reef tank with ich...help....

[jackie d]

HI all, we have come across a problem ...we have a blue tang who has developed a rather nasty case of Ich,,,,i understand that we need to put it in a QT tank....this will probably sound really dumb but can we make a "floating QT tank so that the water temp will remain the same as the rest of the tank??...and do i need to get an extra filtre????....
thaks for any feedback

 

[Scooterman]

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


I'd start with saying no, your better off setting up a separate QT tank, it doesn't need to be extreme, just a tank, some cover for the fish to hide a little, clean water & basic motion as in flow, small heater & lighting . Read the above link, it will help!

 

[NaH2O]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!! I hope you find the site informative and helpful!

One thing to keep in mind, all the fish in the display need to be treated for ich, and the display fishless/fallow for at least 8 weeks, during which time, the fish are treated in hyposalinity. If this is not done, then the tang will likely develop ich again when it goes back into the display.

 

[theJ]

Can you QT all your fish at the same time, in the same QT as long as the QT is large enough? I understand you would need to medicate them differently depending on the situation, what if you were just going to hypo? (oops hijacked again)

 

[NaH2O]

theJ - IMO, as long as the QT was large enough to make everyone comfortable/not stressed, and you are going to keep monitoring the water quality, then you should be able to. The tough thing to keep in mind after treatment, is QTing everything new that goes into the tank. There is no guarantee that the coral you bought was in a fish-free system, and won't reintroduce ich back to the tank. Same for inverts, liverock, etc. If you take the time to do it properly, then ich won't make its way back into the tank.

 

[returnofsid]

If this is already an established reef tank (with corals, inverts, etc), you'll need to remove ALL fish from it...have fun with that...lol, and have a QT tank large enough to keep them in for at least 8 weeks, as mentioned above. The QT tank will slowly be brought to an SG of 1.009. It needs to stay at that level for 8 weeks and then slowly brought back up to 1.025. In the meantime, in the fishless display tank, without any fish hosts, the Ich will die. In the QT tank, the hyposalinity will kill the Ich. Do regular water changes in both tanks during this time.

Sometimes, it's easier to remove corals and inverts and do the hyposalinity treatment in the display tank. Keep in mind that this will have a damaging effect on your live rock as well, but it will recover. When this happened to me, I had a second reef tank and was able to remove all corals and inverts from the infected tank. I then did a 10 week hypo treatment in the infected tank. What was funny is that in the 3rd week of treatment, my featherdusters went NUTS and grew all over the tank. Unfortunately, they ALL died off in the 4th week...lol. The live rock did recover though and the feather dusters even grew back.

Keep in mind that Tangs are notorious for getting Ich and IMO, they need specialized QT treatment when first purchased. I only have a Yellow Tang at present but it went through it's own 8 week hypo treatment as soon as it got home from the LFS.

 

[TurboSnail8898]

NaH20- I always thought that ich wasn't affected by hyposalinity (due to the fact that it lies beneath the mucus coating of the fish and is not exposed to the lower salinity, which protects it through the fishes ability to regulate its own saline concentrations)? Would copper be a better treatment solution over hyposalinity?

jackie d- I would use a transfer to a QT tank and treatment with hyposalinity or copper as a last resort. The stress of relocating fish to a QT, which most often has a water quality that is further from ideal than the display, can sometimes be too much and may result in death. Good water quality and a stress free environment go a long way in ensuring the health of your livestock. Try feeding more often (fish will often recover from ich if fed a lot of food) and doing small daily water changes to guarantee good water quality. Freshly pulped garlic added to the food has also been known to help fish combat ailments.

 

[NaH2O]

NaH20- I always thought that ich wasn't affected by hyposalinity (due to the fact that it lies beneath the mucus coating of the fish and is not exposed to the lower salinity, which protects it through the fishes ability to regulate its own saline concentrations)? Would copper be a better treatment solution over hyposalinity?

The life cycle stage that is effected by hyposalinity is the tromont stage, not the trophont stage (on the fish). So when treating with hyposalinity, you are interrupting the life cycle of the parasite. Once the tromonts are destroyed, re-infection is prevented.

I would not agree that copper is a better treatment choice than hyposalinity. Hyposalinity is easier on the fish, and relatively easy to do. The transfer method of treatment is another effective way, however, it requires more than one set-up.

For a more in depth discussion on fish osmoregulation during hyposalinity, check out this thread: Quarantine tank

 

[TurboSnail8898]

Thanks for the link and the info about ich and the best treatment, its much appreciated.