I have both ich and brooklynella, please help.

[RealReef7]

So long story short about a 2 months ago I upgraded my 8 year old 120g sps tank to a 300g tank. After the upgrade, within a week, my PBT quickly got invested with ich and now all my fish have ich. I also made a huge rookie mistake by taking a shortcut by adding a pair of platinum clown fish from a fellow reefer on the same day I transferred my existing fish (DID NOT QT the clowns, I know terrible mistake, LESSON LEARNED). I believe the clowns introduced brook disease into the system. Now all my fish are fighting for their lives in my 300g sps display, all my tangs are covered in ich and my yellow tang, blue hippo tang, clownfish, are showing signs of bad conditions of brooks (skin is discolored, white blotches throughout the body, heavy breathing). All the tangs are hanging out by the return lines and power heads. Luckily they are still eating, I already lost my dottyback, midas blenny, starry blenny, pair of golden angels, flameback angel, kole tang in a 2 month period. At this point I believe ALL my fish are invested with both diseases, some more invested than others. For instance my two wrasses a yellow corris wrasse and dusky wrasse show no signs of either disease (skin totally clean) but I know they are still infected, just not visible to the human eye. My powder blue tang hasn't shown any signs of brooks disease (yet) just ich.

My plan : I plan to run the 300g tank fishless for 72 days OR longer. I plan to turn the old 120 into a hospital tank and remove all the fish from my 300 followed by a FW or formalin dip before putting them back in the 120. My question is how should I approach this? I was thinking either cupramine or hypo in the 120g tank. Only concern that I have is that the 120g tank still has some liverock and old sand left behind and I don't think my 40g breeder is big enough and ultimately will cause more stress. Also in my experience copper tends to cause the fish to lose appetite and in this case I think the only thing keeping them alive is their heavy appetite and getting fed 3-5x a day with nori, nls pellets, seafood mix. I have no experience with hypo, not that I am ruling it out. I have always QT with copper (cupramine) but I believe this far into the infestation copper may be highly risky even in moderate levels. What would you do?

I have successfully dealt with ich in the past. I have never dealt with brooks or in this case both brooks and ich at the same time. All my fish that came out of my 120g besides the pair of platinum clownfish I got were QT for about 40 days before getting transferred into the display tank. It really sucks that two fish have caused this much headache and I am definitely paying the price for my stupid mistake! Let this be a lesson for all. Any tips or help would be great!

My concern: Since the fish have all been heavily infested, I worry that even after proper QT and treatment they can still be potential carriers and may release them back into the 300g tank and any new fish I add even after proper QT will get infected. Personally I have never had this happen because I never dealt with ich at this magnitude.

Last note** I did not act sooner because initially I thought the fish just had a minor case of ich and they were healthy enough to keep it at bay and by attempting to remove the fish in a really new tank will stress them out even more. My judgement however was very wrong by the outcome!

 

[RealReef7]

I forgot to mention my aquarium lights are 20k 400w metal halides, supplemented with kessil LED's, getting a good picture is near impossible with my camera. I think I am going to borrow a DSLR from a friend and try and take pictures to show you guys what I am working with.

 

[RealReef7]

1. How old is this aquarium? rougly 2 months

2. If less than six months old, what is ammonia level? 0

3. What is SG of this aquarium? How measured? 1.025

4. When was the last fish added to this aquarium? 2 months ago

5. Was it quarantined? If so, how? And how long? Was it prophylactically treated? How? All my fish were QT for 40 days except for the two clownfish I added on the same day of the tank transfer with existing QT'd fish.

6. If you are using a copper based medication, which one? How often do you measure level? When? Cupramine, tested every day.

7. If you are using hyposalinity, how did you calibrate your refractometer? No experience with hypo

8. Please describe in detail, the appearance of the fish? If there is one or more pimples, are they lumpy? What color? ICH: Looks like someone salted my fish, Brooks: heavy breathing, cloudy eyes on some, discolored and blothcy white marks on some.

