Its baaaaaack! Please Read!

[apex82]

Lost all 14 of my live stock 2 months ago to a combo of ich and velvet in 3-4 days. After this, I setup a qt and let the display tank go fishless for 7 LONG ass weeks. All that was in there was some cleaner shrimp, crabs and corals.

Got a nice 6" aussie harlequin tusk and put him in chelated copper (coppersafe) 1-2ppm quarantine for 4.5 weeks. Fattened him up, super healthy so relocated him into the display tank on the day of the 7th week.

Everything was great, things were going well. One week in, he jumps out one night and I barely save his life.... 2 days later F***** ICH! Seriously? What did I do wrong? Surely waiting an extra week to make it 8 full weeks wouldn't have made all the difference? I am choked... I cant leave the display tank fishless for 8 weeks again...

Just a heads up for all practicing good qt.... I am assuming 7 weeks was not sufficient? I am stumped.

[Coleus]

try to feed him with food soaked in garlic. I am not totally convince that ich will be gone if your tank go fishless for 7 Long weeks. I always think ich is like getting a cold for human. It comes and go. the best is encourage it to eat and let the fish fight off the parasite.

This was my story, I never got ich in my tank, then i bought a fish from fish store who quarantine their fishes in copper. Still, i brought it home and it got ich the next day. I just leave it in there and encourage it to eat, now it is all good.

[whatcaneyedo]

My tang and butterfly get ick occasionally when I add a new fish or stress them out by moving things around in the tank a lot. But if they continue to eat well and you don't stress them out further they get over it on their own. Just like the common cold that Coleus describes. I've had the tang for 5 years and the butterfly for 3.

That wrasse grows pretty large for a 75gal which could certainly stress it and make it more susceptible to ick.

[George]

Sorry about your lost.
There must be an explanation as to why your ich re-occurs in your previously fallow tank. From all the scientific paper and numerous expert articles on marine ich, they all say ich needs a fish host during free swimming stage otherwise it will die after a day or two. And the cyst stage of ich is up to 28 days.
If you want to get to the bottom of this, tell us a little bit more about how you QT your harlequin tusk. How long is the copper treatment. Did you test for level of copper during the treatment? How long is the QT period after the copper treatment?

[ottoman]

Try feed the fish a lot. I used garlic on seaweed and NLS Thera-A anti parasitic pellet. As soon as fishes are healthy, no stress, then should be fine. I had tangs with ick before, not possible to do fishless or copper, ick went away heavily feeding and skimming. Good luck.

[apex82]

He was not stressed at all... super active and loving life. It was the jumping from tank and then near death as it took awhile for me to get him from the back of the tank back into the water. This brought out the ich but I followed everything to the tee with quarantine and fishless tank to rid the ich prior to that event.

QT was 1-2 ppm of copper checked every 3 days. He was in there for a solid 5 weeks. I did not wean him off copper in the qt, it was just an hour drip and then into main tank.

Main tank was fishless for 7 weeks except for cleaners, crabs, anemone and corals... I didnt let a drop of water get into that display tank in 7 weeks to make sure there was no contamination.

I just dont understand how he got it even though he was super stressed from the jump... I am going to continue to make sure he eats lots of variety, selcon, garlic etc... I just feel like it was a lot of wasted time and extra effort to maintain the quarantine as well as an empty tank for almost 2 months! All for nothing.

[daniella3d]

YOu said it jumped out? it could be just pimple from the mucus drying or pealing off. It may be something else than ich.

I am a bit skeptical that this could be ich if you really did all this quarantine. I think the longest time an ich cyst can live is 72 days, but not sure about velvet.

Lost all 14 of my live stock 2 months ago to a combo of ich and velvet in 3-4 days. After this, I setup a qt and let the display tank go fishless for 7 LONG ass weeks. All that was in there was some cleaner shrimp, crabs and corals.

Got a nice 6" aussie harlequin tusk and put him in chelated copper (coppersafe) 1-2ppm quarantine for 4.5 weeks. Fattened him up, super healthy so relocated him into the display tank on the day of the 7th week.

Everything was great, things were going well. One week in, he jumps out one night and I barely save his life.... 2 days later F***** ICH! Seriously? What did I do wrong? Surely waiting an extra week to make it 8 full weeks wouldn't have made all the difference? I am choked... I cant leave the display tank fishless for 8 weeks again...

Just a heads up for all practicing good qt.... I am assuming 7 weeks was not sufficient? I am stumped.

[MMAX]

I went fishless for 12 weeks to kill the velvet in my tank. 7 weeks may not have been long enough.

[apex82]

12 weeks..... damn I thought it was damage from the fall at beginning but I see the salt sprinkles spreading to body and more on the fins everyday... He also sits and tries to coax the cleaners to clean him but they are too scared of him. I am not losing this guy... back to the qt i guess. How long in a steady solution of copper kills ich? 2 weeks? As long as he is stress free I dont see the ich coming back. I built mesh covers so he cant ever jump out again.

[Slick Fork]

That's really strange that 7 weeks in copper didn't take care of the ich.... Maybe try hyposalinity this time around.

[daniella3d]

Don't be so quick to assume it is ich just because it's covered with white dots. May be some skin reaction to the drop and little patches of dry mucus. YOu may see it like it's spreading and growing while it may only be that some skin is pealing off later on.

I would give the fish a week or so and see what happens. It is nearly impossible that after a copper treatment and 12 weeks you would still have some ich. Did you desinfect nets and containers? How can it possibly have survived?


12 weeks..... damn I thought it was damage from the fall at beginning but I see the salt sprinkles spreading to body and more on the fins everyday... He also sits and tries to coax the cleaners to clean him but they are too scared of him. I am not losing this guy... back to the qt i guess. How long in a steady solution of copper kills ich? 2 weeks? As long as he is stress free I dont see the ich coming back. I built mesh covers so he cant ever jump out again.

[shaunnyg]

this may be a stupid suggestion, but have you tried UV running on your main tank/qt tank to kill free swimming ich? Its worked for me in the past, well worth the investment, considering livestock loss etc.