Ich

[ScottR]

No doubt the long time battle!
Eradication or management???

That’s really your call. It’s a heated subject in the reefing community. Some say you must 100% eradicate. Some day you can manage it by keeping fish healthy. I lose more fish in QT than to disease so I choose management. To be fair I haven’t lost a fish due to a parasite that I’m aware of in 2 years. (Clowns to brooklynella).

 

[OceanDiver]

I am on the ice management side especially with tangs. I feel like the ich lies dormant unless the tangs get stressed. I will argue with anyone on the topic especially with blue tangs. If a blue tangs gets stressed they are an ich magnet.

Not saying eradication isn't a good option but that would be situational based IMO. if I had the ability, I would go with eradication but I dont have a second tank for QT (not one big enough for tangs). So putting my tangs in a my 20gal cube QT might solve the ich in main tank but the tangs would be completely stress in the 20gal cube and the ich will come back.

So go I with ich management (more stress management) and feeding. All my tangs eat healthy and I see any sign of scratching not even ich, I add silicon to the diet. I also think nori is critical to the tang diet. Just IMO but over the years, tangs that get nori often keep their deep bright colors.

 

[OceanDiver]

I tried to post a video of my tank but failed - LOL

I will try again later

 

[ScottR]

I am on the ice management side especially with tangs. I feel like the ich lies dormant unless the tangs get stressed. I will argue with anyone on the topic especially with blue tangs. If a blue tangs gets stressed they are an ich magnet.

Not saying eradication isn't a good option but that would be situational based IMO. if I had the ability, I would go with eradication but I dont have a second tank for QT (not one big enough for tangs). So putting my tangs in a my 20gal cube QT might solve the ich in main tank but the tangs would be completely stress in the 20gal cube and the ich will come back.

So go I with ich management (more stress management) and feeding. All my tangs eat healthy and I see any sign of scratching not even ich, I add silicon to the diet. I also think nori is critical to the tang diet. Just IMO but over the years, tangs that get nori often keep their deep bright colors.

I have a baby powder brown. They are ich magnets. It had a hard time in my 130 with lots of rock as the other fish were aggressive towards it. It broke out in ich and I haven’t seen white spots in forever. I added rock to its corner of the tank and it slowly ventured out and started eating more and the spots went away. I think part of the management part is knowing when your fish isn’t happy: not eating, changing color, breathing heavily, not swimming in the open, etc. And then you must change something if it doesn’t improve.

 

[OceanDiver]

When I first started my current tank (Reefer 525XL) my tangs started to get just a few white spots. I went in and completely rearranged the scrap and added some more rock for caves. Now every tang has their own house at night (oddly enough my purple and yellow tangs are roommates - LOL)

I agree completely. Knowledge power. I have been doing the reef tank thing for years (no way am I an export I have just been around the block a few times) and I learn stuff daily. I love reef2reef best online source of info (this wasn't around 20years ago. All I had was Julians Sprung's Books - LOL)

Patience and always watching your tank is key. It's kinda like being parent, the first kid you are watching like a hawk and for anything. By the third kid, you only looking for the critical changes - LOL

 

[ScottR]

When I first started my current tank (Reefer 525XL) my tangs started to get just a few white spots. I went in and completely rearranged the scrap and added some more rock for caves. Now every tang has their own house at night (oddly enough my purple and yellow tangs are roommates - LOL)

I agree completely. Knowledge power. I have been doing the reef tank thing for years (no way am I an export I have just been around the block a few times) and I learn stuff daily. I love reef2reef best online source of info (this wasn't around 20years ago. All I had was Julians Sprung's Books - LOL)

Patience and always watching your tank is key. It's kinda like being parent, the first kid you are watching like a hawk and for anything. By the third kid, you only looking for the critical changes - LOL

Husbandry is a term well overlooked.

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Here are some articles.

Thread 'Fish and Treatment Guidelines (with chart)'
Thread 'Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans)'

 

[JustinMN18]

That’s really your call. It’s a heated subject in the reefing community. Some say you must 100% eradicate. Some day you can manage it by keeping fish healthy. I lose more fish in QT than to disease so I choose management. To be fair I haven’t lost a fish due to a parasite that I’m aware of in 2 years. (Clowns to brooklynella).

Is there a method to introducing new fish (like tangs, etc) into the aquarium that has ich in it?

 

[JustinMN18]

Thanks everyone for the insights. I only have a few fish, so I could technically put them into the 10 gallon tank I have. But I don't have cycled water that doesn't have ich, so cycling a new 10 gallon tank would tank quite a long time.

 

[OceanDiver]

Agreed!!!

 

[ScottR]

Is there a method to introducing new fish (like tangs, etc) into the aquarium that has ich in it?

IME, if you introduce a tang into a tank that has ich in it, it will probably show symptoms. It may even die. I feel that well-developed systems tend to fend off ich more easily. Be it success from going long term, hiding places, pathogens that attack ich, microfauna and competition, nutrition and so forth. PaulB has various threads on the issue. I followed him since the beginning and haven’t looked back. However, it’s a heated subject so choose wisely follow accordingly.

 

[JustinMN18]

I have a baby powder brown. They are ich magnets. It had a hard time in my 130 with lots of rock as the other fish were aggressive towards it. It broke out in ich and I haven’t seen white spots in forever. I added rock to its corner of the tank and it slowly ventured out and started eating more and the spots went away. I think part of the management part is knowing when your fish isn’t happy: not eating, changing color, breathing heavily, not swimming in the open, etc. And then you must change something if it doesn’t improve.

Question for you... I called my LFS and they are recommending I use Polyp Lab Medic which is supposedly reef safe to treat the entire tank, fish, inverts, corals included. Here's my stock:
-2 clowns
-yellow watchman goby
-(possibly) a royal gramma (can't find it, might be hiding? idk. It has been weeks. lol)
-1 tux urchin
-4 hermits
-3 nassarius snails
-1 torch coral
-1 hammer coral
-1 frogspawn
-2 very small frags of zoas
-1 fire red shrimp
-1 candy cane shrimp

What are your thoughts about using a product like that? If i wanted to go fallow for a few months, would I just need to take the fish out? Or do I need to take some of the inverts out as well? I have no idea how to move forward with this problem. Do I not worry about it and just QT fish as I buy them, and then add them to the tank and hope they have great immune systems?

Thanks everyone for your help. I really appreciate it.

 

[JustinMN18]

Here are some articles.

Thread 'Fish and Treatment Guidelines (with chart)'
Thread 'Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans)'

Thanks for the links. I got the fish in QT and have dosed with Copper Power at 1.75PPM. The tank right now is fallow, and I know it has to stay that way for like 78 days. I'm just wondering, should the fish be in the copper at that level for that long? Or at some point should I do a big water change and get the copper back to 0? Or a lower PPM? Any ideas?

Thanks,
Justin