9. Please describe the behavior of the fish as best you can. Is it acting reclusive? Is it always up towards the top of the aquarium? Is it avoiding light? How active is the fish? The remaining fish are all eating very well. Most of the fish are breathing heavy and are hanging out by the return lines and powerheads.

10. Is the fish eating? What? Half sheet of nori 1x, NLS pellets 3x, fresh seafood mix 1x a day. By feeding heavy my nitrates have crept up to about 10ppm from 0.

 

[mattcoug]

I have both ich and brooklynella, please help.

I assume your 120 is disease free and has the filtering capacity for all your fish and that your 40 is empty. Don't use copper anywhere until you are confident that the ammonia reducing capacity works. You might need to use prime/etc to control ammonia.

This is assuming that you can save all fish. If you have more fish than you can handle, you will need to prioritize. Sickest first, or most expensive first, or favorite first... You decide.

Get fish showing brook into this treatment asap. They will not survive long. Ich-only fish can come though secondarily.

Get a second 40b. Borrow/buy whatever.

Do a modified ttm/formalin/cp/kanamycin treatment as follows.

Fill 40-1 with new clean saltwater. Heat/etc to match DT.

Fill 40-2 with DT water 50%. Add as many airestones as possible into this tank. I mean a lot. It should look like a boil on the entire surface. Get all brook fish into this tank and add 1ml formalin 37% per gallon. Let the fish remain for 1 hr, then move them all to tank 40-1. Use a new clean set of nets etc to do the xfer.

In 40-1, add normal amount of airstones, add 0.1 ml formalin per gallon of water. Add kanamycin at normal rate, cp at double rate, and prime. This tank should have heater etc.

Completely clean and dry 40-2. Use bleach, fans, etc whatever it takes. Once sterile, fill with new saltwater, heat etc.

Now every 48 hours, repeat the dip in the tank with the fish by adding in extra airstones, then 1ml formalin per gallon, after an hour swap the fish to the other tank, then clean and dry etc.

Repeat the pattern until all brook symptoms are off the fish for 3 dips, for a min of 6 dips over at least 12 days.

Test for ammonia religiously and add way more prime than you think you need. Never add copper. Seachem ammonia test will show the unbound ammonia. This should never show any hint of ammonia. Don't care about bound ammonia.

Once the fish are done they will be cured of all ich, brook, velvet. Put them into the 120.

This is harsh on the fish, and very sick fish might not survive, but they would not have survived anyway.

Cycle though the next batch of fish.

If you can get more tanks/buckets etc to do this all asap it would be better than waiting for a second round. If you can get another 40b, then you can put all ich only fish into 40-3 with cp and use prime and water change for ammonia control, while waiting for the other tanks for the full treatment. Leave your wrasses in the DT and treat them last. Do not use cp with the wrasses. Do not put any fish into the 120 until it has gone though the full formalin treatment.

Do not put any infected fish into the 120. You need a clean tank to house the fish once the formalin treatment is done.

Use cardboard boxes,etc, wrapped around the treatment tanks, as high as possible, to prevent tiny drops of water carrying parasites from spreading to the clean tank.

Use a colander instead of net if possible. Always dry 100% between use. Anything wet will xfer parasites so bleach, dry, boil, or replace everything between use. Buy bulk airstones/tube and use only once. Buy two of everything else - e.g. don't use same heater in both tanks. It has to be sterilized between use.

You need to redose prime and kanamycin daily. Cp is once per swap.

 

[mattcoug]

Formalin = formalin 37% =formalin ms

Cp = cloraquine phosphate = nls ich shield

 

[mattcoug]

To be clear, add formalin to the tank that the fish are already in, then after the hour is up move them to the other tank that has clean saltwater. Every two days the fish will move 40-1 to 40-2 to 40-1 to 40-2 and so on.