time for ich in water to clear?

[EbiTank]

hi, lost a clown, bi-color blenny and royal gramar to ich introduced by coral beauty.

cb was not eating various foods (seaweed, mycst shr,pellets,brine shrimp), and died after 10 days. after that all my other fishes fell sick and died 1-by-1.

now that i have only 1 cleaner shrimp and some hardy corals left..should i buy new fishes immediately or wait for a couple of weeks ? will the ich virus disappear once the hosts have been removed ?

thanks.

[mv3i]

bro ,

really sorry for you .... almost happen to me .... got to be more careful intro fish into the tank .... did you quarantine them first ... coral beauty i mean ...

[EbiTank]

tank was 4 mths old, after 3 mths of planning and everything stable. cos followed by the book for best practices.

the coral beauty was such a babe that i could not resist buying. no quarantine facilities at home. such a painful mistake. grammy was my most prized possession and i lost him this morning. read in borders today that it may be marine velvet and need to clean up whole tank if it is...sob..

[dodo]

so sorie to hear that such a sad experience happen to you

i am not too sure if this work nothing happen to my tank like wat happened to yours. if yours is a new tank...i thk there isn't a neccessity to quarantine your first batch of fishes(i assume all fishes are introduce into your tank at almost the same time). i would suggest change 50% of your water and add in Seachem Stress Guard. Check water...i thk the water should be fine since you mentioned that everything is stable.

Thereafter, start introducing fishes at the rate of 1fish per 4-5days...starting from the cheapest(ie clown)...monitor the health of fishes before buying further...and always practice looking for a healthy fish...i mean some people jus buy wat LFS can offer without looking at the health of the fish...buy on impluse...try not to do that i know it's difficult becos sometimes i cannot tahan also well maybe some other people can offer a better advise

[hongqixian]

tank was 4 mths old, after 3 mths of planning and everything stable. cos followed by the book for best practices.

the coral beauty was such a babe that i could not resist buying. no quarantine facilities at home. such a painful mistake. grammy was my most prized possession and i lost him this morning. read in borders today that it may be marine velvet and need to clean up whole tank if it is...sob..

I read at saltaquariums that it might clear in six months/weeks (not sure). You can do a search there for amyloodinium.

[EbiTank]

cannot wait so long,so decided to revamp my tank since I have only corals and 1 shrimp now, can put in spare tank. plan long term , heh heh..

the thread on dsb and nnr was really useful. and i bought 3 bags of no. 1 from OP and changed all the water(DSB 6 inches sloping to 4 inches). also beefed up my canister with polyfilter, active carbon and purigen. (sounds abit kiasu but using all in moderation)

will be out shopping for more corals today !

[clowntrigger]

Ebitank, has your new tank been cycled yet? After all such a massive revamp and you are planning to buy coral today? Have you check your water parameter? Please do so.... It has been like 4 days apart ever since you first posted about the problems.

[jason]

HEY, I am worst off, it seems the ich after the previous break out by my 2 blue tanks did not die off completly even after around 2-3 months of cool down period with a few survior.

The new outbreak kill 1 blue lip, 1 majestic, 1 blue face, 1 mandarin, 1 royal gama, 1 dottyback, 2 yellow tank, 1 ebill angel and 1 seahorse(may be ich dun know)

now my flame angel and 2 pecular clown are in great danger !!!!!!!!

very very very upset, depress and frustrated. I am too piss off now

GOD PUNISH ALL PARASITE !!!!!!!

[onghm]

Jason,

Sorry to hear about your itch outbreak.

Juz curious, have u been serving them garlic-soaked food at all ?

Not after outbreak, but as an on-going preventive approach ?

[jason]

i served them galic food for a while then stop as dying continues. My yellow died even I did fresh water dip with garlic.

My whole tank has almost collasp!!

I feel like crying

[Morgan]

Jason sorry for your loss.

A few questions

Did you quarantine you fish?

Did you add all those fishes at once?

