any suggestions on treating the display tank

[briantson]

I had the same post in the Fish Disease Treament section but think that someone here might have the same experience as I did and how they overcome it...

I have a 200gal reef tank that has been around for about 6 months now. My tank is stocked with some sps, clams, anemone, frogspawn, snails, and fish.
Fish list includes: yellow tang, coral beauty.
Two months after my tank started, I introduced a powder blue tang into the tank. within two days, it developed ich. I remove it and place it in the qt for 4 weeks with hyposalinity treatment.
The ich is no where to be found on it after 6 weeks. I then reintroduce it back into my display tank. And again, within a couple of days, it got ich again. Remove it and quarantine it again, but it died in the qt after 2 days.

Two months after the passing of my beloved pbt, I bought a new powder blue tang & a purple tang and introduce it into the display tank after 3 weeks of quarantine.
Low and behold, within a couple of days, the pbt and the purple tang both got ich. I am tempting to treat my display tank with hyposalinity, but I know that would kill my corals, liverock, and everything else that are fragile.
I can't move everything out to my qt because it is only 30 gallons.
The dwarf angel (coral beauty) and the yellow tang seemed to have some sort of immunity to ich.
Can anyone have any suggestions as to how to treat my display tank to rid of these ich?

Thank you.

 

[fishman805]

There is nothing reef safe that you can use to treat marine ich... All I can say is follow the advice given to me when I first started...

" If you want a FOWLR, then treat your fish for disease whenever it pops up".... If you are wanting a true reef tank, then all fish are to be considered expendable..... "

More often than not, you're paying alot more for the corals than the fish... not to mention the expense of the equipment required to run that reef... lighting,special filters etc.... Best thing you can do is feed your fish well and perhaps add garlic ( like Garlic Extreme ) to their food and hopes they kick the ich on their own... Hyposalinity and med's are best done ( if not exclusively ) in a quarentine tank.... Tangs seem to be much more succeptable to marine ich but it does not mean that if they get it that it will kill them... Start adding garlic to their diet... Although it's not been "proven" to eliminate ich, it's been shown to boost the fish's natural immune system and that may be the ticket to helping them beat the infestation..

You may already be aware that marine ich is a bug that goes through a cycle... Part of the cycle requires that they host on a fish to draw food before dropping off into the sand to go through their next cycle and then become free floating again to keep repeating their life cycle... If you remove the "fish" part, after a period of time the bugs will die and be eliminated all together ( I believe it's like 6-8 weeks )...

One last thing.... I "did" have the same experience you did.. I treated the fish's food with a supposed reef safe med called: Metronidazole by Seachem.... The ich did seem to go away but then I lost over $600 worth of livestock... all my corals and polyps slowely died.. I was not fortunate enough to be able to save any of them..... That taught me to NEVER EVER treat my tank again.... If the fish gets sick, it simply has to fend for itself... I have been adding Garlic Extreme to their food ( a few drops everyday ) and I've been ich free for almost 10 months.... That should say something to you.....


Sorry... Good luck

Bob

 

[zimmy1979]

I use a combo of Garlic Xtreme, Marine-C, and Selcon..it really worked for me. Expensive stuff though.

 

[reefshadow]

How large is your resident yellow tang, and is it harassing new introductions? Do you have ample hiding and rest areas?

Mine is definately the boss of my 240 and will harass new tank mates (especially other tangs) despite the size of my system.

In my experience ich will inflict the most damage on already stressed inhabitants and aggressive harassing is definately stressfull to delicate fish like tangs.

I don't bother with quarantine at this time and take the controversial point of view that for the most part it is unnecessary. I don't know alot of reefkeepers who have the $$$ to set up a completely seperate tank(s) to quarantine all new arrivals (corals, fish, inverts). Personally I think the only benefit is when you intend to medicate or use hypo, and in your case this did not work. I've added fish to my display with a few ich cysts in the past and it has never "spread", and the ich disappears within a few days if the fish is not stressed for some additional reason. Your other fish probably show no infestation because parameters are good and they are happy and stress free.

I would definately look at other causes/stressors in the display and go from there. If you think that bullying may be a factor, you can try rearranging or partitioning when introducing a new fish or even remove the bully to quarantine for a couple of weeks

Also, whether you intend to quarantine in the future or not, hypo salinity should be VERY gradually implemented and then VERY slowly returned to NSW values before introducing your fish to the display.

Please don't medicate your display at all!

 

[Teremei]

How bad was the ich on the tang when you got it? I mean was it covered all over? IMO you could have killed it just by catching it and moving it around so much, stressing it out.

I have a reef, and I know I have ich in it. Because my coral beauty had a few spots for a few weeks when I first got her. But it was minimal and never fully took over her. My phylosophy is to only keep hardier specimens, with tankmates they will enjoy, and not to overstock. All this leads to a better chance all the fish will be healthy and not overcome by disease.