Really Bad Ick!!!!

[Shane and John]

just like the title says...my seal in the bottom of my old 120 blew out so i put everything in toats.then we got the new tank and put water in it and let it sit for a day or two...then we put all of the rock,corals,and fish back in the tank.all of our corals are doing great but our fish have really bad ick.we treated them several times and it didnt work...now they are all dying.we lost our naso tang, powder blue tang, lionfish, salfin tang, and our very large lawmorrow blenny.why are all of our corals doing so great when the fish are dying.all posts would be helpful...thx john

 

[matts125]

Ich is a parasite only to fish, it has nothing to do with your corals, sounds like you better start all over with fish if it is that bad, let your tank run for 8-10 weeks with no fish at all and all the Ich and Ich eggs will die off, if you have even one fish in there then they will have a host and will continue to spread.
In the future you need to QT your new fish for atleast 4 weeks before adding them to your tank. to ensure they are healthy and wont infect your tank.

Hope this helps..

Matt

 

[chend2]

Anything left Qt by itself, and let the tank be fallow for 8-10 weeks.

 

[El Salvador]

Cleaner shrimps

Cleaner shrimps. About 4 of them should do the job. I had a similar problem with my tank. I lost 4 of my fish and cold not stand to loose the rest. I try all the No Ich, ich be gone all the stuff that is suppose to kill Ich but is reef safe.. BULL>>>> I got 4 cleaner shrimps and by morning I could see hope that my fish would make it. My power blue tang lost one of his fines thats how bad it was. I was feeling so bad I wanted to just kill him and put him out of his miseries, but he made it and so did the rest of my fish. Most LFS stores are asking around $21 per shrimp. Just go to Petco and get them for $19 or less. I know Petco…. Just remember if the shrimp are alive when you get them, they will be just fine. Shrimp don’t carry ICH. Just try that.. IT WILL WORK… If they are not goners,,,, I am very sorry for you and the fish.

My where so bad they were white and they could not see out of their eyes… How is that for goners, but they made it.

Hope that helps.

 

[diablo]

is there any fish alive in the tank? if so you need to get them out of there as soon as you can. there is a couple methods to deal with ick. hyposalinity is a good method non-toxic and effective to stop reproductivity of ick.in most cases the ick will just fall off. the other is copper sulfate. the is a toxin that kills ick instantly in most cases. be very cautious about over dosing. but if you under dose will not do the job. both done in a quarintine tank,

a fresh water dip will help but as soon as you put them back into the main display they will be reinfested. follow others advise in leaving the tank empty of fish for 8-10 weeks. yeah its a long time, but the most effective way of controlling the infestation. best of luck and qt all future arrivals.

larry

 

[diablo]

Cleaner shrimps. About 4 of them should do the job. I had a similar problem with my tank. I lost 4 of my fish and cold not stand to loose the rest. I try all the No Ich, ich be gone all the stuff that is suppose to kill Ich but is reef safe.. BULL>>>> I got 4 cleaner shrimps and by morning I could see hope that my fish would make it. My power blue tang lost one of his fines thats how bad it was. I was feeling so bad I wanted to just kill him and put him out of his miseries, but he made it and so did the rest of my fish. Most LFS stores are asking around $21 per shrimp. Just go to Petco and get them for $19 or less. I know Petco…. Just remember if the shrimp are alive when you get them, they will be just fine. Shrimp don’t carry ICH. Just try that.. IT WILL WORK… If they are not goners,,,, I am very sorry for you and the fish.

My where so bad they were white and they could not see out of their eyes… How is that for goners, but they made it.

Hope that helps.

one problem with this method is one he had a loinfish which would have ate them to begin with. second it does help with knocking down the infestation. but a cure to the infestation I dont believe it would in the long run IMO.

 

[Scooterman]

Hypo would of been the proper way to treat ICK, you said you treated the ICk, with what?
My guess & bet is you cycled your tank & spiked the water so hard It killed your fish, not ICk. The Hypo & QT process takes a minimum of 6 weeks, also a shrimp will not eliminated ICK It would still reside in your tank, even If you haven't seen it over a year or so in that tank, don't be fooled.

Hypo Treatment process.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27155

ICK FACTS!
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27003

 

[briang]

I really feel for your loss. The same thing happened when I upgraded from a 36 gal. to a 55 gal. I lost flame angle, and others. the only surviviors was my yellow tail damsel, yellow tang. Then again when I upgraded to 75 gal. I lost several fish again, But I still have my damsel and tang. I'm one of the few who like my yellow tail. After 4 years I can't believe how small he still is. Still great color. But mainly because he was a small light in my darkness that you are now experiancing. I truly know how you feel. Just don't give up. I hope you find your light!!! I tried "KICK ICK". I started using it and it looked like it started affecting my corals ,so I stopped. I never quarintined my two survivors, I just didn't add fish for a long time.It's not like they kept passing it back and forth. They, after a while, got over it. I didn't add any fish for about 4 months. I'm not saying that you shouldn't quarintine, But in my case I didn't want to rip my whole tank apart to catch them. Some fish are stronger than others and will live through it. Wishing you the best! Brian.

