Ich outbreak after moving

[VinTheFin]

I’ve recently just moved apartments and got everything setup last night. I have a baby blue tang, baby fox face, two clowns and a royal gramma. My fish were in my DT for about 3 months before I moved, very healthy and no signs of any disease. During my move I had them in a heavy duty tub so I could move everything in. Well, after getting my DT back up last night I checked it this morning and my blue tang has faded white spots on both sides of his back about a quarter big (no clue what happened or what it is) and my clownfish is covered in white spots that looks like ich. No other fish have anything visibly wrong yet. How can this happen so fast and how would it happen during moving? I just don’t understand. Nothing new has been added since I got them 3 months ago for the specific reason of not wanting to risk getting a disease, I bought all the fish together. My fish, all inverts (I have no corals) were healthy so I stopped stocking.

 

[Cell]

It means they always had it and the stress of moving caused it to flare up.

 

[VinTheFin]

It means they always had it and the stress of moving caused it to flare up.

Okay, so what actions should I take? Since they’ve been healthy for 3 months with no signs of disease should I just keep their water clean and feed them like I was before the flare up and hope it goes back down? Or should I set the tub back up and start a QT? Any tips for the QT?

 

[Uncle99]

moving created unstable water and is stressful.
Need treatment of Hypo, TTM, or copper.
DT fallow.

I agree, may always be present but need a trigger.

 

[vetteguy53081]

You would have needed to acclimate your fish to new tank assuring proper temperature, salinity, ph and other stressors
Now you will have to set up a quarantine tank
Before suggesting what you need, can you post a couple of pictures under white lighting to confirm what you have?

 

[VinTheFin]

moving created unstable water and is stressful.
Need treatment of Hypo, TTM, or copper.
DT fallow.

I agree, may always be present but need a trigger.

A lot of the information I’m reading on I feel like the best action for me is to feed them high quality foods and hope it goes back down. They just got out of a 27-gallon tub they had been in for a few days to this new tank and transferring again would be even more stress. Would you agree my best chance of survival is increasing their diet and accepting the ich in my tank? Or do you still think the best chance of survival is with the entire QT process? I’ve also have never done a QT before I’ve never had to yet but I still have the tub I could use.

You would have needed to acclimate your fish to new tank assuring proper temperature, salinity, ph and other stressors
Now you will have to set up a quarantine tank
Before suggesting what you need, can you post a couple of pictures under white lighting to confirm what you have?

I made sure the temps matched, I had an extra heater and pump I put in the DT. I used all the existing water from the tub and then filled it rest of the way with new saltwater. I felt like that was the best way to transfer them. Salinity was the same. Ph could have been different. I attached pictures. I’m not saying what I did was the correct way that’s just what I have done.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

The clownfish does look like it has broken out with ich. I was hoping from the description that it was just dust spots the fish picked up during the move, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Chronic low levels of ich can fester in a tank, and then a major stress (like this move) causes it to become more acute. The only thing that is giving me pause for thought is the speed at which the ich trophonts showed up. Less than 24 hours, for this number of trophonts doesn't seem reasonable, seems to fast to me. Could there have been some stressor that happened prior to the move?

Jay

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Looks like ich to me and thanks for posting nice pics from the get go.

You have a few options and luckily all of the fish are small.

- Yup, I will go here. Management. Ensure stable water, good diet and the fish may be able to manage it. If they had it before and it is just now showing up, then they were already managing it just fine. The stress o the move just caused it to flare up a bit.

- QT of some sort. From the pics, it looks like you do not have corals or may only have a few. If this is the case, I would suggest taking the tank to hyposalinity and going that route. If you do have a few cropals, buy a small 10g tank, cheap light and put the corals in it for the timeframe of the hypo. You just have to be sure to ghost feed the coral tank a little to keep nutrients up. Super simple to do both, as long as you have good way to test salinity. Write up on hypo is in the fish and disease section o the forum.

- Setup a QT and treat with copper, setup 2 tanks and do ttm or hybrid ttm. all of which also have write ups on here.

Either awy is up to you and all ways are proven to work.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Just noticed you have no corals from your post.

I say go hypo and call it day. Super easy, nothing to buy if you can make rodi water and then only some salt water added back via removal of water that is hypo and adding back in some the is salt water.

 

[VinTheFin]

Just noticed you have no corals from your post.

I say go hypo and call it day. Super easy, nothing to buy if you can make rodi water and then only some salt water added back via removal of water that is hypo and adding back in some the is salt water.

I agree too, I think because they’ve already been stressed from the move a QT is more risky than normal. And because they’ve shown they can suppress it already naturally with a healthy diet it makes sense they could do it again. I also think based on my skill set (never did a QT before and I’m sure I could overdose something or anything else that could go wrong) that makes the best chance for them to survive. Thank you for the hyposalinity suggestion it is definitely something anyone could do.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I agree too, I think because they’ve already been stressed from the move a QT is more risky than normal. And because they’ve shown they can suppress it already naturally with a healthy diet it makes sense they could do it again. I also think based on my skill set (never did a QT before and I’m sure I could overdose something or anything else that could go wrong) that makes the best chance for them to survive. Thank you for the hyposalinity suggestion it is definitely something anyone could do.

Here is the link to @Jay Hemdal write up.

