Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans)

[Chris Palm]

Guess it was the trigger that split my royal gramma in half as well. Found my Goby who was also in the TTM treatment like this just now. I am gonna put my clowns in the 20 gallon and treat them separately. Don't want to risk my Maroon as he's been with me the longest out of all my fish. Or do you guys think that the Maroon is large and aggressive enough to hold its own?

 

[Humblefish]

How big is the maroon? Your clown trigger appears to be starting his evil ways early on in life. I've had a few of them, but always have to rehome them to the aquarium once they get too big and start going on a murderous rampage.

 

[Chris Palm]

I'd say my Maroon is about 2 inches and the trigger is maybe 3. It's larger than the Maroon. Yes it seems that way. The Goby looks just like the Royal Gramma did. I also had a Naso Tang in there that died. But I assumed it was the ick as there were no visible marks on it. I am going to keep him all by myself in the 90 gallon once I complete the TTM. Can you recommend any suitable tankmates? I could catch some sergaent majors or damsels.

 

[Humblefish]

I'd say my Maroon is about 2 inches and the trigger is maybe 3. It's larger than the Maroon. Yes it seems that way. The Goby looks just like the Royal Gramma did. I also had a Naso Tang in there that died. But I assumed it was the ick as there were no visible marks on it. I am going to keep him all by myself in the 90 gallon once I complete the TTM. Can you recommend any suitable tankmates? I could catch some sergaent majors or damsels.

Sergeants majors are pretty tough and can outrun a trigger if need be. You're gonna have to house him with fish capable of defending themselves and even then it's not 100% certain he won't fight with them (usually over food.) I've had some luck housing them with groupers, eels, puffers, hogfish. I read somewhere that someone had housed their Clown Trigger peacefully with a Harlequin Tusk for going on 6 years now. You can also try a lionfish, but sometimes a trigger will nip at their fins.

 

[Chris Palm]

Ok thanks for the tips. Angel fish or tangs would not be recommended ? I can also get a blue caribbean tang or a french angel. Or a few types of caribbean wrasses. All these fish are abundant off the coast. I've had a lionfish for 6 months but ultimately gave him up because he wouldnt eat frozen foods. He would only eat live fish. At one point he went 2 months without eating and still would not eat frozen foods.

 

[Smite]

That's what I use is Copper Power, love it.

What test kit are you using? I got the API kit but with the color indicator jumping from 2 to 4 I feel it's still somewhat of a guessing game with copper power suggesting 2.5

I look to be just light of 2 now and the wrasses are unphased. Unfortunately I lost the white tail. He absolutely exploded with ich/ possibly velvet and was dead in 24 hours. Makes me thankful I pulled them when I did, as that appeared more like velvet.

 

[Humblefish]

Ok thanks for the tips. Angel fish or tangs would not be recommended ? I can also get a blue caribbean tang or a french angel. Or a few types of caribbean wrasses. All these fish are abundant off the coast. I've had a lionfish for 6 months but ultimately gave him up because he wouldnt eat frozen foods. He would only eat live fish. At one point he went 2 months without eating and still would not eat frozen foods.

I've tried angels/tangs with a Clown Trigger before (for a client) with mixed results. The problem is that trigger has some nasty teeth and they will go into these feeding frenzies sometimes, biting at anything that stands between them & food. I start noticing cuts/wounds on some of the other fish at first, and then it turned into chunks/gouges/missing eyeballs as he grew. A Clown Trigger is the pit bull of the fish world.

As far as lionfish go, did you try feeding a dead fish on a stick? Wiggling it around a little to make it seem like the fish was still alive? And then switching over to something else?

 

[reynaldoramon]

This is gonna be random. Soon I'm going to start copper treatment on a tang, two clowns, and a firefish. They're all in my DT. Tang is showing ich. I wanted to use a seeded a sponge by putting it in my hob filter from my sump, or start with half fresh water and half tank water. If I'm going to treat this water with copper is that ok? I only ask because I know we want to keep qt clean as can be... but if we will be killing ich with Cu treatment, does it really matter if I use DT water or a sponge that was in infected water?

 

[reynaldoramon]

I also want to use a spare heater I have in my sump in the qt I'll be treating with Cu.

 

[Humblefish]

@reynaldoramon In your particular situation (infected DT), I would probably opt to start with a "clean" QT, and just seed the sponge using one of those "bacteria in a bottle" products like Bio-spira or Seachem Stability. The fish will benefit from getting away from any free swimming theronts until the copper kicks in and does its job. Don't get me wrong, you can do it the way you described - it's just not how I would do it.

As far as the heater goes, wipe it down with a paper towel soaked in vinegar and rinse before putting it in your QT.

 

[reynaldoramon]

Sounds good. I was planning on using bacteria in a bottle, but thought I'd entertainment the DT water supplimenti. Thanks for the feed back.

 

[Chris Palm]

@Humblefish. Haha a pitbul indeed it is. I tried feeding the lionfish dead fish. Not on a stick though. Once it bit on a dead fish that was twirling around because of the flow, but once in his mouth, he spit it out after a while. I'm not sure if it was too big, or he just didn't want to eat fish that was already dead.

 

[Chris Palm]

So this morning I transferred the clownfish to a separate 20 gallon tank. All fish seem to be doing great except for the Maroon. Since yesterday evening it has been keeping to itself in the corner of the 36g bow. At first I thought that it felt the threat of the trigger was getting imminent, but since it's been in the 20g, it's been show the same behavior. This in contrast to roaming the whole bucket/tank since the start of the TTM. It's not eating pellets anymore, but I tried flakes and it ate some. It never really liked pellets, but it used to try to eat them until this morning. It always preferred flakes. Yesterday it was even nibbling on the murdered Goby. Any ideas? It doesn't show any visible signs of disease. Maybe the stress of the transfers and the trigger?

 

[Humblefish]

Any ideas? It doesn't show any visible signs of disease. Maybe the stress of the transfers and the trigger?

Stress would be my best guess right now. So long as it is eating something, you should be OK. Once a fish stops eating, that's when you know you are in trouble.

 

[Chris Palm]

Ok thanks! I'll keep a close eye on it!

 

[reynaldoramon]

So put my fish in QT last night. Only dose quarter of copper. Taking it slow. I have 2 clown, 1 firefish, and a tomini tang. Tang has signs of ich. So I just came home, and my tomini has black spots on his dorsal fin. He ate some. Any one have a clue as to what's wrong? Ammonia badge says safe range.

 

[reynaldoramon]

Here are photos of it. No one else has a spot on them.

 

[Humblefish]

@reynaldoramon Very likely the beginnings of a secondary bacterial infection, which is quite common in fish with a preexisting parasitic infestation such as ich. I would add a broad spectrum antibiotic (exs. Kanaplex, Furan-2) to the mix. Or you can combine Kanaplex, Furan-2 and Metroplex for a very powerful antibiotic cocktail.

 

[reynaldoramon]

Thanks Humblefish. I'll pick something up tomorrow morning. PetSmart doesn't have best selection of these kinds of stuff.

 

[reynaldoramon]

@reynaldoramon Very likely the beginnings of a secondary bacterial infection, which is quite common in fish with a preexisting parasitic infestation such as ich. I would add a broad spectrum antibiotic (exs. Kanaplex, Furan-2) to the mix. Or you can combine Kanaplex, Furan-2 and Metroplex for a very powerful antibiotic cocktail.

Is metroplex one of the ones that they eat? Or does it dissolve in the water?