26 replies to this topic

[weapon_master]

Just had a very painful experience with ICH killing most of my precious lifestock including a Blackcap, Royal, a Tank Bred Dottyback, a Gold Neon Goby yesterday and 2 Australia Clowns, 1 True Perc today. Left with 4 Purple Queen, a blue neon goby and a blue tang now.

Its just been an absolute nightmare 300bucks up the lorry in 2 days!

I believe it was brought in by the 2 Common wrasses that I brought 2 weeks ago. Didnt pay much attention to it at the beginning thinking that my fishes will fight it out. Eventually the Ich overtook my tank.

Just got a Corallife 9V UV yesterday (think this is more of prevention and not cure) and dosed Pries Ich medication recommended by Henry. Think my clowns that perished today are in advance stages of Ich and I understand that this is like Cancer for Human. Full blown stage = natural death.

My blue tank (warrior) seems to be coping well employing my cleaners shrimps to do their job. Other than that I can only pray. If I fail, will be waiting the full 8 weeks (safer side) to restart the lifestock addition again.

Just wanted to share that if you noticed something wrong, take actions immediately. I waited for 3 days and that resulted in the painful experience and trauma. Who knows I may have been able to save them if I took actions earlier.

[Morpheous]

Hi, are u rearing corals? if not, I recommend u do a hyposalinity...
else it will come back again. but do remove the cleaner crews...

[yellowtang37]

Sorry to hear that. Prevention is always better. In my experience, if there is such an outbreak, there is not much one can do. Doing more will actually be more harmful. I would let the situation be, for only the weak will be infected and eventuall die. The strong fish will overcome the disease and become stronger. Medication is usually fatal and might weaken the strong fish and succumb them to the disease. The whole tank might be affected. In the past, my gold fishes met their death more thro medication than the sickness itself.

Just let them be. a full circle will be completed. You will restock and must ensure the water quality is good so that the fish resistance will be strong and can fight off disease.

Just my 2 cents worth sharing.

rgds,

[weapon_master]

Hi, are u rearing corals? if not, I recommend u do a hyposalinity...
else it will come back again. but do remove the cleaner crews...

Bro,

I have a number of corals in my tank and 10 shrimps in my tank. Else I would have opted the hypo method but I understand has a better chance to fight Ich

Thats the downside of not having a quarantined tank. I think many reefers suffer from this. Space is a concern for most of us I suppose.

Thanks to all the bros for sharing.

I believe I will come back stronger and its not a cheap hobby. Just been feeling down with all the losses. Dollars can be earned back but the loss of the cute fishes is really the painful experience.

[Tangs]

If I fail, will be waiting the full 8 weeks (safer side) to restart the lifestock addition again.

Just wanted to share that if you noticed something wrong, take actions immediately. I waited for 3 days and that resulted in the painful experience and trauma. Who knows I may have been able to save them if I took actions earlier.

I had walked down this route before and 8 weeks ain't sufficient and would suggest 12 weeks to be back on the other side of midnight.

[weapon_master]

I had walked down this route before and 8 weeks ain't sufficient and would suggest 12 weeks to be back on the other side of midnight.

Thanks for the advice. I fully agree that the longer the wait the better and will take your advice of 3 months wait.

Would be having a good rethink about the setup and improvements that can be made before any more LS are added. Just when I finally spent dollars to upgrade from 2.5ft to 4ft in Nov 07. Its been a painful but good learning experience. I suppose this period would be for me to save up for more to come in future.

I suppose Coral addition would be fine given that Ich does not affect them? Can anyone that has experience in such trauma b4 advise?

Its been great to see so many advise coming in this forum and its certainly heart warming when my buddy whom got me in this hobby called to ask about the developments.

I guess the fate of the remaining fishes will really depend on their will to survive. Im really at my wits end as to what else I can do to save them.

[Tangs]

That's nothing you can do but to wait and if all livestock do perish then the journey of 3 months starts from there.

If the ICH parasites has not livestock to "host" then they will die and that's the reason why it is safer to wait for at least 3 months.

[j'field]

Bro weapon_master, imo I think a regular wc during tis period of time and keeping the water in top condition as any die-off might increase the nitrate in the tank.

Perhaps you can take this chance to set-up a quarantine tank if possible too.

Noes how you feel In this hobby, normally bad things happens fast and it's takes ages to recover. But I'm sure you will come bk stronger after tis

[weapon_master]

Bro weapon_master, imo I think a regular wc during tis period of time and keeping the water in top condition as any die-off might increase the nitrate in the tank.