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hypo can be risky as ich/crypto can survive in salinity of 1.010 and hypo should not be prolonged.
A simple treatment using copper power for full 30 days at therapeutic level 2.25-2.5 monitored by a reliable copper test kit such as Hanna will address the issue as you will need to leave display fishless(fallow) for 6-8 weeks to assure trophants have gone through life cycle without a host and have died off

 

[vetteguy53081]

A lot of the information I’m reading on I feel like the best action for me is to feed them high quality foods and hope it goes back down. They just got out of a 27-gallon tub they had been in for a few days to this new tank and transferring again would be even more stress. Would you agree my best chance of survival is increasing their diet and accepting the ich in my tank? Or do you still think the best chance of survival is with the entire QT process? I’ve also have never done a QT before I’ve never had to yet but I still have the tub I could use.

I made sure the temps matched, I had an extra heater and pump I put in the DT. I used all the existing water from the tub and then filled it rest of the way with new saltwater. I felt like that was the best way to transfer them. Salinity was the same. Ph could have been different. I attached pictures. I’m not saying what I did was the correct way that’s just what I have done.

Feeding high quality food helps with immune system but not a corrective action

 

[Uncle99]

I’m not sure that’s going to go away with good feeding.
I’d treat for ick, your pick, copper in QT, hypo in DT, TTM, I’ve used all three and worked well. Depends on what you think you can do.

 

[VinTheFin]

I’m not sure that’s going to go away with good feeding.
I’d treat for ick, your pick, copper in QT, hypo in DT, TTM, I’ve used all three and worked well. Depends on what you think you can do.

Yeah I have decided to go with hypo for my elimination of ich but going to feed good as well go suppress it. For me, I think it is my best shot.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I agree too, I think because they’ve already been stressed from the move a QT is more risky than normal. And because they’ve shown they can suppress it already naturally with a healthy diet it makes sense they could do it again. I also think based on my skill set (never did a QT before and I’m sure I could overdose something or anything else that could go wrong) that makes the best chance for them to survive. Thank you for the hyposalinity suggestion it is definitely something anyone could do.

I would go with hypo here as long as the tank has NO invertebrates in it, CUC, corals, etc. If it does, you need to move them out, but they need to be housed in a tank with no fish for 60+ days.

Jay

 

[Uncle99]

Yeah I have decided to go with hypo for my elimination of ich but going to feed good as well go suppress it. For me, I think it is my best shot.

Good luck.
Absolutely feeding is crucial.

 

[VinTheFin]

Just wanted to give an update on this for anyone else who may be in the same situation. I had a small nano as well with fish that came from the same tub with the ich, so I moved all the fish into my big tank and moved all inverts into my nano. Not everyone will have that but thankfully I did. I lowered salinity in the big tank with all the fish to 1.009 and then slowly added RO until I hit 1.008. I didn’t want my salinity to technically be at 1.0099 and it read 1.009 since ich can still live at 1.010 I wanted it to be barely 1.008. After all it’s a 4-6 week process depending what you decide and I didn’t want to fail it. Anyways, I have 8 fish total and only one randomly died about two weeks in which was the royal gramma and it was a tiny baby. I started feeding a mix of brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, blood worms, and garlic guard. Also fed pellets and do this twice a day. Everyone seems very happy and healthy and it’s been a month but plan on going another two weeks. (I chose to do it for 6 weeks) The blue tang in the pics (I know it’s a bad picture) had faded white spots about size of a quarter on both sides of his back and they’re completely gone now. No one else has any visible stuff either. If anyone else runs into this problem similar to mine I highly recommend hypo salinity and am glad I stumbled upon it from the suggestions.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Just wanted to give an update on this for anyone else who may be in the same situation. I had a small nano as well with fish that came from the same tub with the ich, so I moved all the fish into my big tank and moved all inverts into my nano. Not everyone will have that but thankfully I did. I lowered salinity in the big tank with all the fish to 1.009 and then slowly added RO until I hit 1.008. I didn’t want my salinity to technically be at 1.0099 and it read 1.009 since ich can still live at 1.010 I wanted it to be barely 1.008. After all it’s a 4-6 week process depending what you decide and I didn’t want to fail it. Anyways, I have 8 fish total and only one randomly died about two weeks in which was the royal gramma and it was a tiny baby. I started feeding a mix of brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, blood worms, and garlic guard. Also fed pellets and do this twice a day. Everyone seems very happy and healthy and it’s been a month but plan on going another two weeks. (I chose to do it for 6 weeks) The blue tang in the pics (I know it’s a bad picture) had faded white spots about size of a quarter on both sides of his back and they’re completely gone now. No one else has any visible stuff either. If anyone else runs into this problem similar to mine I highly recommend hypo salinity and am glad I stumbled upon it from the suggestions.

Great job! And great write up of your process

 

[SaJon]

Just wanted to give an update on this for anyone else who may be in the same situation. I had a small nano as well with fish that came from the same tub with the ich, so I moved all the fish into my big tank and moved all inverts into my nano. Not everyone will have that but thankfully I did. I lowered salinity in the big tank with all the fish to 1.009 and then slowly added RO until I hit 1.008. I didn’t want my salinity to technically be at 1.0099 and it read 1.009 since ich can still live at 1.010 I wanted it to be barely 1.008. After all it’s a 4-6 week process depending what you decide and I didn’t want to fail it. Anyways, I have 8 fish total and only one randomly died about two weeks in which was the royal gramma and it was a tiny baby. I started feeding a mix of brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, blood worms, and garlic guard. Also fed pellets and do this twice a day. Everyone seems very happy and healthy and it’s been a month but plan on going another two weeks. (I chose to do it for 6 weeks) The blue tang in the pics (I know it’s a bad picture) had faded white spots about size of a quarter on both sides of his back and they’re completely gone now. No one else has any visible stuff either. If anyone else runs into this problem similar to mine I highly recommend hypo salinity and am glad I stumbled upon it from the suggestions.

Congratulations !!! Another AMAZING success story. Thank you for sharing