Do Not Trust Anyone

[EricTheRed]

I am perhaps as angry as I have ever been in my life right now....(at myself)

Recently I acquired a new fish that was "quarantined" before I bought it. I decided to add it straight to my tank. EVERY other fish in my tank was quarantined by me with copper for 4 weeks before going into my tank so I can say with 100% certainty that this fish brought the ich with it. I even cycled this tank with dry rock so it couldn't have come from LR. I know that a fish can carry ich in its gills and not exhibit white spots externally but I broke away from my standard procedure and put it right in my tank.

Well, now my QT tank is a hospital tank for the next 4 weeks so I won't be buying any new fish in the near future. It took me over an hour to catch the fish and I had to entirely break down my rock-scape to catch him, which will be a PITA to get it "just right" again.


I noticed the fish didn't eat this morning so I inspected him closely and that's when I saw a couple spots. It does not appear that any other fish have any spots, but since ich starts in the gills it is still likely that others are already infected and i just can't see it yet.

The worst part would be if other fish have already caught it...Since I never expected to run copper or do a hypo treatment on this tank, I decided to start putting softies in this tank. I presently have several types of shrooms, xenia and gsp. Plus I have snails and crabs. If I need to treat the tank then I'll need to relocate the coral and inverts because they will not survive a hypo treatment. Fingers crossed..........


UUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHH


Word to the wise....ALWAYS QT ALL of your fish

 

[trackfast]

Sorry to hear the news. Good luck!

 

[EricTheRed]

Thanks, I would consider myself extremely lucky if it hasn't already spread to other fish.

On the bright side, my rock-scape looks nothing like it used to and I actually like it better than before.

 

[Hyperlitexr50]

Thats sucks happen to me a year ago and I lost 8 of my fish. Some of them I had over 3 years. I pulled them ask out and let my tank sit fishless for 8 weeks. good luck hope everything world out.

 

[Lil BamBam]

Man that sucks!!!! Let me know if you need any equipment.. Might have some things laying around..

 

[ColaAddict]

Sorry to hear Eric. That sucks. Does anyone know if dipping corals will get rid of ich?

 

[EricTheRed]

Sorry to hear Eric. That sucks. Does anyone know if dipping corals will get rid of ich?

That's a good question. If it comes down to it and i need to treat the whole tank, I'll put them and my inverts into their own Qt and leave them alone for 10 weeks before putting them back in the tank. If I have to treat the whole tank, I'll do a hypo treatment otherwise the copper will kill them.

 

[EricTheRed]

Thats sucks happen to me a year ago and I lost 8 of my fish. Some of them I had over 3 years. I pulled them ask out and let my tank sit fishless for 8 weeks. good luck hope everything world out.

I lost a whole tank (about 8 fish) back in 2009 and I swore that I'd never let that happen again. That's why I'm sooooo upset with myself.

 

[ColaAddict]

It seems like you caught it early enough. move all the inverts and hypo the tank.

 

[EricTheRed]

It seems like you caught it early enough. move all the inverts and hypo the tank.

What about my softies, won't a hypo treatment kill them too?

 

[ColaAddict]

gotta move all corals out. only fish stays in. Do you have another tank you can spare for your corals/inverts?
You could always check craigslist for some cheapo 55/75gal aquarium or stock tank to do copper treatment in, if you preffer to move all your fish instead.

 

[RedDevil.258]

Eric sux to hear about the bad news. But you may have caught it in it's early stages. Good luck buddy!

 

[Funlad3]

Just leave fish out of the DT for eight weeks. After that time, the tank will have gone fallow and any stage of Ich will have starved to death with no host.

Good luck with the QT!

 

[kurens]

Good luck Eric!

 

[DanSreef]

Sorry to hear Eric! I have a couple of tanks if you want to set something up for the corals... I hae at least one 20 gal in the basement you can have to work through this.

 

[BADGUS]

That's awful news.

 

[scotty]

eh. I still won't quarantine, but I just have to learn the hard way.

 

[ColaAddict]

eh. I still won't quarantine, but I just have to learn the hard way.

Haha, I already learned the hard way. I've lost some expensive fishes learning the hard way.
Right now I'm upgrading tank size to 180, so instead of QT individual fishes, I just moved all the fishes to my new set up 180 and have them all in hypo. I'm trying to add most of the ich magnet tangs as fast as I can and get them out of the way.
Eric, if you are thinking about upgrading, this might be a good time to do it and do what I'm doing.

 

[poidog]

Same thing happened to me. Dry rock, no pests, all healthy fish. Added a fish straight away to the display that came from a reputable place.... Bam ich. I decided not to remove but instead feed heavily on rods sterioded up with metro, focus, aminos, garlic, and vit c for 30 days. They say if this happens, and you keep the fish immune, you can break the life cycle in 11 months with no new indroduction of a strain. Currently I have a new yellow tang that is getting a full 4 week QT before he goes into the display dispite him looking 100% healthy.

 

[ColaAddict]

You have to QT if getting from fish store, just coz I think they use a small amount of chemical treatment in their fish only system to keep ich breakouts, but not enough to fully eradicate it. That's why they tell you not to mix fish water and coral water together when acclimating.