Ich on newly introduced fish

[Mrmole]

Dear forum,
I have my tank for 2 months now and my first batch of fish came at 1 month time including 2 clarkiis 2 chromis and 2 damsels, a shrimp. Now after the first batch any fish i add i would find ich on their skins after the first day then will die off and decay somewhere in my reefs where i cannot find... Last time an entire angel fish perished under a live rock that i use as a stepping stone for other live rocks. Had to remove almost all of my rocks to find it haft decomposed under.

I keep temperature at 26 celcius
And salinity at 1022.
No3 is at 20ish.

I just introduced another angel into the tank and it is now under ich attck again. Please help me solve this problem. My tank is a 107 gallon with sump. Thanksss!!!

 

[b0bab0ey]

Leave your tank fallow (fishless) for 9 weeks to starve out and eliminate the remaining Ich. Always QT any new fish purchases for 9 weeks to prevent something like this from happening ever again.

 

[Mrmole]

Thanks for advise. But wow man that's three months... ( raising temperature wont do it? If not then what do you tell yourself to be so patient...

 

[b0bab0ey]

Thanks for advise. But wow man that's three months... ( raising temperature wont do it? If not then what do you tell yourself to be so patient...

Raising temp won't do a thing. Maybe that works in f/w (or maybe it's just a myth) but it doesn't help at all in s/w. Neither does lowering SG.

I know it sucks, man. Trust me, I know. I've been doing this for 30+ years and back in the day I never QT'd. I don't know if I'm just snakebitten, but if I don't QT nowadays I get burned. It's zapped a lot of the "fun" out of the hobby for me, but it's necessary I think or the consequences are even worse. I remember back in the day the fun feeling I got hitting the LFS with my dad, finding a cool new fish, going home and adding it directly to the DT. Nowadays if I try that I wake up the next morning with typhoid Mary running rampant in my tank.

 

[Mrmole]

Typhoid mary is indeed a scary one. Okay can you tell me more on how you set up QT? And, forgive me asking stupid question, how does the new fish survive if he is already infected with ich? The QT only prevent it from spreading the ich? The QT must be disconnected from the DT correct?

 

[b0bab0ey]

Typhoid mary is indeed a scary one. Okay can you tell me more on how you set up QT? And, forgive me asking stupid question, how does the new fish survive if he is already infected with ich? The QT only prevent it from spreading the ich? The QT must be disconnected from the DT correct?

The way I setup a QT is not the way I would suggest to others. In fact, I will probably be changing over soon to a QT setup similar to what you see here:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1990651&highlight=setting+qt

AND

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1866770&highlight=setting+qt

This is also a good sticky to read thru:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1846124

The QT must be an entirely separate system from your DT. Nothing should ever be transferred between your QT and DT during the QT period. You even want to go so far as rinsing off your hands when going from one tank to another, thoroughly rinsing test kits, basters used for feeding, etc. when going from one tank to the other.

Ich is a parasite which exists in many stages and it's only the free swimming stage that actually attacks and kills the fish. The visible symptom most people notice is the fine white sugar sprinkled all over the fish's body. What you are seeing is actually the cysts or eggs, and at this point you still have time to do something about it before the eggs hatch into the free swimming parasites. By isolating a newly purchased fish in a QT you can treat and kill the Ich with a copper-based medication such as Cupramine and at the same time, you've isolated and protected the fish in your DT from this threat. The copper kills all the free swimmers so they're unable to lay more eggs, the cycle is broken and after a couple of months your fish can safely be transferred to the DT.