firefish died mysteriously and ich outbreak!

[cy88]

Hi all,

I have a 75G FOWLR, which consist of a pair of clown, 1x scopa tang, 1x Orange spotted goby and 3x firefish. There's also 2x Cleaners Shrimp, 3x hermits, chocolate chip starfish and 6-8 snails as the clean up crew.

One of my firefish just died mysteriously. We haven't seen him for the past 2 days, and by the time we found out tonight, there was only his head left. The clean up crew was after him. Prior to finding this, I found one of my other firefish has a missing tail! He was hiding between rocks and moving away very slowly if you do disturb him (very un-firefish-like). He did, however came out and ate a little bit.

I tested my parameters: Nitrate 10 | Ammonia 0 | Nitrite 0 | PH 8.2. I am glad that the death didn't cause any ammonia spike!

Now, the question is, how did the firefish die and the other has missing tail? Would the goby attack them? Another problem came up after all these happened is that, I found some white spots on the tang's body...all over it! The tank is around 6 mths old. I've had the clowns for a year (in old tank), Tang for approx 3 months (eating and acting very happily), goby for around 1 mth and firefishes for around 2 weeks.

I've been reading the whole night, it seems like most people do not suggest removing the tang and causing more stress to him. Instead, I should be adding garlic to the food (which I did start doing it tonight), keeping him stress free and hope that the immune system will fight them off. Would the death of a fish caused stress in the tang thus the outbreak? My goby and clowns are free of ich as of now.

I need some help! Is there anything I should do now? I hope I am not near a tank crash...

THanks all in advance!
Chris

[abulgin]

My bet is (based on the fact that he's only been with you for 2 weeks) that your firefish was infected with ich when you bought him. By putting an infected fish into your tank, you infected the entire tank. Now the Tang is sick and has a good chance od dying (as do all your other fish) unless you get all fish out of that tank (removing the tang will not overly stress him) and into a hospital tank and start treating for ich (hyposalinity, repeated formalin/freshwater dips for all fish) for 4 plus weeks. Many, mnay articles on the web re treating ich the right way. If one fish has ich, your entire tank has it--you cannot cure ich by treating a single fish. You need to let your main tank go fishless for 6 weeks to allow the parasite to die. Garlic isn't proven to do squat.

The problem you're facing is why you should always quarantine every animal you buy for 4 plus weeks to make sure it isn't sick before putting it in your main tank.

[cy88]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12831384#post12831384 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by abulgin
My bet is (based on the fact that he's only been with you for 2 weeks) that your firefish was infected with ich when you bought him. By putting an infected fish into your tank, you infected the entire tank. Now the Tang is sick and has a good chance od dying (as do all your other fish) unless you get all fish out of that tank (removing the tang will not overly stress him) and into a hospital tank and start treating for ich (hyposalinity, repeated formalin/freshwater dips for all fish) for 4 plus weeks. Many, mnay articles on the web re treating ich the right way. If one fish has ich, your entire tank has it--you cannot cure ich by treating a single fish. You need to let your main tank go fishless for 6 weeks to allow the parasite to die. Garlic isn't proven to do squat.

The problem you're facing is why you should always quarantine every animal you buy for 4 plus weeks to make sure it isn't sick before putting it in your main tank.

Thanks. I do have a 20Gallon laying around, would that be sufficient to setup as a hospital tank?

[abulgin]

Probably a little small to treat all those fish but may depend on how big your scopas tang is--if more than 2-3", probably not good. I would get a separate 20g for the tang, along with a heater and corner sponge filter. Do read up on hospital/quarantine tanks--no substrate.

That 20 would make a perfect quarantine tank :-).

[cy88]

The scopas is no more than 2-3", do you think it'll be fine to have them in there?

[Sk8r]

oxygenate it hugely---a tang has a high oxy requirement and panics in small spaces where oxy is low.
(Hope you will regularly quarantine all new fish.)
Also, use plain floss filter: don't use one of those carbonbacked things>..carbon can play hob with treatments by pullling out some of the meds.

[cy88]

Just took a look again when the lights are on, and the ich on the tang is almost all gone with the except of 2 dots. Would it be possible that a "cycle" has just completed and they felt off the body, or the tang fought it off? I will keep on feeding food with garlic before running a quarantine.

However, I spotted my other firefish that has a missing tail, it looks like something is eating the actual fish up slowly! I am not seeing any spots on the fish, it swims but very in-active. I was managed to take him out and now sitting in a separate bucket. Do you think I should attempt to cure him?

[cy88]

Alright. The second firefish is gone.

The ich on the tang has "came back". I am going to do a hypo on him and leave the tank fishless for 6-8 weeks. Question on that: Should I be doing hypo on all fishes (2 clown, 1 fire fish, 1 orange spotted goby, tang)? Only the tang is being infected now. If I were to treat the goby too, how can I provide sand for him to sift on?

Thanks all in advance.

[cy88]

Anyone?

[kudora]

your tank should stand fishless for 4 to 6 weeks, all your fish are infected even if they are not showing signs and should all be treated.

read this on QT
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1207733

sk8r just posted a thread on QT to to long ago


this will answer some of your ich questions
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php

[cy88]

Thanks.

If I were to treat the goby too, how can I provide sand for him to sift on?