Tangs and cleaner fish/shrimp

[Droberts0724]

So my tank unfortunately has ich and has had it over a year now. I mostly just feed fish a healthy diet and keep the tank water parameters consistent and good. However when the tang get stressed (yellow, hippo and vlamingi) and they get it all over again! Fortunately my cleaner shrimp and wrasse do a great job removing any dead tissue left behind by ich. I wish I would have taken a before and after picture of my Vlamingi tangs eye...it was so cloudy and now its almost cleared up. Question I have for other besides letting the tank go empty for 6 weeks, feeding and cleaner shrimp/fish...how do you handle a break out?

 

[Fish Think Pink]

So my tank unfortunately has ich and has had it over a year now. I mostly just feed fish a healthy diet and keep the tank water parameters consistent and good. However when the tang get stressed (yellow, hippo and vlamingi) and they get it all over again! Fortunately my cleaner shrimp and wrasse do a great job removing any dead tissue left behind by ich. I wish I would have taken a before and after picture of my Vlamingi tangs eye...it was so cloudy and now its almost cleared up. Question I have for other besides letting the tank go empty for 6 weeks, feeding and cleaner shrimp/fish...how do you handle a break out?

Guessing you are asking how personally we handle breakout, since there is so much good info already out there on prevention (obviously you're past that since you've got it, but QT) treatment and dealing.

I have tangs. My yellow tolerates nothing... and I listened to LFS who said early move different fish from QT to DT ... and introduced marine ich (then died anyhow).

Siphoning sand daily and prayers are how I broke marine ich cycle.

I have cleaner fish and skunk cleaner shrimp, but these don't do anything to break marine ich cycle, though my tangs love any and all attention then and always. I also made sure to give extra food and extra nori and/or red ogo macroalgae snacks on clips to try and keep healthy. Tried to give vitamins on food, but my fish were not used to vitamin soaked food so were skipping food, so I skipped vitamins as I mostly feed quality thawed Reef Frenzy (or Herbivore Frenzy or Fish Eggs). My tangs are divas sucking up to even wrasse or clownfish hoping for an extra cleaning (wrasse did give yellow a nibble after tang begged and begged and begged... not sure my 6 line wrasse understands its cleaner nature... but saw it happen 1x) BUT cleaner shrimp and cleaner shrimp will not clear up ich.

Treatments better than siphoning DAILY are recommended to clear up ich, but I couldn't use because of my yellow tang and inverts. I also didn't care I was going to lose a lot of my sand substrate, but I sucked rocks, sand, all 30 gallons at a time with thin airline tube... went thru a LOT of saltwater. My DT is 180g and QT is 5g so turning QT into HT also wasn't feasible for all my fish to let 180g tank go fallow.

I hope you also get thru it successfully. Going forward, I'm mailordering all my fish from TSM - they are working on a special order for me, but I'll be adding replacement neon blue gobies which are probably a normal order item onto my special order... I flew back East for family matter, came home last week and both my cleaner fish gone... Family tried ultra low nutrient schedule despite whiteboard reminder (aka forgot to feed or 1x daily much less) and step by step 2x daily feeding instructions before I left... think crabs ate my fish Things gotta eat... Gobies don't have swim bladders, easy pickings resting on rocks sleeping TSM handles all those hospital tasks I don't want to deal with and I would like to avoid another episode like before

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[Droberts0724]

Yes...I have been doing a good job keep them fat and happy because they eat like crazy and I soak their food with garlic and vitamins. I just hate that every stressful event ends with ICH! I guess I will just continue doing what I am doing...