Help with dealing with Ich in the DT

[eacosta]

So I bought a new flame angelfish on Thursday that went through prophylactic treatment and quarantine prior to my purchase. Because of this, I decided to put it directly into my 90g DT. Well, you know what's coming right? The fish got the dreaded white spots all over its body about 24 hrs later indicative of ich.

None of the other fish (2x clownfish, 1 yellow tang and 1 lyretail anthia) are currently showing any signs. In fact, they have never shown any signs of ich so I'm really bummed right now. All of the old fish are eating aggressively and swimming around normally. The new fish is swimming around well and grazing on the rocks all day, but has yet to eat any frozen foods I have added to the tank. So what would you do?

I have a 40g breeder QT set up for use... kicking myself right now.

I am thinking about keeping all the fish in the DT to avoid stressing them out. I know at this point the tank is infected so I am concentrating on keeping everyone healthy and happy. I was thinking about waiting til this hopefully passes and then later taking the fish out and running them in the QT at hyposalinity. At the same time the DT would run fallow for a couple months to rid it of the ich.

Looking for advice on the best course of action. Does it make more sense to take the sick, or all fish out now?

 

[Sapelo]

While the idea of stressing out your fish by moving them is a nice one, ICH is far more dangerous than any stress you may cause.
If I were in your shoes, I'd remove all of the fish from the DT immediately and begin treatment using the Tank Transfer Method.
Again, contrary to popular belief, I do not find this method stressful, have found it EXTREMELY effective, and trust myself to execute it far more than playing with salinity values or dosing copper.
In the meantime, that's 72 days fishless for your DT.

In the future, never trust anyone but yourself to QT a fish.

Good luck!

 

[Giovanni]

i do not find this method stressful, have found it extremely effective, and trust myself to execute it far more than playing with salinity values or dosing copper.

+1

 

[snorvich]

While the idea of stressing out your fish by moving them is a nice one, ICH is far more dangerous than any stress you may cause.
If I were in your shoes, I'd remove all of the fish from the DT immediately and begin treatment using the Tank Transfer Method.
Again, contrary to popular belief, I do not find this method stressful, have found it EXTREMELY effective, and trust myself to execute it far more than playing with salinity values or dosing copper.
In the meantime, that's 72 days fishless for your DT.

In the future, never trust anyone but yourself to QT a fish.

Good luck!

I agree with all points above.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I agree with all of it accept the 72 days. It seems that a few people have been reinfected with ich after the 72 day fallow maybe a strain of ich that lasts longer, who knows but I'd go 90 days just to be sure.

 

[snorvich]

I agree with all of it accept the 72 days. It seems that a few people have been reinfected with ich after the 72 day fallow maybe a strain of ich that lasts longer, who knows but I'd go 90 days just to be sure.

I am aware of some of those "cases". However the treatment of the fish that were reintroduced may or may not have been done correctly.

 

[microlady]

I'm in a similar situation, but I haven't added a new fish in over a year. We moved to a new house a few months ago and this triggered the crypto outbreak. Either it was introduced via a coral or invert, or one of the resident fish had it all along. I tried medicated food, but they wouldn't eat it.

Oh well, after losing three fish in a month, I decided to give TTM a try too. The problem I'm faced with is that I am dealing with 7 fish. I'm hoping I can keep the ammonia in check and that's my main concern. The only fish over 2" long is the 4". yellow tang. I'm using Prime.

Then I plan on keeping them out of the display for 72 days. I would rather not wait 90 days. My poor cleaner shrimp and brittle star look so lonely in the 100 gallon right now. But I've come this far that I want to do it right. I guess I need to keep feeding the DT a bit daily to keep biofiltration going.

Good luck and keep us posted! I will too.