Ich outbreak

[loganck97]

Good morning everyone,

I was planning on making an introduction post but I've had some bad luck this last weekend that I am dealing with.

Tank has been running since early July. I just ran tests Saturday night but do not have the results with me at this moment.

I initially noticed some white spots on my royal Gramma. He was the last addition to my aquarium and he looked like he was being bullied due to some fraying on his tail.

Saturday I noticed my Starry Blenny and Dragonet breathing heavy and being somewhat pale. Neither of them were eating either. I monitored them and Sunday it did not get better, but I wasn't sure if moving them into the QT would help them as I didn't see any spots on them. I did go to my LFS to get some copper safe and set up a qt tank. I acclimated the gramma and moved him into the QT late Sunday.

Monday morning before I left for work I found the Blenny dead in the sand bed. The dragonet is still pale, doesn't seem to be eating and is breathing very heavily.

At this point I have decided to get all of the fish out and run fallow for the 78(?) days needed to eradicate the ich. I will work on getting all of the fish out as soon as I get home from work.

Is there anything else I should do for the Dragonet that is showing obvious signs of distress? I do not see any white spots on her.

I do have videos of both of them before the Blenny passed if that would be helpful.

Thank you for any help,
Logan

 

[pwoody]

Good morning everyone,

I was planning on making an introduction post but I've had some bad luck this last weekend that I am dealing with.

Tank has been running since early July. I just ran tests Saturday night but do not have the results with me at this moment.

I initially noticed some white spots on my royal Gramma. He was the last addition to my aquarium and he looked like he was being bullied due to some fraying on his tail.

Saturday I noticed my Starry Blenny and Dragonet breathing heavy and being somewhat pale. Neither of them were eating either. I monitored them and Sunday it did not get better, but I wasn't sure if moving them into the QT would help them as I didn't see any spots on them. I did go to my LFS to get some copper safe and set up a qt tank. I acclimated the gramma and moved him into the QT late Sunday.

Monday morning before I left for work I found the Blenny dead in the sand bed. The dragonet is still pale, doesn't seem to be eating and is breathing very heavily.

At this point I have decided to get all of the fish out and run fallow for the 78(?) days needed to eradicate the ich. I will work on getting all of the fish out as soon as I get home from work.

Is there anything else I should do for the Dragonet that is showing obvious signs of distress? I do not see any white spots on her.

I do have videos of both of them before the Blenny passed if that would be helpful.

Thank you for any help,
Logan

Ich is always a tricky one but you’re on the right path. Fallow for the specified time will eradicate the parasite from the display system.
The only way to avoid reintroducing it is to eradicate from the fish. Unfortunately that is no easy as it has questionable mortality rates especially with certain fish who tolerate copper very poorly such as your dragonet.
I would personally (and have when I first started and got ich outbreak) do as you are doing, and QT all fish in copper for the appropriate time (different for different products but mine was cupramine and I believe it was 2 weeks). You have to be careful about ammonia and nitrite levels creeping up. If you have the capacity I would (and did) have a container to allow myself 5% water changes for the fish QT per day.
In this storage container I mixed and heated salt water and dosed it up with copper. So when I did a water change to mitigate rising ammonia, I never had to mess around with small doses to top up and test every day. I just dumped water and added water.

I completely eradicated it, but I did not have a dragonet at that point and had no other fish that do not tolerate copper well.

I could not tell you whether you should do it or not but only advise what I did.

I would suggest looking into other methods for the sensitive fish. You’ve got a long time to wait so you could also QT the sensitive fish separately and just watch for any signs of infection. If they don’t show any ever you MIGHT be ok. Must stress MIGHT.
If you see signs then treatment is necessary and you would need to weigh up pros and cons of each method such as hypo salinity, temperature adjustment, copper. Etc.

Long and possibly not entirely what you wanted to hear maybe, but I hope it was helpful and hope your fishies do ok.