 

[Scooterman]

If you waited 4 months & had fish in you tank then you still have it, just doesn't show up on the fish now, that won't get rid of it.
When you move tanks like that, regardless you have to consider cycling again, more so if you try to move a sand bed.

 

[briang]

If you waited 4 months & had fish in you tank then you still have it, just doesn't show up on the fish now, that won't get rid of it.
When you move tanks like that, regardless you have to consider cycling again, more so if you try to move a sand bed.

You may be right. But I have added fish since then with absolutely no sign of it in 2 years. Being that I'm maxed out on space, I'm done upgrading. So I'm not going to disturb anything.I know you say I still have it, and your probably right, because when I tore down my 55 to start 75 gal. I hadn't added fish for a while and the stressed caused Ick to be able to take hold. Now I look at my fish all the time with magnifiying glasses and I really haven't seen one speck on my fish for 2 years so how are they cycling?

 

[Scooterman]

Think your misunderstanding what I was trying to say. You really answered your own question also.
When you (as in whomever) move tanks depending on what you have & moving you can cause spikes from a new cycling process, this cycling or spikes will stress the fish & allow your ICK to show up but don't confuse the ICK with killing the fish as It is more likely the cycle killed the fish in the first place. Now that you have an established tank again, your fish aren't stressed & your not seeing ICK, most probably unless you stress them again or let your tank get out of hand you won't see it but chances are almost certain ICK is still there.
One thing also I should mention, there are a lot of questions & unknown, so I'm pointing out the most probably causes, there are many other things that can kill off fish like that but this is the most obvious.

 

[Shane and John]

the problem was with us is we got some cleaner shrimp and our lionfish ate them in like 2 seconds...once the lion saw the cleaner shrimp...they were gone...we only have 1 fish that is doin well and that is our big gsm...im thinking we could pull her out of there so she doesnt get it also...

 

[Shane and John]

Well...this is what happened...we had our 120 blow out a seal...we stored our corals in totes in our living room for two days while our new tank was being delivered..We took our fish to our lfs and they kept them for a few days till we got our tank back up running....water tested right so we got our fish home.....they did great for about two weeks then started showing signes of ICK....Now...one after another they are dying ...The GSM is the only one doing well...we are going to buy a tank to set up to Quarantine her....what size will work for a 5" fish??

 

[mattleycrue76]

you can buy a 20 long glass tank for abou 35 bucks. That's what I did. You don't want too big (expense, hassle to do PWC, hard to catch fish)

 

[briang]

Think your misunderstanding what I was trying to say. You really answered your own question also.
When you (as in whomever) move tanks depending on what you have & moving you can cause spikes from a new cycling process, this cycling or spikes will stress the fish & allow your ICK to show up but don't confuse the ICK with killing the fish as It is more likely the cycle killed the fish in the first place. Now that you have an established tank again, your fish aren't stressed & your not seeing ICK, most probably unless you stress them again or let your tank get out of hand you won't see it but chances are almost certain ICK is still there.
One thing also I should mention, there are a lot of questions & unknown, so I'm pointing out the most probably causes, there are many other things that can kill off fish like that but this is the most obvious.

I have to agree with you somewhat. What I don't understand is I used all my liverock and sand and water. the change was done in 1/2 day. My tank didn't recycle. I tested alot. I think just the stress caused it to happen. I think stress and ICK did me in.

 

[Scooterman]

My tank didn't recycle. I tested alot.

Moving a SB is enough to cycle, how old was this tank & how many times a day did you test your water for nitrates, Nitrites & ammonia?

Point is you can test frequently & actually miss spikes & not realize you had a cycle.

 

[briang]

The tank was 1-1/2 years old. Heck, I only tested once a day for a while, Yea, I guess I could have missed a spike. People did say that was alot of fish to loose to Ick.

 

[Scooterman]

Yup, established sand like that will spike for sure, I bet it was a matter of timing. The good thing is It won't happen again

 

[Bainic]

We took our fish to our lfs and they kept them for a few days till we got our tank back up running

Did anyone read this? I think that while the lfs had them your fish picked up the ick there. Seems almost a sure thing to me, after how much ick I've seen in the lfs's!

 

[Shane and John]

Yes..I am sure thats what happened....most of our fish we have had for several years..Our lionfish was about 5 yrs old.I tested our water Daily to verify of no Spikes..Water tested very well...after 17 days of daily testings we realized it had nothing to do with water Quality...So now...we have only a sailfin tang of about 3 inches and our Large GSM...they are in a 29 Quarantine tank to treat them...We are going to leave the Display fish less for a few months as Reccomended..Thanks everyone for the input...Shane