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mnash
10/08/2007, 07:44 PM
Please advise me
I have a 90 gallon tank with live rock and corals. I have two clowns, two reef chromis, a blue hippo tang, and one two spot sand sifting goby. All was good in my tank until I added the goby. My tang now has ich (i think) and I have done some research. I think that I will treat it with hyposalinity for one month. None of my other fish have ich as of now but I will take them out of the DT for one month also. Should I treat the uninfected fish in the hypo tank or should they be in a seperate tank? How will I feed the goby if I am not supposed to have sand in a QT tank? Will he die? Do I have to Qt every coral that I buy for one month to make sure that it doesn't have ich? What should I do for a filter on my hypo tank since it cant have live rock? My last question is wether I should use my 29 or 10 gallon tank since they are both empty.



Sorry for the ich question and the long post:

Mike

Avi
10/08/2007, 07:48 PM
Hippo Tangs are particularly susceptible to ick. If the water quality has been consistently good and the fish are eating well, the ick should pass even without any treatment.

bertoni
10/08/2007, 07:53 PM
Personally, I'd treat all the fish with hyposalinity for 6-8 weeks. That treatment gives the best odds that the disease is gone for good. Otherwise, the parasite might still be in the system, and strike when new fish is added or some stressful event occurs.

kraze3
10/08/2007, 07:56 PM
I pesonally disagree. Some fish may be strong enough to fight off ich and others may not be. Ich is only visible during one stage in its life cycle. SO there is a good chance that if your seeing it now, its already reproducing. Ich can also infest fish in the gills and places hard or impossible to see with the naked eye. I would say remove the fish and treat with hypo. Leave the tank fishless during the treatment and the ich should die off.

As for the hospital tank, and HOB filter will work fine. Also throw some PVC in the bottom for hiding places.

mnash
10/08/2007, 08:09 PM
Will the ich host off of my snails hermits or my cleaner shrimp? Any imput on the goby or the corals bringing in the parisite?

bertoni
10/08/2007, 08:12 PM
Any addition can bring along marine ich. Fish are more likely, but marine ich sometimes seems to come along with coral. The parasite can only feed on fish, though.

Mavrk
10/08/2007, 09:01 PM
I would go with the 29 gallon since you are talking about putting that many fish in there (especially with one being a tang). Hopefully someone will answer about feeding the goby.

mnash
10/08/2007, 10:57 PM
Thanks, I hope somebody will be able to help me with the other things since I will make my move fairly soon, before it gets out of hand.

jon99
10/08/2007, 11:19 PM
I tend to agree with Avi. I have lost many fish due to added stress involved with catching, quarentining, and treating. Ich is already present in the system. I would first wait atleast a few days or weeks. As long as all water parameters are kept at acceptable levels and the fish were healthy to began with, the ich should go away. A cleaner shrimp has also done wonders for my tang.

loosecannon
10/09/2007, 12:57 AM
Kraze3`s right. The best way to help fishes is to give them a good diet. snails, hermits , shrimp and corals don`t normally get ick. The goby came in with it, most likely. This goby dosn`t do well, unless it`s a pair!

mnash
10/09/2007, 03:59 PM
Can you elaborate more on the last part losecannon?

kraze3
10/09/2007, 05:10 PM
Im not sure what he means but as far as the snails hosting ich, they cannot. If a snail is in a tank with ich, it can carry the ich to your tank. However the ich cannot thrive off the snail and if the snail is placed into a fishless enviornment the ich will die off. Same goes for corals and hermits.

rkelman
10/09/2007, 06:23 PM
"Ich is already present in the system"

Not in my tank.. Or in the tanks of many who properly QT their livestock. I would QT all the fish as stated above. My Gobys have eaten prepared foods.. Will yours eat Mysis or Brine? I would QT him anyways hopefully he'll eat when he gets hungry. If not maybe a local reefer would hold him for you..

kraze3
10/09/2007, 07:25 PM
The "Ich is already present in the system" comment is a common theory. Many believe Ich is always present and it takes a stressed or sick fish for the Ich to be able to "attack" the fish. Who knows it is deffinately a possibility. IMO I think it needs to be introduced to the system but like I said many others disagree. maybe we'll never know...

