Ich and a Yellow Coris Wrasse..........

Reefie · #1 03-07-2012, 10:26 PM

So........I've been battling Ich for the past several weeks.

I've finally drained the tank and removed all but one lone Yellow Wrasse that refuses to be caught. It dives into the substrate and hides in there for hours. I even sifted through the sand while the tank was drained to no avail.

My plan was to remove all fish and leave the tank fallow for 8-9 weeks while treating all the fish with Paraguard in a QT. This particular Yellow Wrasse has never shown any sypmtoms of Ich. My question for the experts is this; will the Ich re-appear if I left the 1 Yellow Wrasse in the DT even after the 8-9 weeks? It seems immune to Ich so far.

I have a very small 2" Purple Tang and a Flame Angelfish that I would like to re-introduce into the DT after the 2 months in QT. My fear is that they will get re-infected with Ich and my nightmare starts all over again.

I've read all about the life cycle of Ich, and technically the Yellow Wrasse "should" have Ich, but mysteriously it does not. Is it going to be safe for me to bring the fish back into the DT?

daniella3d · #2 03-07-2012, 10:34 PM

yep...although he's not showing sign of ick, there is a very good probability it is carrier of ick and has some in his gills.

The trick is to watch where he goes in the sand and put a net over it so when he comes out he's cought. That's how I cought mine.

Not because you don't see any dots on the wrasse, it does not mean it does not have any on his gills.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reefie

My question for the experts is this; will the Ich re-appear if I left the 1 Yellow Wrasse in the DT even after the 8-9 weeks?

Reefie · #3 03-07-2012, 11:00 PM

I've read that if Ich enters the gills, the fish's days are pretty much numbered. However, this PITA Wrasse shows no signs of respiratory issues.

I'd be even ok if it just decided to croak on me, but this fish seems to be one tough SOB.

George · #4 03-07-2012, 11:11 PM

Wrasses have this mucus coat and they get rid of the coating and the parasites that stick to that coating from time to time. Therefore most wrasses seem to be immune to marine ich. But they can definitely be carriers. Just to be safe...

daniella3d · #5 03-08-2012, 02:46 AM

He might seem ok but he will carry the disease and when you reintroduce the fish they will get recontaminated again.

People say that mandarins are immune to ick due to their thick mucus, yet I read plenty of thread where mandarins are part of the victims of ich. It's the gill that get attacked and those don't have mucus on it. There can be some ich on the gills and the fish does not seem to gasp because it is a low level infection.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reefie

I've read that if Ich enters the gills, the fish's days are pretty much numbered. However, this PITA Wrasse shows no signs of respiratory issues.

I'd be even ok if it just decided to croak on me, but this fish seems to be one tough SOB.

Reefie · #6 03-08-2012, 08:10 PM

I've got a plan to catch this tricky fish that I'm going to give a try tonight and tomorrow.

I'll update as soon as I catch this sucker!

daniella3d · #7 03-08-2012, 09:52 PM

Good luck

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reefie

I've got a plan to catch this tricky fish that I'm going to give a try tonight and tomorrow.

I'll update as soon as I catch this sucker!

Reefie · #8 03-22-2012, 06:29 PM

I DID IT!!! FINALLY!!!

I finally caught the s*cker, I had actually given up on trying. Since everyone was saying that Wrasses are "immune" to Ich, I had picked up a Mystery Wrasse.

Quarantined the Mystery Wrasse for about a week, it was doing well, so I thought "what the heck?" and tossed him into the DT. He was doing great in the DT, he became buddies with the Yellow Coris.

Until 2 days ago, I had my buddy Bblinks over to help me setup the Marine Magic Doser, he says to me "it's got a little bit of ich.". I thought NO WAY, I looked myself and noticed a tiny speck on its fins. I thought it might just be some sand or particles that stuck onto it. But sure enough, yesterday I notice Ich spots spreading on him. Not as bad as my previous outbreak, but I didn't want Round 2.

I spent a couple hours thinking what to do. First thought, shut down the tank and leave it fallow. I had just spent about $2K re-stocking all the SPS, I'm going to flush all that down the drain? Then I had an idea flicker on in my head, I have 2 QT's, one can hold the fish, and the other can hold all the rock and corals.

So I moved the Purple Tang into the 5 gal QT first, then transferred all the LR to the 25 gal QT, caught the Mystery Wrasse and into the 5 gal he went. Then I spent about an hour sifting through the sand looking for the infamous Yellow Coris, out of no where he darts out of the sand splashes me with some water. It scraped the cr@p out of me, I was so into sifting through the sand barely seeing bottom through the cloudy water.

War was on between me and this fish. I was not going to give up again. After the hour, it gave up darting from one place into another. This is now about 3:30AM, I was tired also.

Spent the next hour relishing the fact that I had WON while re-scaping, cleaned everything up and got into bed at 5:30AM.

daniella3d · #9 03-22-2012, 08:07 PM

wow, lots of work and hassle. This is why quarantining everything, at least every fish, is really worth the trouble, because the trouble of doing all that you are doing is a real nightmare.

Good luck with your treatment. Hopefully after the treatment you should have gotten rid of ick for good. That's so nice to be ick free, it's peace of mind.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reefie

I DID IT!!! FINALLY!!!

I finally caught the s*cker, I had actually given up on trying. Since everyone was saying that Wrasses are "immune" to Ich, I had picked up a Mystery Wrasse.

Quarantined the Mystery Wrasse for about a week, it was doing well, so I thought "what the heck?" and tossed him into the DT. He was doing great in the DT, he became buddies with the Yellow Coris.

Until 2 days ago, I had my buddy Bblinks over to help me setup the Marine Magic Doser, he says to me "it's got a little bit of ich.". I thought NO WAY, I looked myself and noticed a tiny speck on its fins. I thought it might just be some sand or particles that stuck onto it. But sure enough, yesterday I notice Ich spots spreading on him. Not as bad as my previous outbreak, but I didn't want Round 2.

I spent a couple hours thinking what to do. First thought, shut down the tank and leave it fallow. I had just spent about $2K re-stocking all the SPS, I'm going to flush all that down the drain? Then I had an idea flicker on in my head, I have 2 QT's, one can hold the fish, and the other can hold all the rock and corals.

So I moved the Purple Tang into the 5 gal QT first, then transferred all the LR to the 25 gal QT, caught the Mystery Wrasse and into the 5 gal he went. Then I spent about an hour sifting through the sand looking for the infamous Yellow Coris, out of no where he darts out of the sand splashes me with some water. It scraped the cr@p out of me, I was so into sifting through the sand barely seeing bottom through the cloudy water.

War was on between me and this fish. I was not going to give up again. After the hour, it gave up darting from one place into another. This is now about 3:30AM, I was tired also.

Spent the next hour relishing the fact that I had WON while re-scaping, cleaned everything up and got into bed at 5:30AM.

Reefie · #10 03-22-2012, 08:23 PM

I'm going to go 73 Days before introducing the fish back to the DT. I recall the lifespan of Ich is 72 Days.

I was actually only going 10 Weeks, I'm taking the extra 3 days because I will have that weekend off and can acclimate the fish in slowly. I'm going to take a couple weeks to put the fish in so I don't overload the bio-load too quickly.