Is there room for anymore fish?

They tend to starve. very very low survival rate.

 

I got him my hippo tang broke out with a major ich outbreak when the tank was transfered he was very little and looked beat up but brought him home anyways and now its twice its size eats all foods I add and he also helped the flame angel when it had a short break out.
Guess I got lucky and will keep that in mind in the future.

 

I believe they do much better in larger established tanks.

Starting with a healthy specimen is important and the conversion to your typical meaty fish foods.

It also depends a lot of the type of Cleaner Wrasse.

 

Great man, there are always exceptions!

 

Congrats on the wrasse thriving, but cleaner wrasse/shrimp don't really help with Ich. Ich lives under the slime layer and in the gills where the cleaners can't get to them.

Good luck with your tank

 

Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides Dimdiatus) and Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata Amboinensis) eat Ich- WRONG. Wrasses and shrimp eat necrotic tissue, damage scales, and scabs. It has been well documented that the symbiotic “cleaning stations” in the reefs by wrasses and shrimps are there to help heal wounds from carnivore attacks, territorial fights, and other skin/scale injuries. It is possible that these cleaners might knock the parasite off the fish while doing this, but do nothing to control the reproduction and life cycle of Ich in your aquarium.They can't eat it because it's literally not on the outside of the fish (like most other parasites), it burrows into them. What you see is the cyst that forms where they burrowed, the parasite itself is actually underneath that cyst.With that being said it is possible that the Wrasse could help keep the cysts from becoming infected but that is just a guess.


http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps/197/m197p241.pdf

 

As much as I advocate against them, there are certain setups where they can thrive; mainly very large aquariums with a high diversity of fish.

If I had a 250-300+ gallon tank with the right fish, I'd consider one.

 

I have heard that before and not going to argue but all I know is when my blue hippo was at it worst I mean almost covered from head to fin it especially first thing in the morning he would almost be white with so many spots with the cleaner shrimp and wrasse working on him during the day by night there would be no white spot visible yes you can still see the damage skin and I know the ich is deep in the tissue but at least he seemed relieved and that happened for a few days then next thing you know he was fully recovered. I do believe that they assist in the recovery may not be removing the parasite but relieving the discomfort so he can recover.


But the question is still at hand is my bio load at its max or could I still maybe add a fish or two even if its not a pair of black clowns.


Again thanks for all your suggestions and individual experiences I am considering all options. Many of you have alot more skill and knowledge than I do and you have always helped me in the past

 

What you must understand is the time when you see the white spots is just one phase the Parasite goes through.The fact they all disappeared by night time is just what happens and would have occured whether you had cleaners in there or not.I am sure they helped with the dead tissue though.As for your other question I would not add one more thing to the tank unless you want to try your hand at Ich again.

 

The only time I had ich is when I purchased the tank I was an hour and half away and took almost 2 days to setup before I could add the livestock do to cloudy water and then moved things around stressing out the tang for a week before I realized I was causeing to much stress. Kept my hands out of the tank and he then began to recover then the flame only when first introduced I do not have QT tank I believe that a well maintained tank should over come most diseases and long as they are healthy and eating and been at the store for awhile then I consider it safe no other fish have had ich.