I think I have ich (Update...dead fish)

So today I jinxed myself and while I was at the LFS I told the employee how great my new reef tank was doing. Then I get home and I think I have ich. It's a 12 gallon nano cube with a occ. clown, a firefish, a skunk shrimp, a peppermint shrimp, and a small rock with some mushroom coral.

The clown seems to have barely noticable white specks on him and I can see a few similar on the firefish. Both still have big appetites. The clown has found a new "hiding" space since I recently re landscaped the rocks. I don't know if he just found a place he likes or if he's stressed.

I'm not panicking but I need some thoughts on what to do. I've heard of treating with garlic, I've heard of letting them be, and I've heard of removing them and using a hospital tank. The latter is not an option for me unfortunately.

So what do I do?

 

If you can't use a hospital tank, there's not much you can do except keep your fish healthy. Virtually any ich treatment has an aspect that can affect corals, inverts, and live rock negatively, which is why a hospital tank would be a necessity.

 

In a 12 gallon tank you have to make sure parameters are right on, since Marine Ich is probably present but not symptomatic it may have reared its ugly head after you moved around the rock.

I would just continue to feed them quality foods and add some Selcon and or garlic, check parameter to make sure all is well.

 

Not sure how sensitive those shrimp are, mine have lived through just about everything. If you can't set up a hospital tank then maybe you can set up a bucket or something. To hold the shrimp and mushroom, although sh rooms are pretty bullet proof too. Reason I say this is because you'll probably want to treat the tank (just thinking time wise for setting up a proper hospital tank.) You can then treat with hyposalinity. Process of lowering the salinity very slowly. You will want to research this method first as its not something you can just do overnight.

 

Well I woke up this morning and my clown was dead. So I'm down to a firefish in the tank. I'm checking parameters now and am going to try and find out what happened. The firefish still has some spots on it. I hope it survives but if not what can I do to help ensure it doesn't come back when I add other fish in the future? Is it in the tank forever?

 

The only way to really confirm ICH is not present is to keep it fishless for 8 weeks.

 

So if the firefish dies you suggest I don't keep any fish in it for 8 weeks or more to kill off what might be left? Is that a correct understanding? What about the corals and the shrimp, will they be OK?

I checked my water parameters and they are as follows...

Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0
pH - 7.8 (slightly low but that's where my tank's been at since I got it running and not dangerously low)
Phosphates - 0.25
kH - 8

So my numbers seem ok. I'm assuming the clownfish died from the ich then and not something more.

 

YES, Ich needs fish to live, but their "eggs" will continue to hatch for awhile and look for a host. Once they don't find one for awhile they'll eventually die out of your tank. This does ZERO good though unless you are going to QT EVERYTHING in the future. If you're not going to QT fish/inverts/corals etc with the required treatment, then doing this is worthless, IMO.

I'm surprised the clown didn't make it, they are pretty hardy. Good luck in whatever you decide, here's some info I put together from alot of thread on here.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/diseases/ich-101-noob-noob-128391.html

 

Thanks Cosmo, I had actually read that last night prior to the fish's demise. Unfortunately I don't have the ability to run a QT tank with my living situation. I'm sure down the road I will upgrade to a much larger SW tank but in the meantime this is all I can do. Maybe I'll do a coral and invert tank but having one or two small fish in the tank makes it so much nicer looking. I've noticed that today my firefish is much more active out of his hole than he used to be with the clown around.

I'm making as many improvements as I can to the tank to try and aid in success with the limits of a small tank. I've got an Intank media basket coming that should help organize the back of my tank better. I'm then going to turn one comparment into a mini fuge and run some cheato back there, and I'm planning a UV light in the near future. I'm swapping out the three sponges for some filter floss tomorrow when it arrives and that should help with cleanup. I've got a little hair algae bloom starting and I'm trying to kick it before it becomes a problem. I did find I've got some purple corraline growth starting so that's exciting.

 

You are on the right track. Healthy fish can fight off ICH. Easiest way to keep fish healthy is maintain excellent water quality and feed a variety of foods. You should use Selcon and garlic to soak foods in a few times a week (I use Selcon one day, garlic the next, skip using either, repeat).