Ok well I just got home, and as of right now, i only see one spot on the female clown.. I know that doesn't mean anything.. just letting you all know.

I have been putting in lots of cyclopeeze to keep their bellies full. Later I will give them a nice portion of garlic soaked mysis shrimp and cocktail shrimp.

Bob, I have a feeling I will be handing them over to you soon.. but I just want to see what the feedings and water changes do, if anything.

These two clowns are by far the best I have ever got , they are gorgeous and full of clownlike personality ... I don't want them to go on me.

Another big issue I have with all of this , is my parents think I am irresponsible with my tank everytime I lose a fish, it's too hard to explain to them that it's not my fault.. they don't listen, they think I am making up stories or something... it's horrible, it's frustrating. This is one of my biggest issues... my parents seriously will get so angry with me when they find out that another pair of nemo's have ich. They just don't want to hear the explanation.. and if they do, they think I am just making things up or something.

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So just have them read this thread.

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Yeah RC rocks! Yup, I have found raising the temp does speed up the life cycle of the parasite. Of course their is down sides to it though. If the fish is to heavily infected raising the temperature does also raise the fish metabolism making the fish play harder, want to eat more, BUT increases breathing. If the fish is heavily infected... the high temp and the Ick on the gills make it hard for the fish to breathe.

But you have to ask also why you would want to speed the cycle. You can do this to ease the fish from the infection and first sign of the infection lessing then put in QT to treat right away. BUT if you leave the fish in the same infected tank your only going to get ich again, right?

Another treatment option to ponder is "Three Day Transfer Method." Now I have tried this... and found it only worked if it was one fish being treated. As I discovered myself that having more then one fish in the transfer at the same time could control the parasite (at time Velvet, Aka killer) but it never truly rid the parasite gone.

Also it is noted its extremely stressful to fish. I don't use nets if possible though and try to never expose to air, which helped with stress. This treatment is done in about 15days but the equiptment & time you need to set it up and keep tubs set up is just a headache in itself.

Can read about it here. http://www.petsforum.com/personal/tr...ytransfer.html


:mrgreen:

Just one more bit of advice :eek: Don't worry so much, and don't stare too closely at your tank. One spot is probably nothing to worry about. :eek:

For instance my big fat Royal Gramma often gets a spot or two. He also gets torn fins. A while ago he had a white swollen eye. I did not get excited, and just let him be. He has gotten over everything, and is fine today. :rocol:

Well I am a paranoid kinda guy I guess hahah.. I have to say this is all my fault. And that's why I worry and feel so bad . I just can't get over the fact that my yellow watchman or bicolor blenny never got it.

O.h I totally understand what you mean. My BF thought I had lost my marbles, misjuding me, wanted to read where I was getting my info, saying I was totally paranoided, when I got a parasite infection of Velvet after just curing my fish at of Ich. I ended up learning fast but looking for the quick cure and trying all the gimmick products first, so resulted because of that in loosing some of my fav fish. Time was of the essence and ran out & varies treatments were to stressful. I was stressed & even had a fellow reefer come to help me, since I didn't have enough tanks to treat everyone. We both lost fish. Believe me I made my own fair share of mistakes to and lost some amazing fish. This is why I try to help so many others. I know what its like to many times over. Now I do treatments for people here in Edmonton, but your to far away!

My suggestion to you is try to maintain optimal tank conditions, feed garlic, do water changes, and if the spots increase then try to treat before its to late.

If you decide to go get Bob to treat your fish, then just do it. Answer questions later. Tell your parents you have someone, a friend treating them for you.

Or you can ask reefer here if they can lend you some supplies, you can setup and treat yourself. Put the tank on the floor infront your tank if you have to & tell your parents you want to make sure your fish are healthy before you add to your "DISPLAY Tank" showing them that you are responsible & taking precautions. :wink: then you treat your fish and they will never know.

Most people that are not in the hobby do not understand what it takes to mantain and keep this creatures. Don't let it bugg you though. You have had to read alot of info & research to come this far. Your doing good. :wink:

:mrgreen:

OCDP,

To keep on going, or NOT to keep on going.... that is the question (to paraphrase Shakespeare :wink: ).

