Ich (Steps I'm taking now and what to take)

Hello,

Its been awhile since I've posted on this board. I have a 100 gallon fish only tank with approximately 8 fish and 40 pounds of live rock or so. My fish are two true perc clowns, two yellow bottom damsels, 1 EilblI angel, 1 Regal Angelfish, 1 Pebble Butterfly, 1 Powder Blue Tang with Ich. I also have a 20 gallon qt tank in another room currently housing a Flame Angel.

I recently acquired the beautiful Powder Blue Tang and kept him in my qt tank for two weeks. He showed no sign of ich and he started eating normally. I placed him into my main tank where no other fish exhibit signs of ich. After three days I spotted some white spots on his fins and on the side of his blue body. Ich... Now I'm confused if I should try and catch him to place in my qt tank for treatment and take out the Flame? One its hard to catch my fish from my 100 gallons since there is so many places to hide and coral inserts.. takes effort to catch. I also don't want to stress him out further by transferring him back just yet.

I've decided to crank the temp up to 81 degrees (more?)
Feed him some GVH soaked mysis shrimp (has some garlic extract) and...
I've placed this MARINE-MAX diesease prevention & life extension stuff in the water.
20% water change 4 days ago and will do a 20% water change again on Saturday.


I want to know if what I'm doing sounds good and if I should change anything. The powder blue is eating fine still as I just noticed the ich today and think its preliminary. If there is any other trick to help me out please say so.

I have a sump filtration system with a urchin pro skimmer.

 

Did you read this thread ?


I would try to catch all the fish and place them in QT as I described. Even if you must take out all your live rock.

 

Yea, that would be very difficult given my QT is 20 gallons and I have 9 fish. Two are pretty big.. a Regal and the Powder Blue. If anything I would capture the Powder Blue to be put in the QT. So far I haven't seen any new white spots and some of them have actually gone away.

What I've done since that is crank the temp up to 83.. slightly under
Saturated some of the seaweed in a garlic GVH food soak and bought another cleaner shrimp to hopefully entice the tang mroe to get a cleaning.
I'll also be doing a water change.

His attitude still seems good and he is eating almost anything I put in, so I haven't been all that bummed recently. I'll let you guys know how it plays out.

 

I do really like the idea though of taking everything out and turning the heat up to kill the ich completely. I should have done that to my QT when they're were no fish in it previously. Darn!

 

how is the tang looking?

 

I think its getting better. The spots aren't developing from what I can tell and the ones that showed up seem to be going away. He is eating very well and maybe too much. Doesn't look like he is breathing hard either. Although, I did scare him today with the water change. I'll keep you posted. I'm currently watching all the other fish to make sure they don't get it. Especially my Regal Angelfish who was the boss of the tank before the Powder Blue showed up.

 

How do you show your signature of your tank and fish? I tried doing that... is it not the signature?

 

signature

How do you show your signature of your tank and fish? I tried doing that... is it not the signature?

 

Yes ! It's the Edit Signature page in the my settings.

 

thanks, I've seen it come up a few times. Don't know why it doesn't do it in this thread.

 

Just your first post in a thread will have your signature.

 

agsansoo, you get water from the Scripps Pier ? Do you regularly have to bump up the PH. It always seems to test low for me?

Also, I can't see any more white spots on my Powder Blue Tang. I think he is doing very well. I can't believe how fast it cleared up. I'll keep a watchful eye though. Oh, another quick question for you. I try and do water changes at night when they just start sleeping.. do you think this stresses them less?

 

diver28,
I've been mixing my saltwater lately. The water seem to test better. I never had a problem with PH with NSW.

Good news on the Powder Blue Tang. I usually do my water change right before the lights turn on. At night would be OK too. IMO water changes only stress the fish, if they are large. 40% or more.

 

Yea the tang looks fine and I think the spots are going away but when I look at him from an upward angle (I'm lower than the fish and the light shines from above) I can still see the bumps but their aren't really white. As if it takes longer for it to completely diminish. I'm still watching him closely and he is still eating great so I'm sticking to the current plan. I might do the food soak with GVH more often though to help stimulate the immune system. But I don't want to damage their livers.

 

I soak my dry seaweed in Vite-Chem every now and then. My Tangs love it !

 

So, it looks as if the ICH is getting better every day. But I scared the out of him today by putting one of those blue backgrounds behind the tank which you tape. Probably should have done it at night. Now I'm hoping he doesn't get overly stressed again and get the darn Ich. Will keep watch. Never heard of vite-chem

 

Diver28

Unfortunately, that is the nature of the beast with the Powder Blue. I have one, and I have battled (or seen) 4 cases of ICH in 8 months. Feed her what she likes, and the temp around 78/79 and eveything will be good. It is a comfort and stability thing with my powder blue. A full belly with the right food will minimize the ICH. I don't know if you can elimanate it, unless that is the only fish you have and you can cater to it's every need. Beautiful fish, but pain sometimes. Ride it out with it's favortine foods for a few days and you should be good.

 

Thanks, the Powder Blue has been good at eating almost anything I put in. Daily diet consists of seaweed clip every morning and a variety of frozen foods at night. Marine Cuisine, Mysis Shrimp, Some Carnivore type foods too which I feed my Regal Angel. His aggression is non-existent although he has only been in the tank for two weeks. I've never seen him chase another fish nor another fish chase him. So I'm very pleased with the attitude. I do believe it is a comfort issue and I think he likes the vast swimming space of the 100 gallons although its still small once he gets to full size. Also, he is pretty fat.. ha ha. He looked plump and full when I got him and he hasn't missed a beat when its time to eat.

Bad news. He had a small little gash in his side probably from scrapping on the live rock/sand. Its not red but I'm keeping close watch. I'm keeping temp a little higher at 81 to shorten the ICH cycle. Doing water changes weekly right now.