Perhaps you can take this chance to set-up a quarantine tank if possible too.

Noes how you feel In this hobby, normally bad things happens fast and it's takes ages to recover. But I'm sure you will come bk stronger after tis

Yup it sure aint a good feeling. They are my precious even though its not super duper expensive fishes. I'll definitely be back stronger.

I do know that quarantine tank is a very good to have. Unfortunately the constraints that many of us have is the space availability.

[weapon_master]

That's nothing you can do but to wait and if all livestock do perish then the journey of 3 months starts from there.

If the ICH parasites has not livestock to "host" then they will die and that's the reason why it is safer to wait for at least 3 months.

Nod and thanks for the advice. All I hope that this Ich saga will end soon and that my remaining LS will pull thru.

[jervin neo]

Nod and thanks for the advice. All I hope that this Ich saga will end soon and that my remaining LS will pull thru.

Hi Bros, what actually caused the Ich to appear? Due to new fishes? Or water quality issue?
My tank actually got alot of tiny white color ants like insect crawling, are those ich?

Thanks

[weapon_master]

Hi Bros, what actually caused the Ich to appear? Due to new fishes? Or water quality issue?
My tank actually got alot of tiny white color ants like insect crawling, are those ich?

Thanks

Bro I believe mine should be due to the new wrasse that Ive added.

I believe the tiny white color insect like in your tank are Pods. Nothing to worry about unless there are dots like thing on your fishes.

[Vanquish]

Those little fellas are likely to be pods... but if you see huge white fella clinging on to your fishes, those are isopods and they can kill your fishes!!!

[Solo77]

My condolence to you. I have similar problem. Looking thr the advices, think i will also stop trying. Currently, trying to put in place those preventive measures. Just to check with all the senior reefers, does UV and ozoniser help? Currently looking to get a UV and ORP controller plus ozoniser to improve water quality. However, my friends told me UV is not very useful and may upset the water as it will kill both good and bad bacterias. For the ozoniser, understand it should work together with ORP controller. The question fo ozoniser is the setup is rather tedious to ensure health safety. Thinking of getting the sander but i understand it should pass thr median to dry the air and has carbon chamber to remove those toxic. So far, shops do sell sander but they can help in the setup or any good advice. Anothor question is high ORP can be achieved using ozoniser but inorder to lower the ORP, a denitrifier(hope i got it right) must be used. I have one deltec denitritier(509) but not controlleable. Does it help? Hi Weapon_Master, i understand you are sourcing for one to monitor and control negative Mv, hence, appreciate your advice. Me also killed many fishes, though painful about the money lost but as mentioned, it is evener sadder to see your liked fishes passed away with end of wits. From my experience, even if you find them funny and bring them to quarantine tank, most do not survive as they got more stressed and died instantly. Thanks inadvance. Regards.

[Tangs]

Solo77 .... this is my understanding in regard to using UV in a captive tank as even the best cleaned aquariums can be a haven to aggressive algae and also is very susceptible to parasitic and bacterial infections which create havoc in our tanks.

Worst still is that the juv parasites, such as ich, are hidden from our sight until it is too late when the fish exhibits them on its body when the immune system is weakened.

The theory behind Ultra Violet light sterilizatiion, is that, if a unicellar organsim such as bacteria are exposed to UV light at between 200 n 250 nm, then the DNA of that organism is damaged and unable to replicate itself, and so dies during replication cycle. Therefore only those bacteria, parasites, etc. which pass over this UV light source, will be cleaned or killed.

So adding a UV is just like insurance for your home. UV only targets free floating micro-organisms and not those attached to your fish, sandbed or corals. For best performance, UV sterilizers should be added after the biological or mechanical filtration.

Having said that, there are arguments that UV can cause problems within a closed system as beneficial bacteria are killed with potiential live food for filter feeders are also killed.

The fact remains, however, that beneficial bacteria require a surface to adhere to which allows for their replication rates to work to the optimum. Thus resulting in more bb generated than those "zapped" from the exposure of the UV.

The killing of filter feeding food is of no consequence as we will be actively adding food all of the time, right?

Finally, there is nothing more disheartening than watching hours and hours of meticulous tank maintenance come undone ... a persistent diseases plague your aquarium.

Do consider combating the problem with a UV sterilizer if you have not done so as there are many unseen benefits which you may not notice eg the cleanliness, clarity and health of your prized aquarium for a small cost as compared to the many dollars of investment in corals and livestocks.