Ick Problem Need Help Decide What to do

[bk_market]

I have a ick outbreak recently when I add a Royal Grama to my tank from Petco.
1 week after I add the royal grama he shows tons of white spot, refuse to eat and become unactive.

I remove all the fishes inside my tank to a hospital tank to treat even though other fish are still normal especially the puffer and mandarin no sign of ick at all.

After 1 week inside hospital tank here is how my fish doing:

Puffer: No sign of ick, acting normal
Mandarin: No sign of ick, acting normal
Clownfish: A few white spots but acting and eating normal

Royal Grama : died

I cant take it that I have to QT every single thing (coral/rock/invert/fish) for 4 weeks before I add to my fishless reef tank. Not only that no more new coral until for the next 6 weeks. Im thinking about putting the puffer and mandarin back to the tank and let them fight off the disease themselve.

I mean the worst thing can happen is my 4 fish died and all my coral are fine right?

 

[serum153]

QT new fishes for at least 3 weeks! You messed up, so just let them get healthier in qt before introducing them back to the dt. Your corals will be fine, but there is no sense in throwing your fish back in so soon. You can't take it with no fish in the dt, but you are willing to risk throwing them back in and have no fish to look at. Move your qt to a place where you can see them

 

[Lotus99]

If you add your fish back, you'll still have ich in your main tank, and it could infect any new fish that you add. You need to leave the main tank fishless for 6 weeks to get rid of the ich.

How are you treating them in the hospital tank?

 

[Shagsbeard]

It's a problem that we all face. We're impatient as a survival trait. We have to overcome our instincts and behaive responsibly.

You will either face it, and QT everything, or you will have to fight with disease problems with UV filters, medications, frequent hospitalizations....

I prefer the QT route. I'll be setting up my QT as soon as the IRS gets me my phat refund check.

 

[steri]

I don't use a QT personally. I don't believe in them because I feel they stress out the fish way too much. As a result I have 2 recommendations to deal with ich; the one I've herad about and the one that worked for me.

1) The one I've heard about. Hyposality. I'm sure you've heard of this before, but I personally don't like htis too much for the same reason as I don't like a QT. Too much stress on the fish, IMO.

2) A combinatioin of Garlic Xtreme with a UV sterilizer for a period of a month.

Option #2 worked wonders for me, personally. I saw improvements in as little as a few days. I have never lost a fish using this method. I put two drops of Garlic Xtreme in the food I feed my fish daily because Garlic helps build the fishes immune system and keeps the fish eating. The UV sterilizer kills the ich parasites in teh "free swimming" stage of ich. Because the free swimming stage of ich only lasts a short period of time, I recommend running the sterilyzer 24/7 for one month.

That has always cured the ich in my tank when I have an eruption of ich (had to deal with this twice). I have a blue tang which initially brought it into my tank. LIke I said, this is what I do. It works for me. I've never ever lost a fish dealing with ich with this method. I'm sure someone will asuredly tell me what I am doing is wrong for whatever reason, but if you don't like Hypo or a QT option, I recommend a UV sterilizer with Garlic Xtreme. That will knock the ich right out.

What I don't recommend......Do not use any Reef Safe Chemicals in your main tank. Even Reef Safe Chemicals cause more harm then good, IMO. I've never had any success dealing with products such as Stop Parasite or Kick Ich.

 

[modelrr]

I have a ick outbreak recently when I add a Royal Grama to my tank from Petco.
1 week after I add the royal grama he shows tons of white spot, refuse to eat and become unactive.

I made the exact same mistake (same fish, too) recently and paid for it with all but two of my fish (yellow tang and powder blue tang) .. those two recovered because I fed them garlic-soaked food (and lots of it). I never even had to take them out of the main tank

 

[saabore]

Don't mean to hijack this thread but it is relevent. If you have a refugium and install a UV, what does this do to the reproduction of PODS in the refugium.

 

[Nano Chris]

First off you shouldnt have introduced the Mandarin into your tank till your tank has an established pod population and has stabalized at least a year.

Second what you will learn in this hobby QT everything if you don't you will pay later on with Itch or other disease outbreak.

Also saabore using uv doesn't wipe out the population of pods anything that passes threw the uv will die, it is not necessary that pods will all get sucked up as they are in the display and if you have one fuge so not really possible you can wipe them out, uv kills both good and bad i wouldn't have it on all the time (some do) but if i had one id only have it on a hour or so a day (not sure if that would be effective but maybe?)