Need help with C declivis ich treatment

[LobsterOfJustice]

Update: I removed all corals and inverts from my 180 and have been running FOWLR all summer. I lowered the salinity and ran at 1.009 for three weeks, I lost 6 anthias and a candy hogfish. I decided to start bringing my salinity back up because 1) I was losing more fish to the treatment than the disease 2) all fish appeared healthy and 3) I do not intend on quarantining all new rock, corals, and inverts fishless for 8 weeks while I'm restocking my tank, so ich is likely to be reintroduced anyway. I have been raising the salinity by topping off brackish water for about two weeks... and the declivis is getting spotty again. I have literally destroyed my tank for this fish, lost half my stocklist, spend $300 on new rock, gave all inverts and corals to friends... and he still has ich.

 

[NexDog]

That is what happens when you don't hypo for 6 weeks.

I bet you wish you had just caught the fish and set up a $50 QT now.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I treated him with cupramine for a full treatment before putting him in the tank. But I didnt QT all inverts fishless for 8 weeks, so it was in the display anyway and he caught it in there. If you read the OP you'll see I removed him and treated him a few times but he kept re-catching it, and also he won't eat in QT.

 

[Recty]

I'm not sure what to tell you. If you wont treat the fish in the manner to need to in order to get rid of ich, you're always going to have it present in your system.

If that one fish seems particularly susceptible to ich and you're not willing to do what it takes to get rid of ich once and for all (I understand you've had some hardships along the way) then maybe it's time to think of selling him to someone else.

If I was me with the fish and I did all this work to fix ich and then cut my treatment short and he ends up with ich I'd be irritated, I have a hard time believing you went to all this trouble and then just decided to only treat for 3 weeks and then raise salinity again.

Anyway, to each his own but if I were you I'd just get rid of the fish.

 

[Big E]

I agree with Recty...........you were only half way through the treatment. The anthias & hog are collateral damage, it sucks, but that's the price you pay now for not QT'ing all your fish from day one.

I lost a couple of anthias also........but it was worth it to save my prized fish & clear up the problem.

I don't see why you stopped now........all new additions from this day forward will be affected in the same way the Declevis was. You take your lumps now versus having more problems later.

Other than losing some fish how did you destroy your tank? When I was done I put my corals back with the fish & didn't lose a single coral. Why did you have to spend $300 on new rock?

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I stopped now because losing 8 fish to save one is ridiculous. I began losing corals due to housing them in a less than perfect setup (I don't happen to have a spare display tank with metal halides, a calcium reactor, auto topoff, temperature controller, etc laying around) so I gave them to my friends to hold indefinitely, and all the rock in the treated tank is dead and covered in brown slime.

I am going to continue raising the salinity of the tank, once the tank is back up at 1.025 I will swap out the rock, in the process I will catch and remove the declivis. I can house and treat him in a 30g... then decide what to do with him from there.

I could lower the salinity again, but who knows how many more fish I'd lose (if I lost my leopard wrasse eating flakes and pellets I'd probably just take the tank down - I've also still got 3 anthias left), and ich is sure to be reintroduced anyway as I can't QT all incoming corals fishless for 2 months (see clause above about no spare second display tank sitting around).

 

[Big E]

I understand your frustrations...........I'm not sure why you lost 8 fish to hypo? Although I agree that anthias don't handle it well & thats most of your losses.

I swapped all the essential equipment to the tank with the corals except the skimmer because with no fish it's not needed. I did have an empty 180 laying around, but since I sold it I always keep a 100g rubbermaid around for emergencies.

I still wouldn't bother replacing the rock.....maybe add a few new pieces, but I'd just scrub it up some & it will come back fine.

Good Luck