Sometime fishes need to acclimatize to the tank condition. Parameters like salinity and ph is important, ie your tank water compared to the lfs.

Stress is a main factor for ick to start. There are always ick parasite, either in the tank or on the new fishes.

Healthy fishes normally will fight off the infestation.

[dodo]

if yours is a new tank...i thk there isn't a neccessity to quarantine your first batch of fishes(i assume all fishes are introduce into your tank at almost the same time)

ehhh.... when i say no need quarantine....the tank still need to be cycle first hor...dun get all mixed up even you spend $20K on the best equipment in the world...u still need to cycle the tank

[Achilles Tang]

If you really want to let the ich parasites' life cycle complete, you have to ensure that no fishes are in the tank. It's ok for inverts as they are not affected.

It would be very painful to go fishless for at least 2 months to be safe (for me!)

[jason]

All the fish in my tank has been in the tank for at least 1 month. I am at total lost now. Just waiting for the whole tank to collasp, if my beloved flame angel died too (one of the early immigrant) I will try to remove all fishes and the tank do without fish for months.

[TanGo]

Ermm.. Just to check... Will a UV lamp in the sump help? I mean by killing off the bacteria or germs.. I heard from Thomas in OP saying that he will turn on his UV for a day if he spots a fish with spots.. And that it helps.. Comments?

[EbiTank]

hi clowntrigger, managed to hold myself back, almost couldn't tahan after seeing a few nice specimens of dwarf fingers and leather corals at sealife today. just spent 3 hrs rearranging my LRs and i must say they look great . but forgot to leave more space for my orca skimmer, a bit tight..

although changed all water and now DSB, still kept some of the substrate in the canister to "jump-start". so to be really save, will pick AT's suggestion - 2 mths no ikan

Jason, I truly pray that your flame will survive this ordeal and grow stronger, the tomoto clown in my office after surviving ich turn out to be a real fighter !!!

[Achilles Tang]

Actually, guys... you will not be totally ich-free if you don't practice quarantining your new fishes and even corals for another month.... coz they may be carrying the ich cysts or parasites on them and you may re-introduce them into your 'ich-free' tank.

So would you have the discipline, and space for another QT tank?

I am talking about a QT tank with established filtration system.

You must have a separate treatment tank where you can give FW dips or perhaps one with medication.

Be aware that your new fishes could not survive your QT tank as they will probably feel stressed.

IMO, stress is the killer coz it lowers the fish's resistance and ich will then be responsible for finishing the job.

I find that if you provide a tank large enough with space to hide and non-aggressive tankmates, fishes will adjust faster and recover from stress and begin eating. So even if they get ich... they will overcome it and live.

[Tigger]

Am I right to said that one should get the biggest possible tank one can afford?

[Achilles Tang]

Sad to say, in this hobby... size does matter (for the long term health, stability and ease of maintenance)

[Tanzy]

12" sound long enough. 2 feet is just plain unmanageable.

[Achilles Tang]

? what are you referring to, old wise turtle?

[Tanzy]

Getting old, can't remember.

[EbiTank]

so AT, in your opinion, prevention is better than cure. but if however we're unlucky enuf, how should FWD and garlic soaked food be complemented...

I have tried soaking mysis shrimps in freshly squeezed garlic juice but, the fishes don't really like it..only took abt 20% of what they usually eat..and after that they still "kaput". or are commercially available garlic foods necessary better options..

[jason]

AT,

Yes, I was also told to get the biggest tank I can afford. So I got my six feet tank, but very difficult for me to set up another QT. My coral beauty and flame angel survive the first attack. Hope they can survive this too.

If these fishes survived, will the ich died off if I dun introduced for months.

I am reluctant to give up these remaining fish (you mention to have no fish tank for 2 months) as they are survived previous attack.

[EbiTank]

I just noticed that there are plenty of tiny airbubbles stuck between my no.1 sand in the DSB. will it affect the effectiveness of the DSB ?