to its new tank?

I don’t use copper, only hypo. My hospital tank has substrate and rock, so I prefer this approach and have qtd successfully. Should I perform a full hypo treatment on my clown trigger before introducing him to new tank? What’s the risk of ich introduction if I do not? Is the stress on this guy worth it?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ok all, here is the situation. I am currently procuring a larger tank (150). This will be more fish focused (vs. coral) so disease management will be all the more critical. I will be moving one fish (small clown trigger) to the new tank.

Old tank HAD ich. As in 6 months ago. I successfully employed ich management, heavy feeding, uv, even polyp lab medic. Did not lose a fish. Certain it was ich, as several had it, including a blue tang. It went through 5-6 cycles over several weeks after which it disappeared. New fish have even been added without breakout. So the question is, after 6 months without a spot, what should the “qt protocol” be for introducing my clown trigger to its new tank?

I don’t use copper, only hypo. My hospital tank has substrate and rock, so I prefer this approach and have qtd successfully. Should I perform a full hypo treatment on my clown trigger before introducing him to new tank? What’s the risk of ich introduction if I do not? Is the stress on this guy worth it?

These fish tolerate Hyposalinity well and its best tto do so than to risk disease and having to go fallow for several weeks.
Ich management is often a short cut and you get lucky or you dont with this scenario. Polyp Med Medic is peroxide salts and often when a medication is marketed as reef safe, its also safe for parasites and rarely works. UV may have been key although its most effective before parasites are present as it does not erase pre-existing parasites

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Ok all, here is the situation. I am currently procuring a larger tank (150). This will be more fish focused (vs. coral) so disease management will be all the more critical. I will be moving one fish (small clown trigger) to the new tank.

Old tank HAD ich. As in 6 months ago. I successfully employed ich management, heavy feeding, uv, even polyp lab medic. Did not lose a fish. Certain it was ich, as several had it, including a blue tang. It went through 5-6 cycles over several weeks after which it disappeared. New fish have even been added without breakout. So the question is, after 6 months without a spot, what should the “qt protocol” be for introducing my clown trigger to its new tank?

I don’t use copper, only hypo. My hospital tank has substrate and rock, so I prefer this approach and have qtd successfully. Should I perform a full hypo treatment on my clown trigger before introducing him to new tank? What’s the risk of ich introduction if I do not? Is the stress on this guy worth it?

You could run an eDNA test through Aquabiomics. $100 I think. That would tell you if ich DNA was still present.

 

[Lavey29]

Im one of those that believes ich is present in every tank but as long as fish are healthy and strong their immune systems keep it at bay. Stress events weaken fish immune systems which may let ich get hold. For example, adding a tang to a thriving tank. The stress on the fish in a new environment weakens immune system and ich starts. All the other fish were fine before the new fish who went through QT was added. It just means ich was already present in the tank and took advantage of a weaken stress immune system to find a host.

 

[resortez]

In my opinion, I would use the QT tank, isolate the trigger, run your protocol, beef up the trigger, get it used to your husbandry & the trigger will be good to go. It will be stress free going into your main tank. My $0.02. Good luck

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Im one of those that believes ich is present in every tank but as long as fish are healthy and strong their immune systems keep it at bay. Stress events weaken fish immune systems which may let ich get hold. For example, adding a tang to a thriving tank. The stress on the fish in a new environment weakens immune system and ich starts. All the other fish were fine before the new fish who went through QT was added. It just means ich was already present in the tank and took advantage of a weaken stress immune system to find a host.

However, eDNA testing shows that some systems ARE indeed free of ich DNA. Further testing will show it better, it is tough to quantify right now. Our 175,000 gallon tropical system showed only two diseases; trematodes ( we knew an eagle ray had gill flukes) and Uronema (which isn’t an obligate parasite and is common in most mature systems). No ich, velvet or other protozoans in the system, despite it housing hundreds of fish from dozens of sources (all quarantined of course).

 

[Lavey29]

However, eDNA testing shows that some systems ARE indeed free of ich DNA. Further testing will show it better, it is tough to quantify right now. Our 175,000 gallon tropical system showed only two diseases; trematodes ( we knew an eagle ray had gill flukes) and Uronema (which isn’t an obligate parasite and is common in most mature systems). No ich, velvet or other protozoans in the system, despite it housing hundreds of fish from dozens of sources (all quarantined of course).

I would guess that your state of the art system with the most advanced filtration features and probably as close to an ocean environment as it can be has advantages over the typical reefer. Is ich not present or is your system so finely tuned that it is just undetectable and in minute quantity not able to show up on a test? I.may email some good aquarium venues with large systems and see if they even test like you do on a regular basis. I still think healthy fat fish can easily be immune to ich. Paul B demonstrated this multiple times.

 

[Gone Reefin’]

Thanks for the advice/discussion all. @Jay Hemdal , curious on your opinion of running an eDNA test. As my tank had ich 6-9 months ago, do you feel it is possible that it has been eradicated?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the advice/discussion all. @Jay Hemdal , curious on your opinion of running an eDNA test. As my tank had ich 6-9 months ago, do you feel it is possible that it has been eradicated?

I don't have enough information on how long eDNA can persist in aquariums. I think for sure 1 month, but longer than that, IDK.

You have to take the eDNA results with a grain of salt - DNA from the foods you feed will be counted in the results. My home office aquarium is next to a display of Bonsai trees, and an eDNA of that tank showed terrestrial plant DNA in it (grin).