I Finally Got Fishys

[WhoPoopWrasse]

I don't want to be a party pooper but having a QT is very important since at least 75% of the time the fish you buy WILL have something wrong with them.

Now that you put possibly sick fish in your new tank, chances are the tank is infected and it will infect any fish you add even if they are healthy.

Some people use the hit and miss method but mostly they are at the LFS every couple of weeks looking for new fish to replace the dead ones.

Your best bet is to get a 10 gallon tank, leave it bare bottom, cycle it and the next fish you get should be QTed for at least 3-4 weeks.

[ShrimSkin]

Well if you have ich and you know for sure, you can take some action. You mentioned one of them ate, that's a good sign. Continue to use the garlic and I would add some Selcon(vitamin additive) to the food. If the fish is eating more than likely it will be just fine. You have to get that other one to eat. If your paramaters are in check you could add a cleaner shrimp and that could help. But to get rid of it 100% you need to treat the fish with Copper which you cannot do in your display if you have liverock. There is a lot of info on ich and how to battle it just search the forums and spned some time reading when you are done you won't feel so over your head.

[Hangfire]

Yeah, there appear to be a few products that can be used in a reef tank that are not too bad for inverts. Would a cleaner shrimp really help with this problem?

[WhoPoopWrasse]

any product that tou can use in your display will either kill your live rock or won't work on the ich. The only thing that works on ich is copper (best if you use Cupramine) or hyposalinity but you can't do either in the display or your rock will die.
Garlic is good for enticing them to eat but it won't "cure" ich. It will only delay the inevitable.

[ShrimSkin]

My cleaner is always cleaning off my fish, especially my Hippo tang. Will it help? If the shrimp cleans off the fish then yes it will. As stated in above copper is the only cure but you can't use it in the display. In my experience if you use vitamins and the fish is eating it will most likely pull through.

[Hangfire]

So what's the answer then? The display tank is now infected with ich and there's no cure! I can't set up a QT in time to get the fish out and not infect the main tank. I appear to be screwed.

[Monti-Man]

Essentially yes;(

Your main tank is now infected and every fish you get from now on may or may not get infected. But essentially you will always have ick in your tank. Lots of people have managed to get there fish healthy enough to fight it off (including myself)but then in all honesty it is still in the tank and can rear its ugly head when you least expect it and wipe out an entire tank of fish.
So in a perfect world i would get them out and even set up a cheap hospital tank.
All you need is a rubbermaid container,filter and something for flow. Then keep some prime on hand as you have no filter that is seeded. And then do small daily water changes.Keep them in there for 6 weeks in hypo as that is more mellow than copper.
Just do a google search on hypo. Leave your tank empty for the same amout of time and the ick dies off without a host.

In the end you will probably be much happier and then just quarintine all new fish and you will never deal with ick again

[ShrimSkin]

Dude you're not screwed you need to relax. You need to do some serious reading, ICH is pretty much in everyones tank, different conditiions lead to a fish getting infected.

If you really want to understand what's going on you need to do some research and you will find everything you need.

Just search this site and google for marine ich. It is a very well documented aquarium disease.