Dr. G's antiparasite caviar in large system

[rygar]

Well...it happened.
I'll just say it...I've got ich in my 1200 gallon system. All parameters spot on. Temp stays constant, salinity stays constant. All fish were quarantined. All corals dipped, still ich got in there somehow. The only way it may have entered is when I got 150 pounds live rock. Had it in a seperate bin for maybe a month....should have waited longer.

Extremely small fish load. Naso, blue tang, coral beauty, 2 clowns, 2 wrasses, 5 chromis, and a pair of mandarins. And a big mono in the connected 300. Basically nothing for this much water volume.

The blue tang is the only one showing it. But that doesn't really mean all that much. All the fish are eating very well including the blue tang.

Treating 1200 gallons of water? Not possible without robbing a bank. Also spent a years time getting this thing cycled. Used dead and dry rock..big regret of mine.
Removing the fish? Absolute nightmare with my rockscape. Don't think it's even possible.

Anybody here used and had success with Dr. G's antiparasitic caviar in the display tank? My thinking is feed every day for maybe a month to 6 weeks. Hopefully its gone by then. Then as a preventative 3 times a week.

Thoughts?

 

[CrayolaViolence]

I have no idea what's in it, but anything that will kill ich will kill corals. If it's reef safe it will not kill ich.

If you want to use a feed I'd either get chloroquine phosphate and put it in the food, or use ick shield food (with CP). Honestly though, the only sure fire way to kill the parasite in your system is for it to go fallow and CP them in a hospital tank. CP won't make your rock useless (you can pull it out with carbon) but it will kill your biofilm and copepod population so you may lose your mandarins.

If you don't have corals in your system you could take the entire tank to a super low salinity. Some parasites do have a higher resistance to hypo such as certain strains of Marine velvet.

What would be the biggest help is if you could possibly catch the sick fish and get it to someone who can do a proper tissue scrape and diagnose the parasite correctly. You never know, you may not have ich, but have velvet, or you may not have either and have some type of bacterial infection. There's no way to know 100% without a tissue sample.

 

[rygar]

Thanks for the info.
Wondering though if anybody here ever used Dr. G's? And what your experience was.

 

[Dmorty217]

Reefwise feeds the stuff in their systems... With that being said there are plenty of accounts of people getting sick fish from him. The only way the stuff can work is if all fish eat it, and eat it everyday for weeks, maybe longer to get the enough of the meds in the fish for it to work.

 

[rygar]

The caviar is soaked in a liquid in the bottle. I've been soaking pellets, brine/Mysis, and algae sheets in it. So all the fish are ingesting it in some form. Most eat the actual caviar, some don't. but all are eating the soaked food.

Don't see the downside to feeding it for weeks. I soak my foods in vitamins..now I just add some of this. No big deal.
Most fish stores use all kinds of medications, and pretty much any fish you get from any fish store will have something going on. Unless they quarantine in a completely separate system and don't sell the fish for many weeks and is treated in copper the whole time. Only saw one store that does this. And even then, you can't be sure. That's why you quarantine. so saying that guy uses it and people get sick fish from him doesn't really hold much in my mind. Not trying to start an argument or telling you that your telling me dumb things...just don't know a better way to say what I'm thinking. But I'm betting he just squirts some to each fish, doesn't pay attention if they eat it and move to the next. Time is money. Trust me. I worked in a fish store for 8 years. I know how it is. I'm really looking for people who have used it. Maybe I'm the first here, who knows.

The blue tang is most definitely looking better. Came home from work yesterday and his sides are no longer full of bumps and spots. Very smooth. There is just some discoloring by his tail yet. He never acted off. Always very active and hungry. We'll see how he looks later today.

Could it be that the medication caused the parasites to all leave him at once? I know this is when you actually see the spots not when it's embedded in the skin. That's when I posted about the Dr. G.s...because I had been using it a few days by then and wondering about other's experience with it.

So nobody here uses it?

 

[ali1]

Blue tang looks better because of the misleading cycle of the ick parasite

 

[microlady]

I tried the liquid form last year and my fish wouldn't touch it. I mixed it with garlic juice, caviar, brine shrimp, etc,., and nada. It's snake oil IMO.

 

[rygar]

Well...that isn't working. In case anybody was wondering. Maybe it would be good as a supplement, but as for getting rid of it. Didn't work for me. Just don't get it. Was worth a shot though. tang is worse off than ever now.

Thought about going hypo in the entire system. Took out the corals and inverts. Then decided against it. I guess that would kill everything but some of the bacteria in the tank. Don't want to wait another 1 1/2 years for it to go thru all it's cycles again.
So only option is to remove all the fish into a different system completely and hypo that.

Display will be fishless for 3 months...minimum. I don't care, this whole ordeal is destroying me.

Now for trying to catch all these fish. Can't remove the rock. Cemented together. This is not going to be fun. NEVER AGAIN. From now on, 3 month quarantine on everything with hypo, copper, deworming, everything. Corals 3 month too, dipping, dipping, dipping and some more dipping.

Why oh why did I put that live rock in there so soon!?!??!! I guess we all have our weak moments. That was mine. Lessons learned. Even rock gets quarantine for 3 months now.

Bottom line...this sucks.

 

[Dmorty217]

Display will be fishless for 3 months...minimum. I don't care, this whole ordeal is destroying me.
Bottom line...this sucks.

I have been there and know your pain all too well. All you can do is learn from it and do things the right way from here forward. Keep your head up, even though it is hard to right now. You will make it thru this. This hobby can be very unforgiving and isn't for the faint of heart

 

[rygar]

I'm tryin' man. This truly is a nightmare. Nothing compared to yer house burning down or something awful like that. Still a nightmare though. This is supposed to relieve stress, not create a mountain of it.

Fortunately, the local fish store owner is coming here to give me a hand catching the rest of the fish. I spent 3 hours last night and just got the Naso and a couple wrasses with a trap. Still have the blue tang, pair of mandarins, coral beauty, 5 chromis, and pair of clowns. I honestly have no idea how it's going to happen. But there's no other way. They all have to come out one way or another.

He might actually take them off my hands. That would be the best thing right now. I desperately need to regroup here and rethink this whole thing.

 

[ali1]

Similar situation like you. I ended doing copper on my display tank because I couldnt catch anything. 2months of copper followed by 2 months of Cuprasorb and reef is more alive than it ever was.

 

[rygar]

I know it...thinking this is an impossible task. I've got 2 traps in there now.
The chromis go in and out like its nothing. So I know I can catch those. Hoping the tang sees that and ends up going into it. I'm only feeding in the traps. Going to skip feeding today and tomorrow. Then see if hunger takes over.

Got the clowns, wrasses, and naso so far. Still have the blue tang, coral beauty, mandarins, and the 5 chromis to go.

 

[Reefer40b]

I know it has been a while now but if this does come up in the future... hopefully not.. maybe getting some masstick and mixing this Dr G's cavier in with it along with some defrosted frozen food juice and some selcon. Make it paste like and roll in into a big ball and smash/stick it to the glass I think everything would peck at it all day and get medicated.