Help Ick!!!!

OK I'm really getting frustrated....The puffer seemed to be getting better, but now he's really looking bad. What else can I do?

 

If he is looking bad, breathing heavy, scratcing/darting etc. you are already doing what you can. Keep things the same so you don't stress the fish out anymore thats all that dips or more treatment will do at this point.

 

What made you assume it was ich ? After looking at the time frame of from the 17th to today I'd doubt its ich.. Have you treated it with any antibiotics the use of them may have or will save it still ? I'd get some Mardle Labs Maracyin 1 and treat the tank and the puffer.. what does it look like now and any redding on tho skin or near or in the gill area ? Eye's cloudy r puffy looking ? as mention is the fish breathing fast or setting a high flow area of water ?

 

ICH & More

Well my tank has been up and running for a month. This past weekend i noticed my Yellow Tang, Royal Gramma, Strawberry and Skunk psuedo chromis acting very strange. When I woke sunday morning my tang had white dots all over it's body and the other where very lathargic. My damsels where fine along with my blennies. I took the tang out and gave him a fresh water dip. I then placed him in a QT along with the others who where acting wierd. A day later they all where dead. I figured ich stressed them out and thats why they died. As for the rest they seemed fine. Today my domino, 4 stripe and yellow tail damsels began swimming as if they had no control and where breathing fast. I immediately took them out and 8 hours later they where dead also. WTF!

My only survivors are a cleaner wrasse. 2 scooter blennies and a cleaner shrimp. Think i'll just stick to stocking with corals as my water conditions are ideal. BTW i did not use tap water and salt mix. My LFS sells pre-made water that is primo!

1- yellow tang-dead
2- 4 stripe damsels-dead
1- royal gramma-dead
1- skunk psuedo-dead
1- strawberry psuedo-dead
2- yellow tale damsels-dead

40gl tank
50lbs live rock
live sand
Truvuu wet dry
seaclone skimmer
9 watt uv
4x39w HO T6 Lights
24" power brite led's

 

Check you paramaters but that is too many fish for a 40 gallon tank IMO. Definetly too many fish to add in the first month of a tank. The ICK probably isn't what did them in but is a result of the over population.

Sorry for your losses, when you get the ick beat add some of the smaller fish over a longer period of time.

What are your paramters?

 

ich is easy to beat if the tank params are in check and not fluctuating.

At 1 month, your biological filter is definitely not established enough to accomodate all those fish, most likely leading to excess ammonia/nitrites/nitrates, as well as a play on other params as well.

Your fish may have died from ich, but it's your haste that caused the fish to become so succeptible to ich. Normal healthy fish will, in most cases, be able to fight off a case of ich within a few days without it coming back down the road. When fish are having a stressful time in the tank, they don't have that type of immune system and thus catch it, can't fight it off, and die.

If you decide to restart your SW tank- take it slowly- very slowly. Keep an eye on all water params while your getting started. 1 fish a month may be a good rule to start by, especially if you're new to the SW hobby. Also, keep your water params as consistent as possible: constant deviation of water params will cause alot of stress on the aquarium's inhabitants.

Most of us have faced ich in our aquariums at one point or another, including myself. I've never added flagyl to fight it, never quarantined the fish once I saw the ich, but instead just payed extra close attention to keep the water params at a good consistent level, and made sure that they were all eating good amounts to keep their immune systems functional.

Good luck with everything- don't give up after one bad run, but definitely take it slow and ask lots of questions- that's how we've all learned what we know about the hobby.

 

Thanks for the info and as it was my test showed no problems in water parameters. However my test for ammonia was not giving an accurate reading as i took a sample to my lfs who did a test and showed i had a major spike in ammonia. imagine that! So i will take this as slow as possible from now on. i figure to ad about 6 or 7 seven fish max but i will gradually introduce them and span it out over a 2-3 month period.

 

You should probably look at setting up a QT tank. All new additions should spend at least a week in there prior to being introduced to your main display tanks. If it was me, I'd move all of the fish to a quarantine tank and treat them with copper. But, you need to be very careful not to add too much. You'll need a test kit to monitor the copper levels. You should keep your display tanks void of fish for at least a month just to break the ich cycle. You can leave the inverts, they'll be fine. If you go by this for any future fish additions, you should never encounter an ich problem in your display tanks.

I know it might seem like a bit much, and maybe a pain in the butt, but it is definitely worth while.

Good luck!

 

Yeah! definitely no rush in stocking with fish right now. My blennies are enough to look at. I'm looking at soft corals/polyps in the mean time. As for the water conditions now, well let's just say I bought a new test kit and did a partial water change, added some Am Quest+ and after 8 hours i did a retest as well as this morning. All results were great... Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite where all 0's.

 

Yes, you could stress all your fish out by pulling them out and quarantining them and dosing them with copper.... or.... you could except the inevitable fact that ich is present in about 95% of all marine aquariums, and that with proper maintenance and care, most fish will never ever become suceptible to it, and the ones that do will have the immunity to fight it off when they do.