I'm a rookie, please help me with Ich

[jcrone83]

Well, this is not how I wanted to make my first post. I will attempt to be as brief as possible and look forward to any help you can give me. I am a complete beginner to the hobby, but since I am off work (seasonal) I have been studying several hours a day over the past two weeks, including all stickies. I feel slightly overwhelmed. After returning from a movie and dinner, I checked the fish and immediately noticed white spots on a couple of fish. These spots were not there this morning.

Background: My friend is being relocated for his job, so I was given his 55 gallon tank, which is 2 years established. The tank was inhabited by 1 blue-green chromis, 1 yellow watchman goby, 1 clown, several hermit crabs, 1 nassarius snail, 1 fire shrimp, about 30-40 lbs. live rock, and a small rock with colony zoa that is about 75% dead(I will not be sad if I should throw it out). The 55g sits above a 25g sump which contains a coralife super skimmer, some carbon, and a 950gph magdrive. The temp stays at 78, pH at 8.4, gravity 1.026, all other tests have been showing up at zero.

A friend convinced me that my tank was boring, so we went to Petco (mistake?) and purchased 2 fire fish and 1 coral beauty angel. They looked to be very healthy fish at time of purchase, vivid colors, active, good eaters. I drip acclimated for 3 hours, they seemed to do well and were swimming around and eating the very next day. This was two weeks ago. Everyone has been happy, water has been testing very well. I am probably overfeeding, but I make sure they eat all the food within a couple minutes.

Based on my particular setup, which method of treatment should I incorporate?
Please ask me about anything that I missed, I will respond promptly. I have an RODI filter, but I currently do not have a quarantine tank. I will go buy one tomorrow if it is recommended. If you took the time to read this and reply, I am very grateful. Thank you!

[EllieSuz]

Ich is a very frequent subject on Reef Central and you will get conflicting advice on the subject. The only sure fire way to eradicate Ich is to remove each and every fish and treat them in a separate tank. If even so much as one fish remains in your Display tank, the parasite will not die. You have just been introduced to the importance of the quarantine tank, but it's too late to QT your new fish, so you will have to treat them all. There are two methods to kill off Ich: The first is to treat with copper (Cupramine is the most popular brand) in a hospital tank. The second is the tank transfer method. If you visit the Disease/Treatment forum you will see permanent threads at the top and Ich is probably the most common subject. Before I go into detail on treatment, please read those stickies. Good luck to you. Sorry your first post had to deal with this problem.

[MrTuskfish]

Ich is a very frequent subject on Reef Central and you will get conflicting advice on the subject. The only sure fire way to eradicate Ich is to remove each and every fish and treat them in a separate tank. If even so much as one fish remains in your Display tank, the parasite will not die. You have just been introduced to the importance of the quarantine tank, but it's too late to QT your new fish, so you will have to treat them all. There are two methods to kill off Ich: The first is to treat with copper (Cupramine is the most popular brand) in a hospital tank. The second is the tank transfer method. If you visit the Disease/Treatment forum you will see permanent threads at the top and Ich is probably the most common subject. Before I go into detail on treatment, please read those stickies. Good luck to you. Sorry your first post had to deal with this problem.

+1 Hypo in a QT also cures ich. You can probably find a QT on Craig's List dirt cheap. IMO, it is a vital piece of equipment. I doubt that there is ever a day on this section of the RC forum that doesn't include a new thread that could have prevented by proper use or a QT. Re-read the ich stickies, decide on your treatment method, get a QT; and we'll help you through it. It's a PITA, but if you use a QT from now on, you won't have to do it again. BTW, although I'm not nuts about PETCO fish; any fish, from any dealer can carry ich.

[EllieSuz]

Thanks for the reminder about hypo, Mr. Tuskfish. I forgot all about that method, having never tried it.

[jimmyj7090]

Well, this is not how I wanted to make my first post. I will attempt to be as brief as possible and look forward to any help you can give me. I am a complete beginner to the hobby, but since I am off work (seasonal) I have been studying several hours a day over the past two weeks, including all stickies. I feel slightly overwhelmed. After returning from a movie and dinner, I checked the fish and immediately noticed white spots on a couple of fish. These spots were not there this morning.

Background: My friend is being relocated for his job, so I was given his 55 gallon tank, which is 2 years established. The tank was inhabited by 1 blue-green chromis, 1 yellow watchman goby, 1 clown, several hermit crabs, 1 nassarius snail, 1 fire shrimp, about 30-40 lbs. live rock, and a small rock with colony zoa that is about 75% dead(I will not be sad if I should throw it out). The 55g sits above a 25g sump which contains a coralife super skimmer, some carbon, and a 950gph magdrive. The temp stays at 78, pH at 8.4, gravity 1.026, all other tests have been showing up at zero.

A friend convinced me that my tank was boring, so we went to Petco (mistake?) and purchased 2 fire fish and 1 coral beauty angel. They looked to be very healthy fish at time of purchase, vivid colors, active, good eaters. I drip acclimated for 3 hours, they seemed to do well and were swimming around and eating the very next day. This was two weeks ago. Everyone has been happy, water has been testing very well. I am probably overfeeding, but I make sure they eat all the food within a couple minutes.

Based on my particular setup, which method of treatment should I incorporate?
Please ask me about anything that I missed, I will respond promptly. I have an RODI filter, but I currently do not have a quarantine tank. I will go buy one tomorrow if it is recommended. If you took the time to read this and reply, I am very grateful. Thank you!

Did you only see the spots one day, and then they were gone the next day?

If so, could it have been little air bubbles or something stuck to the fish? That can happen. Ick spots will be on the fish for a few days, then disappear.

Quite likely you are dealing with ick, but I ask just i case since no one has questioned the symptoms/observations yet.