I have a 240g tank with lots of live rock in it that has just hit its stride (6 months old). After adding some supposedly treated fish to the DT (lesson learned, don't trust anyone), I'm now seeing ich on one of my fish and I'm concerned it's a short matter of time before the other fish are infected.
Current stock:
Blue Tang
Tomini Tang
Firefish x2
Ocellaris clown x3 (2 very young)
Chalk bass
Bluethroat trigger (fish with ich)
All of my fish are fat and healthy and in a low-stress environment (not a lot of fish to have to share an 8' tank). FWIW the ich doesn't appear extreme on the trigger and he is still fat and seemingly healthy. All other fish are fat and healthy.
I'm looking for advice on next steps. I plan to make changes to my regimen for adding fish: At the very least, observational QT for a significant amount of time (prefer to avoid prophylactic treatment due to bad experiences from vendors). But what do I do about my existing fish? The fork in the road is ich management vs ich eradication. As much as I'd love to 'eradicate' ich, I have a few concerns:
1) I have no idea how I'm going to get these fish out of this huge tank. Especially since it's an acrylic tank, so there are braces which obstruct movement with a net. I've ordered some big nets but I'm doubtful. No way I'm getting the chalk bass or those firefish -- they're pretty shy and won't go near a trap even if there's food in it.
2) Is it really feasible? AFAIK I'd have to QT pretty much everything coming in right (ie inverts as well) since their shells/plugs can carry the parasite? The odds of introducing ich back into the tank seem so high that it doesn't seem worth the stress to the fish (catching them is going to be a very stressful event for everyone).
3) Catching these fish will definitely involve moving the aquascape around to get them. Feels bad to unsettle this tank which has finally gotten out of the super ugly phase.
4) I'd need a sizeable QT tank and this would definitely add to the complexity of my life right now (but willing to do it for the animals of course).
These concerns point me to ich management. I've already started soaking food in vitamins, and I already feed a healthy frozen-only diet. I've plumbed my tank so a UV sterilizer can be added, but wow that's going to be an expensive, energy-consuming sterilizer! I could also figure out how to add a DE filter but I haven't researched that path.
I'm not sure what the right answer is here and although I'm leaning towards trying to manage ich, I'd like to keep an open mind and hear people's opinions here (preferably people with bigger tanks).
Current stock:
Blue Tang
Tomini Tang
Firefish x2
Ocellaris clown x3 (2 very young)
Chalk bass
Bluethroat trigger (fish with ich)
All of my fish are fat and healthy and in a low-stress environment (not a lot of fish to have to share an 8' tank). FWIW the ich doesn't appear extreme on the trigger and he is still fat and seemingly healthy. All other fish are fat and healthy.
I'm looking for advice on next steps. I plan to make changes to my regimen for adding fish: At the very least, observational QT for a significant amount of time (prefer to avoid prophylactic treatment due to bad experiences from vendors). But what do I do about my existing fish? The fork in the road is ich management vs ich eradication. As much as I'd love to 'eradicate' ich, I have a few concerns:
1) I have no idea how I'm going to get these fish out of this huge tank. Especially since it's an acrylic tank, so there are braces which obstruct movement with a net. I've ordered some big nets but I'm doubtful. No way I'm getting the chalk bass or those firefish -- they're pretty shy and won't go near a trap even if there's food in it.
2) Is it really feasible? AFAIK I'd have to QT pretty much everything coming in right (ie inverts as well) since their shells/plugs can carry the parasite? The odds of introducing ich back into the tank seem so high that it doesn't seem worth the stress to the fish (catching them is going to be a very stressful event for everyone).
3) Catching these fish will definitely involve moving the aquascape around to get them. Feels bad to unsettle this tank which has finally gotten out of the super ugly phase.
4) I'd need a sizeable QT tank and this would definitely add to the complexity of my life right now (but willing to do it for the animals of course).
These concerns point me to ich management. I've already started soaking food in vitamins, and I already feed a healthy frozen-only diet. I've plumbed my tank so a UV sterilizer can be added, but wow that's going to be an expensive, energy-consuming sterilizer! I could also figure out how to add a DE filter but I haven't researched that path.
I'm not sure what the right answer is here and although I'm leaning towards trying to manage ich, I'd like to keep an open mind and hear people's opinions here (preferably people with bigger tanks).