ICH + Mandrin goby

[KurtsReef]

I have started to treat an outbreak of ICH in my reef and am worried about my Mandrins.

As they were in the reef, they are now quarantined along with all the other fish however too my knowledge have never eaten anything other than pods.

How in the world am I going too keep them alive for 5 weeks? All of my other fish, including a dragon goby and scooter blenny will accept prepared foods so I am not concerned about them.

I plan on treating the fish with copper. If I were to sacrafice a couple of rocks from my refuge too a hospital tank and treat it with copper the pods would simply die correct?

If I did the same thing, only set up a different hospital tank for the mandrins and went hyposalinity in that tank would that not also kill the pods?

If I am lucky they will eat cyclopeaze, however have not seen them eat it. Last night I attempted to feed with some cyclopeaze and they did not seem interested.

Any suggestions/experiences in this are appreciated.

 

[JetCat USA]

Mandarins can't get ich, put them back in the display. their natural slime coat on their body prevents any ich infestation.

 

[KurtsReef]

Really? That would be outstanding...so they cannot host the parasite and I can still use the 5 week period for the parasite to die out.

 

[JetCat USA]

That is correct.

 

[thriceanangel]

How would their slime coating prevent them from getting a gill infestation?

 

[Sk8r]

Personally, I'd put the mandys into the display. The situation that lets a mandy get ich is an infestation so thick you or I would darned near get ich ourselves, IME...I've never had it happen and I've always had mandys in the tank. If you've ever handled one, their whole body feels less dependable than jello: they live on the bottom, and hunt no-see'ums, and [joking here, but not too facetiously] for all I know, they eat the stuff. They do have natural defenses against the parasite that most fish don't, and I wouldn't kill two healthy fish to prevent something they probably won't catch.

Now, let me make it clear my own philosophy is: DON'T add fish to your tank often, treat sick fish, don't treat well fish, and never treat a fish in your display tank. I suspect anybody who buys a coral or a fish from an lfs probably risks getting the parasite into his tank all over again, so I'm not overly keen on the whole ich-free-tank theory: imho, and only imho, the best procedure is keeping your water comfortable for fishy skin [alk and ph] and moving fast if you do have an outbreak.

There. Now I've probably done it: the debate is unending. It's a serious parasite, it can be fatal, but it's never as serious again as when you're new to the hobby because a) you may not recognize it fast and b) your tank chemistry is probably up and down a lot: you can fix that, and that's the most important thing, again, imho. Copper would kill the pods, and starvation would kill the mandarins, and it would be my choice to return them to the tank.

 

[KurtsReef]

I needed a larger QT tank too hold all the other fish so picked that up today. My plan is to leave the mandrins in the smaller qt tank and supply them with pods as much as I can for at least a couple weeks before putting them back into the display.

I would hate for a ICH 'pod' to happen to live on one of the mandrins only to remanifest itself later making me disassemble the reef again to catch fish. If I have to sacrifice a live rock or two from the sump to get pods over too them it will be worth it.

Appreciate all the input.

 

[JetCat USA]

if that is your intention you should order some pods or setup a brine shrimp hatchery, you won't be able to get enough pods off a few rocks in the sump to sustain the Mandy for any length of time and with copper in the QT the rocks can NEVER be placed back in a tank/sump

 

[KurtsReef]

No copper is going into the tank with the mandrins.

I did the copper treatment too the other tank, now my three scotts fairy wrasses look horrible. White blotchyness and breathing heavy, they did not look great before the treatment did not have a light on the tank but did not notice the blotchyness.

I did not overdose the tank, in fact errored on the safe side but went ahead and did a 5 gal change (45 gal tank so that would be 12% roughly) and will check on them again in an hour.

I bought some live brines today, soaked them in Zoecon for three hours then fed them too both tanks. (Before adding the copper)

This is not fun.

The Mystery Wrasse is laying on the bottom with one eye looking foggy and breathing heavy. I do not see any other blotchyness on the Mystery Wrasse except for its right eye.

 

[KurtsReef]

Good news, which after the past few days I needed some in the realm of my reef...

The Mandrins were eating frozen brine shrimp soaked in garlic extreme this morning. With no other fish in the tank too eat them first they were able too take their time inspecting it before eating and readily ate several shrimp each.

 

[kevin2000]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10666081#post10666081 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JetCat USA
Mandarins can't get ich, put them back in the display. their natural slime coat on their body prevents any ich infestation.

Thats nonsense - Mandarins can/do get ich. The Mandarin thicker slime coat gives them greater protection and makes their death less likely .. but its not uncommon for Mandarins to have a minor case of ich and they carry it into show tanks to infect other fish which don't have the thicker mucas lining.

 

[JetCat USA]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10699913#post10699913 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kevin2000
Thats nonsense ........its not uncommon for Mandarins to have a minor case of ich

post some pics of these Mandarins with Ich being it's so common please, I'd be intrigued to see them.