Help needed with strange ich problem

[bbowler1]

Despite my best effort, I got an ich outbreak in my reef tank that claimed 3 fish. The Fox Face was the only survivor and is still an awesome specimen and shows no effects whatsoever. After 3 weeks of no other fish I tried some chromis and eventually they died one by one.

Aside from ripping my reef apart is there anything that I can do? I hate to only have one fish but do not want to keep trying just to have more issues. Will the ich cycle break if the fox never has any issues? Are there any fish or animals that I can try that would make it through acclimation? Maybe another fox in the tank or would that be bad? Its a 250 gal reef tank with plenty of hiding places and water quality is very good except for the ich.

Thanks,

 

[BlackTip]

If you have one fish only in your DT, then it is an easy fix. Take the fish out, put it in QT tank and treat it with Cupramine, and let your DT go fishless for at least 72 days. The ich cycle will break. Ich need a fish as a host.

 

[bbowler1]

True but 1 fish or 10 I still have to rip the reef apart. sad

 

[gone fishin]

I agree the tank needs to go fallow to be rid of ick in the DT. I prefer tank transfer method for fish treatment. There are a number of ich stickies in the fish disease forum that will answer your questions.

FWIW the accepted ways of fish treatment is Copper, Tank transfer method, Chloroquin phosphate and hyposalinity

 

[CStrickland]

True but 1 fish or 10 I still have to rip the reef apart. sad

You can probably catch the foxface without tearing apart the rocks if your careful. You know fallow just means there's no fish in the tank, right? Because the fish is in the separate qt tank

 

[bbowler1]

Yeah I understand the fallow method. As usual its just a shame that he is fat, healthy and trained to eat off the nori clip and now I have to hold him in a small crappy tank for 2 1/2 months. I guess the only alternative is to keep him as the only fish for 11 months and wait for the ich to self die off from no new hosts as I have read that it does. Thanks all.

 

[slief]

I guess the only alternative is to keep him as the only fish for 11 months and wait for the ich to self die off from no new hosts as I have read that it does. Thanks all.

It doesn't work that way. Just because you don't see ich on the Fox Face doesn't mean he doesn't have the parasite. I can all but assure you he does. Just because you don't see any signs of ich for 11 months doesn't mean it's not in your system provided you have a fish in the tank for the parasite to host. It's still likely there and will show it's head when the wrong fish gets stressed. The only way to insure you don't have ich in your system is to QT and treat the Fox Face and go fallow in the main display.