First Signs of Ich -- what should I do

[newaquarist]

I have a 4 month old reef tank that has been doing great. I have tried to follow appropriate protocols as best as I could, though I have cut some corners and now it seems I am about to pay for it.

The tank is 180 gallons; 5 clowns; 10 fairy wrasses; 2 tangs; one fox face rabbit; 6 anthias of various sorts; 1 blue spot jawfish; 1 sail fin blenny and TONS of LPS.

Up until now I have qt most of my fish for 3 weeks, though not medicated at all, and none of them have shown any disease so i have introduced to my display tank at that point. A few exceptions, for example, purchased clown fish directly from breeders like sea and reef and believed that they were definitely ich free, so they went straight in. have not quarantined any inverts or corals

i just purchased a juvi gold flake (very little, a bit over an inch) and as the place that sold it to me said they have zero ich in their system and this guy was medicated for 2 weeks, i said what the heck and put him directly into my tank, though in a breeder box so he could acclimate.

in any case, 5 days later and he has lots of tiny white spots.

what should i do? i don't have the ability, i don't think, to set up a qt for all of the fish, with appropriate temperature control, etc. that seems very daunting given my work schedule, etc.

is there any way, or any value for that matter, to trying to remove this one fish and treat it separately? if so how? if not, what can/should i do?

thanks all.

 

[HumbleFish]

If the Goldflake has Ich, then it's also in the water/rocks/sand by now. Most of the disease's life cycle is actually spent away from the fish. Only way to completely eradicate it would be to QT/treat ALL the fish, and go fallow (fishless) in the 180 for 10+ weeks to starve any remaining parasites out.

Only other option is to try "Ich management" which involves trying to keep the overall number of parasites down while simultaneously keeping the fishes' immune systems up. But most noobs suffer heavy casualties while trying to fine tune all the ins & outs of Ich management; it's best left to the experienced who fully understand the risks.

Btw, hopefully this is Ich you are dealing with and not Velvet.

 

[MrTuskfish]

You didn't just "cut corners" with your quarantine regimen, you pretty much ignored it.. 3 weeks isn't long enough, ALL fish, regardless of their origin, need a 6 weeks in a QT. There is no solution except treatment described in the above post. BTW; you sure aren't the first to think they can beat the odds. I did and never again.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Don't want to make things worse; but more than two clown of the species should ever be kept in the same tank. They're fine when small; but when they sexually mature and form pairs and claim territory; the pair won't tolerate any other clownfish. There are exceptions, but no LFS should ever sell fish without knowing these basic fact. If you d QT the fish, I'd pick out two clowns that seem to be spending the most time together and return the others.