I have a powder blue tank that has ich.
The tank has 2 clowns, a blue hippo, purple, scopus, gem, blue eye kole tang, flame angle, green mandarin, tail spot blenny, aptasia eating file fish (does not eat aptasia), a cleaner wrasse, and a six line wrasse. The only fish showing ich is the powder blue. Once every couple weeks the purple will get a spot or two but then they fall off and don't return for a week or two. I powder blue, however gets pretty peppered, then they fall off and come back a day or so later, as they do. The reason why I am concern is becasue my powder blue is losing weight despite eating pretty well. I feed a variety of frozen food daily. I add 2 drops of garlic, and selcon at each feeding. Have done this for years. I did start adding a scoop of metroplex/focus to each feeding for 10 days but stopped becasue I noticed that one of my cleaner shrimp was eating more and more of the food. I didn't want to risk losing it so I stopped adding it. It's a very large mature reef and don't have the ability to treat with copper. I am in the process of cycling a 40gal hospital tank with the plan to go fallow at the end of February to kill the ich off once and for all. In the mean time and suggestions on what's going on with my powder blue, and what intervention should I take? Why the weight loss? Has to be a internal parasite, right? Suggestions on what to use to medicate with, and suggestions on keeping the shrimp from eating meds?
The tank has 2 clowns, a blue hippo, purple, scopus, gem, blue eye kole tang, flame angle, green mandarin, tail spot blenny, aptasia eating file fish (does not eat aptasia), a cleaner wrasse, and a six line wrasse. The only fish showing ich is the powder blue. Once every couple weeks the purple will get a spot or two but then they fall off and don't return for a week or two. I powder blue, however gets pretty peppered, then they fall off and come back a day or so later, as they do. The reason why I am concern is becasue my powder blue is losing weight despite eating pretty well. I feed a variety of frozen food daily. I add 2 drops of garlic, and selcon at each feeding. Have done this for years. I did start adding a scoop of metroplex/focus to each feeding for 10 days but stopped becasue I noticed that one of my cleaner shrimp was eating more and more of the food. I didn't want to risk losing it so I stopped adding it. It's a very large mature reef and don't have the ability to treat with copper. I am in the process of cycling a 40gal hospital tank with the plan to go fallow at the end of February to kill the ich off once and for all. In the mean time and suggestions on what's going on with my powder blue, and what intervention should I take? Why the weight loss? Has to be a internal parasite, right? Suggestions on what to use to medicate with, and suggestions on keeping the shrimp from eating meds?