Years ago, we set up a 180g planted FW tank - our dream tank. Bought the best substrate, tons of plants, a variety of fish, a CO2 setup, did water changes and other maintenance weekly, bought numerous test kits and added supplements. And that freaking tank was a disaster :eek: :evil: Fish dying here and there for no apparent reason, nuisance algae that took over the tank, gads, you name it and we had a problem with it. Finally, we decided we'd had enough. Pulled out all the plants, put the CO2 stuff into storage and started again with three oscars and plastic plants. Loved those oscars and the tank was a joy again :cool:

Skip forward in time to two years ago when we set up a 72g after we moved to our present digs. Without doing much research, we added a variety of five angels to the tank. They all looked in good health at the lfs and the lfs guy said they would be okay together in our setup. Yes, stupid me, I believed the lfs guy :rolleyes: Did not think long term when all the fish would be adult size, but that never got to be a problem because they all started dying of velvet within a week :eek: :cry:

Well, I was mad at myself for trusting the lfs guy, buying fish from that particular lfs, and for not doing research first :evil: :redface: Left the tank fallow for six weeks, maybe slightly longer, then began again. Had a few other fish die over the following months, but also had some that lived until the next major disaster, a few months after we upgraded the 72g to a 120g. Our two longest kept fish died and all of our new snails from J&L died in the disaster :cry:

And, while all of that was going on, every couple of days or so another dead snail was found in one area of the tank - dubbed the snail graveyard :confused: One freaking thing after another!!!!!! Finally found out that we had a nocturnal predatory worm in an unknown rock feeding on some of the snails. Began to remove suspect worm rocks and quarantine them in 5g tanks each with a snail. Thought we might have found the worm in maybe two rocks, so both were put into yet another tank with RO water and aeration for 4-5 days, then recured the rocks. Snails kept dying in the 120g, but not as many, so we chalked up the dead snails as ones that did not flip over after falling down.

Then one morning, I found a small long and skinny snail feasting on a dead snail. Should have taken a pic of it, but was so disgusted at finding yet another possible snail predator that I flushed the #*@^%(@# :evil:

So, thinking we got the snail eating worm as well as that little snail, we put all the quarantined and re-cured rock back into the 120g. Two days later, there was another dead snail with the unmistakeable signs of the worm :crazyeye: :bad-word: :puppydog: Took an entire area of rock out of the 120g and placed it in yet another tank,a 20g with PC lighting, for a month to starve the worm. In the past month, only one snail has been found dead, and it was not the work of the worm, who leaves obvious signs of being the culprit.

Anyway, good dang thing we have all those tanks, heaters, powerheads, lights on hand, otherwise I'd have gone completely around the bend, if I haven't already :razz: :eek: :lol:

The month of starving the worm has just passed and this morning I put one rock each into the 5g tanks, each tank with a snail. Only time will tell which of the QTed rocks harbours the worm when we find a snail slimed and dead. Each rock will be in the 5g for at least a week, in case the worm hasn't been starved enough yet :2gunfire:

Okay, those are the disasters we've had in one tank upgraded from a smaller one. We have two other tanks that have had other problems, but not as severe as we've had in the 120g. Plus, in the past few months, have discovered the total importance of testing for and adjusting alk, Ca and Mg, so have added a testing and supplementation regime for the three tanks :eek: :biggrin: :cool:

So back to the original question..... To keep on going, or NOT to keep on going. Well, I love everything about marine aquaria. The fish are colourful and full of personality. The corals are spectular, especially in our 120g with only PC and NO lighting. Not too crazy about weekly maintenance or all that water testing cr*p, but to me, all this turmoil is going to be worth it in the end. We WILL catch that freaking worm. We WILL get our 120g back together some day and have counter space back in our kitchen. Dang, I'm gonna hang in there, because at the end of the day, my tanks are rewarding, even with all the bad stuff we've had happen.

So, will you keep on keeping on, or get rid of your set up? Only you are going to be able to search your soul to find the answer. Sure hope you didn't get a headache reading this post :eek: :razz: And remember, tomorrow is another day :smile:

And people say my posts are long..

I bought my 2 true percs from Golds last saturday. Within 24hrs the ich became visable, I have learned my lesson and will be QTing every fish I get.
Sorry to hear.

And if you get through the whole post, you will probably begin to wonder just how many snails could she have bought with the money she spent on equipment to track down that elusive, and possibly non existent snail eating worm. :eek: :razz: