How to cope with Ich?

[Ostri]

I'm trying to gather some other people's experience coping with ich in their tanks. Long story short, my tank had ich after an under-quarantined fish got in and then I emptied the tank and let it stand fallow for 3 months. All fish were hypo-treated and tank transfer treated before putting them back to the tank. However, once the 2 tangs got back in they started to show ich signs. At this point of time I have absolutely no time & no space to do another 3-month fallow. Holding tanks were sold and I'm really really piessed that all those efforts for 3 months went in vain.

Please let me know if you have any suggestion on how to cope with ich.

My current thought is that if ich gets worse I will trap the tangs out since they can be breeding machines for ich. Tank is over 200 gallons, full SPS.

Thanks!

 

[huseMN]

Tagging along.....Like Ostri, I too am curious how one copes with ich in their tank. I have read many posts where some live with it and use UV, feed quality foods, reduce stress, only keep fish "less" prone to ich. Some have success some don't.


I personally have no experience with ich but I am in process of setting up a 300 gallon and will be stocking it and really weighing wether I try to completely eradicate ich by quarantining everything for 3 months, TTM on all fish or simply taking precautions to reduce the risk.

 

[Dmorty217]

This is why I won't ever have corals in my tank... added a drag that was fallow since Jan 1 (over 8 months ago obviously) and the Ich was still present. I don't think fallow periods are a sure thing by any stretch

 

[Ostri]

Tagging along.....Like Ostri, I too am curious how one copes with ich in their tank. I have read many posts where some live with it and use UV, feed quality foods, reduce stress, only keep fish "less" prone to ich. Some have success some don't.


I personally have no experience with ich but I am in process of setting up a 300 gallon and will be stocking it and really weighing wether I try to completely eradicate ich by quarantining everything for 3 months, TTM on all fish or simply taking precautions to reduce the risk.

Many people I know don't even QT their fish and they have healthy tanks full of SPS and no ich drama. But they also either don't have any tangs or they don't have ich-prone tangs. This really makes me think and regret getting expensive fish. After years of battling fish & coral diseases I really feel that I can either do good SPS or do good FOT but I can't do both well.

 

[ThRoewer]

I don't bother taking special actions to eradicate ich from infected systems - not worth the hassle.
Otherwise healthy fish in a low stress environment will usually get over it on their own. If not, then the sick ones get treated, and only those.
In some of my systems it went away after taking out the sick fish and never returned, even after adding new fish (after proper quarantine of course).

If you have persistent ich issues in your system then there is a problem, either with the water quality or with the composition of the fish community (overstocked or incompatible fish).
By my observation in most cases tangs are involved. One of the reasons why I don't touch them with a 10ft pole...
Also, most of my tanks look rather empty despite a good amount of (small) fish in them - like in the wild you often need to look closer to find them all.

Though a thorough quarantine is always a good idea as there are far scarier things out there than ich: Velvet, Brooklynella, Uronema,... Monogeneans ... virus infections ... bacterial infections ... fungal infections ... and a whole lot of other (and often yet unidentified) things that may kill your fish.
Not to do quarantine is like playing Russian Roulette.

 

[csb123]

Perfect timing of this post for me. I'm just getting over my first Ich outbreak and am having a hard time deciding whether to do the whole fallow thing. What is tough for me is the risk of reintroducing ick from added inverts and corals. I just can't see QTing coral frags for 76 days.

 

[huseMN]

CSB123, I am totally with you... It seems almost impossible or at best extremely difficult to not re-introduce Ich from Inverts, Macro algae or contamination. I have also read posts and heard from others who have done the 72 day quarantine, fallow periods and they still had Ich after all of that. What gives. I am leaning towards quarantining and treating as necessary and trying to mitigate the risks.

Did you loose any fish to your outbreak?

 

[Ostri]

Perfect timing of this post for me. I'm just getting over my first Ich outbreak and am having a hard time deciding whether to do the whole fallow thing. What is tough for me is the risk of reintroducing ick from added inverts and corals. I just can't see QTing coral frags for 76 days.

I tried fallow 3 - 4 times and sometimes I'd have a pretty good tank for a while and something re-introduced it back. I've pretty much gave up the idea that I (personally) could have beautiful tangs like Achilles and a thriving SPS tank. I'm now going to choose either fish that I want or corals that I want. I choose the latter.

 

[Ostri]

I don't bother taking special actions to eradicate ich from infected systems - not worth the hassle.
Otherwise healthy fish in a low stress environment will usually get over it on their own. If not, then the sick ones get treated, and only those.
In some of my systems it went away after taking out the sick fish and never returned, even after adding new fish (after proper quarantine of course).

If you have persistent ich issues in your system then there is a problem, either with the water quality or with the composition of the fish community (overstocked or incompatible fish).
By my observation in most cases tangs are involved. One of the reasons why I don't touch them with a 10ft pole...
Also, most of my tanks look rather empty despite a good amount of (small) fish in them - like in the wild you often need to look closer to find them all.

Though a thorough quarantine is always a good idea as there are far scarier things out there than ich: Velvet, Brooklynella, Uronema,... Monogeneans ... virus infections ... bacterial infections ... fungal infections ... and a whole lot of other (and often yet unidentified) things that may kill your fish.
Not to do quarantine is like playing Russian Roulette.

Thank you for your input. When I had ich in a smaller system, which had a blue tang and a powder blue tang, it went on and off. However, it was never more than 10 - 15 dots on a fish. In this new system I was having ich covering the whole body of my purple tang and achilles tang. So I took everything out and did a TT + hypo and before returning them back I did another TT. Now 3 months of efforts just went in vain and my life is getting super busy. It's almost like "I've done everything for you and you still fail." I'm going to take the tangs out and hope that the disease doesn't spread any further.

 

[Ostri]

It really isn't worth the risk & the trouble to do this. Because I don't have a lot of time and space, I really shouldn't have bought the tangs. I should have just kept some hardy fish like chromis and wrasse so that they can poop and provide nutrients for corals. If I have to give up one I would give up beautiful fish and just keep my corals... It has now become clear that I can only choose one or another, not both.

 

[ThRoewer]

I would not give up on fish, just choose those that are not restless or need lots of swimming space. Most angles are doing well in reasonably sized tanks if you give them the right rock scape and restrain yourself to a pair of one species.

The fish I would stay clear of are the ones who like open water and are hyperactive swimmers. Those need rather huge tanks.

There are plenty of ideal fish for reef and coral tanks, fish that will feel comfortable in small spaces and thrive in a tank.

Disease control starts with selecting the right fish that get along with each other.

Fish that feel constrained will be under constant stress and sooner or later fall victim to a parasite or disease.

BTW, one perfect fish for coral tanks is the Marine Betta. The only issue with them is that they will eat all smaller shrimp. Though fish are in my experience safe from them. The many I had in the past would not even take small frozen feeder fish.
In general most basslets are good choices for coral tanks.

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[microlady]

Bettas are nice, but I thought they would eat anything that would fit into their mouths, including small fish. That is why I never considered one.

 

[ThRoewer]

I've never seen Bettas go after fish, and I had a lot of them.
IME they are only interested in shrimp.

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