A trapped fish, a sick fish, new rock and some tank pics.

Thanks, Seth.

I've noticed on internet forums that no one wants to be the person that tells you to do as little as possible and wait and see. It was interesting. I got such dire feedback and predictions on this thread and then several private messages telling me to take the advice and predictions with a grain of salt.

Not questioning people's intentions, just making an observation about the nature of message board life.
 
Within a closed system, the population of Cryptocaryon irritans can increase approximately 10-fold every 6-8 days (Burgess, 1992).


Either way its still in your system, good luck and hope your fish stay healthy.
 
both observations are true to a degree. I decided after much thought and research to concentrate on healing my fish instead of creating chaos and more stress on this fish as well as the other fish by tearing apart and chasing the fish across the 6 feet of my 180 just to stress him out more by catching him and putting him in an environment that was less suited to his health.

All the rest of my fish are still healthy. The pbt is coming back. I hope both of those facts remain true. After much reading and much advice, this was the path i chose. It seems to be working. Ich is an opportunistic parasite. When the immune system of a fish is compromised, the parasite can do its damage. One of the most effective ways to compromise a fish's immune system is by subjecting it to stress. Given my situation (1 sick fish, 9 fish showing no signs of infection) i chose to reduce stress, feed for energy to fight the parasite, and hope for the best.

I know that the ich parasite is still in the tank. I'm creating an atmosphere where it will have difficulty doing damage because the fish are able to resist it. When weighed against tearing down my tank, catching 10 fish (9 that are not sick), setting up a qt to medicate non-sick fish, and then putting it all back together again...well, that just didn't make sense.

This was a course both recommended to me and endorsed by some of the most knowledgeable reefers (both hobbyists and professionals) i know. And at this point the efforts are paying off. My fish is no longer as terribly sick as he was. I'd think folks would be happy about that, but maybe not.

We all know pbts and other tangs are very susceptible to stress. That's a big reason they are ich magnets. In my opinion, catching and moving that fish to a qt tank would have been a death sentence. I decided to go another way.

+1
 
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