WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING?

[garra671]

this is my tank stock as of this morning.

1x yellow tang
1x phantom clown
1x scooter blenny
1x goby
1x melanarus wrasse
1x tridacna clam
12x assorted corals (none of them dying)

i bought 3 anthias 1 male and 2 females about 2 weeks ago, day before yesterday my male anthia died.. i believe it was due to ich he had white spots on him that i had just noticed the day previous to his death and he had not been eating. But now this morning both of my female anthias have died.... whats going on? neither of the females had symptoms of ich and were feeding last night.

ALSO my yellow tang was becoming infested with ich and he was beginning to have a bloody streak down his dorsal fin, i fed the tank pellets soaked in garlic mixed water and he looks 1000% better already, the ich is gone on him and the streak is near gone as well. could the garlic have killed the anthias? it was frozen cubes of garlic that you buy at safeway i had nothing else i could of used and my yellow tang is my prized fish as well i dont have a QT right now so thats not really an option.

please when you reply focus on the death of the anthias, i already helped my yellow tang but i need to know if there is anything that could have caused just my anthias to all die.

 

[WVReefJunkie]

I have heard that anthias have a hard time digesting with their stomachs. I don't know for sure if this is a fact or myth. I know they are a deeper water specimen. I have two males in my 220 with no problems. If you see ich cyst on their bodies, let's assume all fish are infected.

 

[garra671]

I have heard that anthias have a hard time digesting with their stomachs. I don't know for sure if this is a fact or myth. I know they are a deeper water specimen. I have two males in my 220 with no problems. If you see ich cyst on their bodies, let's assume all fish are infected.

Even if they all were infected I started feeding the garlic as soon as I noticed why would it just kill my anthias?

 

[Sabellafella]

What type of anthias?

 

[garra671]

What type of anthias?

bicolor

 

[Sabellafella]

Were they eating since you got them? Also marine velvet can kill a fish overnight maybe look into that

 

[garra671]

What type of anthias?

 

[garra671]

Were they eating since you got them? Also marine velvet can kill a fish overnight maybe look into that

the male always hid since i had gotten it but would eat. and the females were eating last night and both dead this morning

 

[Sabellafella]

The males stumic unfortunately looks to be skin and bones, majority of the anthias do poor with shipping (by getting real real skinny) and then once acclimated they refuse to eat. Also it may look like the anthias are eating but often spit the food out and are real picky on the food partical size. If they had whitespots and died over night, it has to be velvet. If it had a white slothy skin it would be brook that could also kill over night. Ich IMO is really not that deadly and fish recover well from treatment. The one major priority is identifying the sickness and treating your other fish. If your going to add more fish there juss going to get sick and die, trust me theres nothing more i hate then having to lift 2 130 pound rock structures out of my dt tank to go fallow and treat so i qt for now on, my qt is also a frag tank but if i have to take them out and medicate i will. Btw i use garlic once or twice a week. It doesnt cure disease but fish can also get an immunity to disease with or without garlic. Vitamins is your best bet for long term health. (edit according to fellow reefers the anthias that hide usually windup not making it but ive had evansi and tuka males hide and be shy for a long long time before they got comfortable nd came out)

 

[Pepcrylic]

Any time you add new fish to the DT without first placing them in a QT tank you run the risk of death. Not only to the new fish but also to the fish in the tank.

 

[Broadfield]

Those are Bimaculatus fwiw, not Bicolor. IME, and as Sabellafella noted, Anathias can be very difficult fish to have shipped and acclimate. Most of my LFS will not even bring Anthias in for this very reason. Ironically, the only LFS in my area that has them from time-to-time is Petco lol.

I have 10 Anthias at the moment and it took me quite a while to build this group. I use a 2+ hour acclimation procedure that has not failed me yet.

• Float bag for 2o minutes.
• Pour contents of bag into bucket and drip acclimate for 30 minutes with heater.
• Pour 1 gallon of tank water into a 2nd bucket and use 1 packet of Safety Stop Green. Add air stone and heater.
• Net fish from drip bucket into "green" bucket. Set timer for 45 minutes.
• Pour 1 gallon of tank water into a 3rd bucket and use 1 packet of Safety Stop Blue. Move air stone and heater over from "green" bucket.
• Net fish from green bucket and transfer to "blue" bucket. Set timer for 45 minutes again.
• Net fish from "blue" bucket into QT or DT... depending on your method of introducing new fish.

 

[Rybren]

Just a couple of quick notes:

Garlic will do absolutely nothing to cure ich.
If any of your fish had ich, then you can be absolutely certain that ich is still in your tank and all of your fish have the potential to succumb to it.
Depending on the health of your fish, you may get lucky and they may survive.
At this point, the only way to ensure that your tank is ich free is to remove all fish and let the tank lie fallow for at least 72 days. The fish will need to be treated for ich (and cured) before returning them to the DT after the fallow period.
Your fish may have had something other than ich.

Good luck.

 

[Jimbo662]

Where did you get the Anthias from?

 

[garra671]

Where did you get the Anthias from?

a fish store? aquatic collection in the bay area.

 

[garra671]

Just a couple of quick notes:

Garlic will do absolutely nothing to cure ich.
If any of your fish had ich, then you can be absolutely certain that ich is still in your tank and all of your fish have the potential to succumb to it.
Depending on the health of your fish, you may get lucky and they may survive.
At this point, the only way to ensure that your tank is ich free is to remove all fish and let the tank lie fallow for at least 72 days. The fish will need to be treated for ich (and cured) before returning them to the DT after the fallow period.
Your fish may have had something other than ich.

Good luck.

its impossible for me to put all the fish into a QT tank and my DT is filled with corals. has anyone heard or used this? its supposed to be reef safe ich treatment http://www.marinedepot.com/Ruby_Ree...e_Medications-Ruby_Reef-RR1111-FIMEPS-vi.html

 

[cmcoker]

There is no effective in tank treatment for ich

 

[melypr1985]

So I like everything you have been told so far. I think that picture of the male- It could be velvet, because the spots are many and look much smaller than ich. I'm not saying that's what happened, but that it looks possible. Anthias are difficult fish. My LFS also doesn't like getting them in because they tend to die the next day no matter what we do for them. Best bet is they died for the same reason all the others I've seen die....because they are anthias. If I were you, I would purchase a QT at petco for a $1/gallon and get that up and running for your next fish. Good luck!

 

[bknapp]

Garlic doesn't cure ich. That myth needs to die.

You need to understand the life cycle of ich.

As mentioned previously it's best to assume all fish have ich if one shows signs. And ich doesn't always show signs.

Starting a strict QT protocol and leaving your DT fallow for at least 72 days is your best bet.

 

[Cory]

Fwiw i killed all the ich/ whatever it was with a saltwater h202 bath.

My black clownfish had been covered in ich to the point where it was going to die. I had to do something. All other fish were fine. Except the black percula.

Treatment:

1) capture fish
2) put in a glass of water 1 liter or so
3) get 5ml of hydrogen peroxide and put it into the water with the fish in it.
4) let fish bathe in this for 30 minutes.
5) put fish back in tank.
6) discard water
7) check all parameters in tank and get them corrected.

The next morning the fish was eating and had a 70% reduction of the parasite. It would have died without this treatment. 3 days later nothing on the fish.

 

[bknapp]

No, just no. Not trying to be rude here but that's terrible advice.

There are only two 100% effective and proven ways to kill ich. Copper treatment and TTM.

And even if h2o2 killed the parasite it's still alive and active in the tank. Period.