Ich outbreak....

[Miles]

I did something very bad....
I bought a group of 8 Chromis a while back. I originally put them in QT for about 3 weeks and then said screw it and put them in the main tank. I didn't want them to kill each other off before they made it to the DT. They have been in the DT for several weeks now with no sign of disease.

A few days ago I noticed some spots on my Blue Tang. They didn't look like ich I had ever seen. They looked almost like little specks under the skin. A day later he had a head wound. Now my three tangs and my foxface definitely have ich. The blue tang has it the worst, while the others just have a spot or two. They are all eating fine and look healthy and fat, they aren't rubbing on the rocks or anything (the blue tangs head wound healed within 2 days).

None of the chromis show any signs of infection, and my mandarin looks fine also. I have several tanks in my basement plumbed into the DT system and none of those fish are showing signs either. My plan is to try and pull the 3 tanks, foxface, and 8 chromis from the DT and put them in the QT for 6-8 weeks running hypo (and probably copper for 2 weeks).

the big question is... How do I get these fish out of a 150gal reef?

[Dirka6363]

I wouldn't run copper and hypo at the same time.  Treating ich is something everyone has a different opinion on but I have had the best luck when I leave the tank alone and try to lower the stress level.  Feed a little more often but keep your hands out of the tank as much as you can.  The chromis you can catch and qt but you would have to pull every fish out of all of the tanks that are on this system and run it for at least 8 weeks before you could be somewhat sure it is gone.  The tangs would take a beating from the stress of the moves and small qt tank(s).  Anyway, you may lose a fish or 2 but in a low stress environment the fish should bounce back on their own.  Just my opinion and let us all know how it goes and what you do.  As far as catching tangs I am terrible at it and have 0 advice on that.

[Wall_Tank]

Catching tanks with food should work, the club does have a fish trap too....

[CoralBeauties]

I am going through this also.  I just got done tearing down my tank and removing all the fish and put them in temporary hypo salinity tubs till I can get a tank bought and set up.  My fish were in pretty bad shape and were rubbing rocks and visible sores.  So far I have lost one anthias, my royal gramma, and powder brown are near death in the hypo tubs.  I fell your pain and frustration.
Jeff

[Viggen]

As stated its hypo or copper..... No need to do both

Yes it's a complete pita no matter which direction you go.  My last ick outbreak I didn't want to catch the dozen plus fish in my 475g which would of required removing 90% of the rock... Thus I removed the inverts and some LR and put those in QT..... Then dosed the tank with copper.  Which isn't a option for you reefers

I would just plan on removing the bulk of your rock in your tank when catching the fish.  I feel treating copper is a lot easier vs hypo.... And less stressful on the fish.  You could even just go buy a 150g Rubbermaid stock tank and put the fish in there for a few months while the inch dies out in your display....

[CoralBeauties]

Not to jack the thread but how do you really tell the difference between velvet or ich?  I thought that a fish covered with the salt like grains was ich but I recently saw a post on r2r that said it was velvet.  I am currently treating with hypo and wondering if I am treating for the wrong thing.  Here is the pic of my powder brown.

I was able to pick up a 75 gallon system complete today for only 100 bucks.  Just got everybody moved from the tub into the tank tonight.
Jeff

[Dirka6363]

Easiest way to tell is if the spots go away in a couple days it is ich, it will come back but since we tend to notice these things on our fish early it is easy to see the change quickly. Velvet is more persistent and will not usually go in waves.  If it is a full on outbreak of ich it can be hard to tell the difference sometimes.

[CoralBeauties]

My yellow tang was rubbing against the rock work in my tank before I moved the fish.  My purple tang also had a couple of dime size white spots on its belly that is now gone since It went into hypo.  Only been in hypo for 2 days now.
Jeff

[Dirka6363]

I have always read stick with hypo for 4 weeks, I have never done it myself because it is very difficult to keep it just right.  Whatever treatment choices you make, don't put the fish back in the tank for ~8 weeks or it will probably just come back.  If nothing else look at the fishless tank as an opportunity to fix/change/repair the things you don't love about your tank.

[Viggen]

i was under the understanding that hypo must be done 4 weeks after the last sign of ich.  So if it takes 3 weeks to eliminate all the ich that you see.... Hypo needs to be done for a min of 4 weeks additional.

[Dirka6363]

The perk to hypo is that if done right you shouldn't see any more after a couple of days. Again this is all from reading, I have used and would typically pick copper if I were going to try to treat it.  Some believe that hypo is less stressful on the fish, I'd agree with this if you are able to carefully monitor the sg and bring it down very slowly.  I think fish are usually in pretty bad shape by the time we pull them out and get them in the hospital tank so a slow decrease in sg vs an instant hit with copper would be an easy choice for me.   Either method should yield results pretty quickly and 4 weeks at hypo should be enough (that's 4 weeks at 1.009 not counting the time to get there and back).  http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/ Good read on pros and cons of ich treatments.

[Viggen]

Isn't hypo between .008-.009?  Less. Then .008 and it will or I guess can kill the fish and above .009 it will not kill all of the ich?

Decreasing the salinity isn't all that stressful, if I recall that can be done in hours.... While increasing the salinity is what is very hard on the fish

Some copper is easier to dose vs others... I always use copper safe from mardel, works great, lots of fudge factor where you can overdose by a large margins w/o damaging the fish.  Other types of copper will kill the fish if the dose is to strong

[Dirka6363]

I think a lot of it is what you are comfortable with.  I haven't battled ich in quite awhile and the last time I had a small outbreak (2 years ago) I just fed the tank an extra meal a day and skipped a water change to reduce stress.  The new fish and one other are the only ones that should any signs of ich and both pulled through for me. 

[Miles]

Here is a good hypo article.... http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/6/fish

[Gary]

My Blue Tang gets ich when ever he gets really stressed.  He is very health and fights it off in a short time. I have used a UV unit in the pass to control ich (not eradicate it). I think ich (like algae) never really goes away, but health fish deal with it, like the common cold! Good luck! Gary