Lets do this - 225+ reef bar

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well, this is probably the most down the hobby has ever got me. I ripped out all the rock on the left, and still couldnt catch most fish, with the tank that big, they just kept evading the net. And with the corals, sitting out of water, I was freaking out about that, and getting extremely frustrated. I also realized that I really have no place to put all the fish, I have room for a few in a 20G L, but there is no place for the 50G to be permanently for the next 4-6 weeks. I feel awful...one diamond goby, the swallowtail angel, and flame angel, have all died, and I expect all the rest of the fish to follow. I am going to try inverted top 2-liter soda bottles today, and hope that a medicated 20G L is better than a 238g death trap. If not, I've learned my lesson on QTing, at a huge cost. When I lost a ton of fish in my first attempt at QTing before introduction, I gave up on it, but I will definitely return to this practice, after I let me my tank go fishless for 6 weeks.
 
Thats a real bummer Mike. Ive been fortunate enough to never have anything like ich with any of my fish. Im pretty sure if anything too dramatic happened to this tank, I would just have to sell it lol.

Some people believe that ich is ALWAYS in the water column. Its just that most fish have a well enough immune system to fight it off. Maybe stress (like a move from a half circle to a nice 238g), with the "new live sand" and what not, stressed the guys out. Maybe even the PBT picking on the other guys stressed them out. I dont really know, Im just kind of looking for something. It may have a relationship with one another though. Ive never had any infections, and all my tank mates have always been cordial with one another... watch out for that PBT and copper treatments.
 
It would seem that you are one example of..."The cure is worse than the disease".

I just can't bring myself to do what you've done. My fish will just have to live with this or perish. If the parisite will suddenly kill and I lose every fish...that would be a good time to allow the tank to be fallow for the extended period necessary to rid the tank of ich.

Until that happens, I've just got to carry on. So far, I'm living with ich for 1.5 years and can't attribute a fish death to it. (I've lost fish, but none that every showed any ich symptoms before going)

I'm really sorry to hear what you are going through.
 
Polyp Labs claim to have some medicine that targets Ich in the stage where it's off the fish. I've never heard of anybody using it but just saw the product while I was looking at their stuff.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12939305#post12939305 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Untamed12
I just can't bring myself to do what you've done. My fish will just have to live with this or perish. If the parisite will suddenly kill and I lose every fish...that would be a good time to allow the tank to be fallow for the extended period necessary to rid the tank of ich.
Click to expand...

Untamed - I was not able to actually remove them (should have clarified when I said I had fish die in QT, this was not fish that had been removed for treatment, it was incoming fish I QTed before introduction). Unfortunately, despite many water changes, feeding garlic, etc. it seems like the ich may have taken hold for whatever reason, stronger than in the past. I am also reading that ich and velvet are often confused, and am starting to think it is velvet that was introduced as dead fish showed signs of this too. That would make sense as velvet is much more difficult to fight off, and would weaken the fish so they could not fight of the ich either. I had spots pop up every once in a while in my old system, and this was the 2nd time it happened in my new system, so I am starting to think some new fish introduced velvet, and then both velvet and the "dormant" ich took hold.

danielp - will get back to you, but very busy this week (at work now). it will likely be next weekend or so.


Eric - the PBT (like every fish in the system) does not look good, but is still eating. I am fearful that unless I can catch and medicate, all my fish will pass in the next week. Prospects are not looking good....


All this just hurts because I feel a great responsibility when I take a beautiful animal out of its natural environment for my enjoyment, and I believe this was all completely preventable, if I had properly QTed incoming fish. Not much else I can say, I screwed up and the fish are suffering because of it, so I feel pretty awful about it....In the end, I'm not going to give up, but I certainly will do preventive QT on all incoming fish, no exceptions, in the future. If all die off, I'll let the tank be fallow for 6 weeks.

If there is any brightside to this, the corals are looking better than ever (new bulb combo w/ actinics and the new photoperiod seems to have reversed the bleaching) and I really like the new aquascape. I will post photos of it sometime this week.
 
Wish I had better news to report. The PBT and 2 Diamond Gobies died overnight. I did manage to catch the PBT and one goby to QT them, but they were in such bad shape they didn't make it. Both clowns look soon to follow. The only fish that are still eating are 2 of the anthias and my christmas wrasse. I was also able to catch and QT the tilefish, and I think it may have been soon enough that he has a chance...crossing my fingers.
 
Do you have the tank and light capacity to move your corals to anothr tank.....and treat the fish to a fresh water dip/PWC. You'd have to make up a lot of saltwater...but you must have some means to store a decent amount.
I know it's kind of a reach.........

Good luck

Dave
 
well if you need a place to house the mandrin... :) I have a low flow tank now. *hint hint*

Just out of curiosity... what would be the risk of contaminating your tank by bringing in a fish from a contaminated thank. Any procedures that would minimize/eliminate the risk of getting it in my tank?
 
Brandon - You'd have to do hyposalinity for a mandarin. I'm not sure I could catch him since I rarely see him (if he is still alive). As of now, I think I have 2 fish left as the tilefish died in QT, and I returned home to find the gramma and clown bodies. The other clown and chromis I presume are dead, just havent found their bodies. If those 2 fish do pull through, I'm going to try my damndest to catch and QT them while the tank lays fallow.
 
It may be an interesting experiment to see how corals do in the absence of fish. I did this experiment with my old tank for a while and I found it more difficult to keep the coral alive. Watch out for that.
 
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