Help!!! Ick?

JWHITESP88 · Apr 11, 2015

Hey guys,
I need your help Im freaking out. I work out of town and I came home to my flame angel and to me it looks like Ick. I just want to make sure. I have never dealt with ick in saltwater only freshwater one time and I am freaking out a little bit. I leave again tomorrow for work and I am afraid that my tank is done now. What is the best way to treat the tank. I wont be home for a week so that will leave my wife trying to save the tank as I will be gone all week. Is there something that she can do to help (shes not really engaged in working on the tank, just a spectator). Should I go buy a UV Sterilizer? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am fairly new to saltwater and I cant stand to see any of my fish like this. Here is a picture just to make sure that what I am looking at is Ick.

JWHITESP88 · Apr 11, 2015

Sorry I tried to attach the Picture and I dont know what happened.

4FordFamily · Apr 11, 2015

Yeah looks like ich. There's ten thousand ways to take care of the issues. On forums everyone is a proponent of removing all of your fish and quarantining them (hospital tank at this point) and treating them with cupramine, cp, tank transfer method, etc. I personally don't worry about it because only my new fish show ich on occasion the resident fish survive and thrive. This is not the norm though, it requires much experience and great water parameters and a stable tank.

JWHITESP88 · Apr 11, 2015

Do you think that a UV steralizer is neccessary?

4FordFamily · Apr 11, 2015

No. Not at all. It also is borderline impossible to see one up for the proper flow considering the sump flow and all relevant factors. I have a small one on one of my tanks but by no means do I feel it does much. It would not cure ich even is assembled and matched perfectly anyhow.

Flame angels are far more difficult than many will admit. I consider them nearly as difficult as potters angels. I have one currently who's thriving and I've had a couple others live for a few years at a time but they're one of the first to go in an incident and don't handle tank moves (literally moving from one house to another and moving tanks - or transport) well at all. They have very high oxygen needs and are the first to go in power outages when low 02 happens quickly.

Humblefish · Apr 11, 2015

Look like ich to me as well. Just to be sure, the white spots are on the body as well as the fins, correct?

JWHITESP88 · Apr 11, 2015

there are a couple on the body but most are on the fins. I am thinking about taking the angel to my LFS and seeing if they will work with me. I have had a really hard time making it happy for some reason. everything was fine until he came along. I just hope that its doesnt take over my whole tank and the other fish get it as well.

Humblefish · Apr 11, 2015

jdwhite807 said:
there are a couple on the body but most are on the fins. I am thinking about taking the angel to my LFS and seeing if they will work with me. I have had a really hard time making it happy for some reason. everything was fine until he came along. I just hope that its doesnt take over my whole tank and the other fish get it as well.

If the angel has ich, it is now present in your DT and will eventually spread to all of the other fish: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-diagnosis/188770-understanding-ich.html

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fi...188775-ich-eradication-vs-ich-management.html

4FordFamily · Apr 12, 2015

I Agree the tank now has ich. That being said, some fish will battle it and show great resistance to it and thrive. Other times it will wipe out your tank. It's a gamble and depends a lot on how long your tank has been established, your water parameters, if they've been exposed before, how stable the params are, and what you feed your fish.

Dan1789 · Apr 12, 2015

Go to your LFS and buy black worms. Feed that to your fish. It's not a cure but it will sure help their immune sysytems. Paul B swears by it, and I'd trust a guy with that much experience. Working out of town and dealing with this is going to be tough (happened to me). You might lose some fish, you might not. But when you get time off you will have to deal with it one way or another.

glb · Apr 12, 2015

My 12g tank has no fish now after my clownfish died over night after looking like he got the ich. How long should I keep the tank fallow to make sure its lifecycle is over?

Louie661 · Apr 12, 2015

Ginger root powder. Thaw out about 5 to 6 squares of mysis shrimp, mix mysis, ginger and some garlic solution freeze in a zip lock bag and start feeding it twice a day.
I know it sounds funny but something in the ginger helps boost their immune system. This was a recommendation from one of my LFS so I went home and tried it on a few tangs that were in worse shape then your angel and with in a couple days I noticed it was working. Both tangs survived and are still with me a year later. Good luck!!.

Reefing Madness · Apr 12, 2015

If the fish is eating and active, I'd leave em alone. The less stress you put on them at this point, the better.
In the display, use Ich Attack.
If you can get him into a QT tank, then I'd use Hypo
3rd attack on Ich would be Copper Treatment, in QT.

Dan1789 · Apr 12, 2015

glb said:
My 12g tank has no fish now after my clownfish died over night after looking like he got the ich. How long should I keep the tank fallow to make sure its lifecycle is over?

I would do 12 weeks

ifarmer · Apr 12, 2015

The only proven methods that work are
1. Treating with copper in an isolated tank for a.few.weeks
2. Hyposalinity

I dont believe any of those ick medicine that they sell would work.

Sometimes it expensive to run a qt or hospital tank. To me if a fish is inexpensive, i usually give it back to the store for free and not bother to deal with it.

blazn · Apr 14, 2015

A tank should be left fallow (no fish) for 72 days in order to break the ich life cycle

Humblefish · Apr 14, 2015

blazn said:
A tank should be left fallow (no fish) for 72 days in order to break the ich life cycle

+1 I agree

JWHITESP88 · Apr 14, 2015

I lost the angel, dottyback, and chronic. I handed my two clown fish over to the LFS and he was gonna nurse them being I'm not home and can't set up a QT. I'm gonna leave the tank fallow for the 12 weeks suggested. Do I need to remove my snail clean up crew? Are my corals fine left in the tank?

Paul B · Apr 14, 2015

Go to your LFS and buy black worms. Feed that to your fish. It's not a cure but it will sure help their immune sysytems.

True, but to late for that fish which needs to be cured in copper. It should have been fed correctly "before" it got ich

Waynel333 · Apr 14, 2015

jdwhite807 said:
I lost the angel, dottyback, and chronic. I handed my two clown fish over to the LFS and he was gonna nurse them being I'm not home and can't set up a QT. I'm gonna leave the tank fallow for the 12 weeks suggested. Do I need to remove my snail clean up crew? Are my corals fine left in the tank?

I'm sorry for your losses. You can leave everything else in there for the fallow period, just make sure no fish. Once your fallow period is over, you will need to adopt a proper qt protocol like ttm, or you will get ich in your DT all over again. Good luck!