jon99
10/09/2007, 07:56 PM
I don't believe that ich is "always" present but obviously in this case it is. Next time QT anything before putting in the tank and avoid this problem all together (hind sight is 20/20). All I'm saying is before you tear our tank apart trying to remove all the fish and stress them out even more I'd suggest trying to live with it since it is already there. With good water quality and a healthy diet the fish will be fine. The ich will still ofcourse be present but not to the point where it is noticable on the fish and any sort of threat to their well being. Fish live with ich in the ocean and do just fine and can do the same in an aquarium if stress is kept to a minimum. Do as you wish, all I'm saying is it's a pain in the butt tearing apart an established aquarium to remove that pesky little goby that keeps hiding under the live rock, or maybe I'm just lazy.

loosecannon
10/09/2007, 11:01 PM
Yes , The signal goby = (Signigobius biocellatus ), requires well-established live rock and a deep sand bed. It hunts for benthic invertebrates in the sand. Reef safe, but may eat shrimps and worms. Best kept in pairs, as it allways occurs in nature. It`s also prone to starving in the tank.

mnash
10/09/2007, 11:40 PM
Thank you all for your input. I know that I made the dumbest newbie mistake for not QT all of my fish, and I will be kicking myself in the head for the next 6-8 weeks while I QT all of my fish, but sometimes I have to learn the hard way. I have one last question before I start the process. This question is if I still need to put a small amount of food in my DT while fishless to keep the bacteria alive or if the bacteria will still be there in 8 weeks?

tmz
10/10/2007, 12:12 AM
I agree with all of those who recommend removal of all fish and treatment with either copper or hyposalinity and leaving your tank fishless for at least 6 weeks.( longer is better)
The larger tank should be used.
It is better to use water from your system than newly mixed water. Any free swimming parasite in the system water will succumb to the treatment, The system water will have already precipitated impuities from the salt mix and many say it is less harsh on the fish.
If the goby needs sand to burrow in a container of it can be placed on the bottom.
For denitrification in the quarantine/treatment tank, I use an over the side filter . I remove the carbon from the whisper cartrige and fill it with seeded crushed coral from another tank. I also grab some seeded rocks from a fowlr tank. Note once these items are exposed to copper, they will absorb it and leech it back later so they can not be used ever in a reef tank but are fine in a fowlr if no inverts are present.Whatever you use be sure to monitor amonia and nitrite and do water changes.
Ich seems to be ubiquitous and is a bane to captive care. To understand how to treat it you may wish to read a bit about it. if you do a web search on Cryptocaryon irritans you will find lots of information about this protozoan and how to kill it. Once it is in a system if your fish fend it off it can and in my experience will reemerge even as much as a year later even without additions to the system. Perhaps from an unseen small number of hosting parasites in the gills. So if your tank is at a point where you can break it down ,do it now before it is more difficult later on.If you do and thenquarantine all new comers, there is no reason that your tank can't be ich free.
The parasite must host on a fish within a few days of "hatching from its life stage as a cyst. Copper or hypo will kill it during this free swimming stage as will the lack of a host.
It may come into your tank on anything as cyst although the most common way is with an infected fish. The cysts have been shown to survive for up to 72 days before hatching.
Good Luck

bertoni
10/10/2007, 12:37 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10939079#post10939079 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kraze3
The "Ich is already present in the system" comment is a common theory.
That sounds like self-fulfilling prophecy for people who believe it. Marine ich is caused by an identified organism that's contagious only through the water column, so it can be eradicated.

tmz
10/10/2007, 12:57 AM
I agree it can and shoud be erradicated and it's best to do it early on in your tank's development and then to quarantine. There is no shortcut or easy way to deal with this. half measures may sustain fish for long periods of time but the threat will remain unless you take the necessary steps to erradicate it.

mnash
10/10/2007, 04:17 PM
Thanks everybody for all of the great responses. I am going to try to transfer my fish over today, as I got the QT tank setup yesterday. Hopefully in six weeks I can post a succesful story and be officially ich free!

Thanks again,
Mike