Ich treatment

[jlr136]

I bought 2 fish from PETCO and the next day one was dead and the other was on the way. Went back to the store and they said there was nothing they could do. Went to the tank were they were taking from and all the fish in the tanks had ich. So they sold me sick fish but their was nothing they can do so I have to take the loss. PLEASE PLEASE dont buy your fish from petco. Anyway here is my actual question now that all my other fish have ich I bought a product called Kick Ick because I was told that it was good for Ich and safe to use with live rock and inverts. Does anyone have any expirence with this product to give me some feedback. Or other sugestions for treating ich. I dont have a seperate tank so I can take the inverts out. Anything is helpful. Thanks

[Bifferwine]

First some questions: What kind of fish were they? What other animals do you have in your tank (fish and inverts)? What are your water parameters? How long has your tank been running? How big is the tank? What kind of equipment do you have? Your answers will give us a better idea about what's going on.

Petco fish are notoriously unhealthy. Of all the fish I have bought from my local saltwater store, not one has ever died on me. Of the fish I bought from Petco (when I started stocking my tank), only one survived. A girl that used to work at Petco that now works at my LFS said it was not uncommon for less than 15% of their animals to arrive alive as the distributor they get their animals from was of very poor quality and that's why Petco can sell the animals at the price they do.

[jlr136]

It was a Percula Clown fish and a butterfly fish. the water parameters are fine. The tank has been running for a month. It is a 95 gallon wave and I have a Cascade 1500 canister filter. I have 3 anemones, 2 snails, 1 starfish, 2 Damsels, 1 Yellow tang(small), 1 Hippo tang(small) and 1 Copperband Butterfly(small) and I have a seaclone protein skimmer and a couple of pounds of live rock.

[Bifferwine]

Fish can usually recover from ich by themselves. It is a natural thing and stress will bring it out in fish; however ich is believed to always be present in your tank. If it gets really bad, you can try medications, although in my opinion, most of them are not always effective, unfortunately. I think that several factors may have contributed to the stress and death of your fish:

You are stocking a new tank way too fast with too many animals. You should add one fish, wait a couple weeks to make sure it's healthy and that the tank can handle the added bioload, then add another.

What kinds of lights do you have? Anemones need at least 8 watts per gallon, or they will not survive. If your anemones are sick or dying because of insufficient lighting that can make your tank go downhill fast.

Butterfly fish are generally difficult to keep and do not live long if you cannot provide them with a well established mature tank to live in. Hippo tangs are also considered very difficult to keep as they are extremely susceptible to ich and seem to get sick if even slightly stressed. You have chosen some challenging fish to keep in a very new tank, so they probably will not do very well. The damsels and clowns are good, hardy fish and are not as susceptible to illness, and I'd say they have a very good shot of recovering from ich.

You can try treating the fish, but medication will surely be bad for the anemones and the inverts, who are very sensitive. A quarantine tank is always a good idea so that you can keep fish separate for a while before adding them to the main tank, and if one gets sick you can remove it and treat it separately without adding medicine to the whole tank.

I think that if you try to improve the conditions in the tank, you may have a shot at beating the ich. First, you want a lot more live rock. 2 lbs of live rock per gallon is generally recommended -- this aids in filtering the tank. Keep in mind, uncured rock will only worsen your water conditions and curing rock can take a long time! You have a pretty big tank and rock is very expensive, but more live rock will definitely improve your water conditions in the long run, not to mention provide a better habitat for the animals.

And the Sea Clone is the worst skimmer out there. If you are going to be keeping inverts (especially anemones) you will definitely need to upgrade.

I hope I can help, I'm sorry I don't have better news for you . The most important virtue to have in this hobby is patience and if you rush things, your tank will easily and very quickly crash. We've all made these mistakes and the best thing is we learn from them! So don't take it too hard, just take it more slow from now on and research the equipment and especially the animals before you buy them!

Be sure to keep us posted on how things go... I wish you the best!

[bobby]

I have bought several fish from petco and havnt had a prob yet. When buying from a chain store you have to watch the fish carefully. All petco's are different most are bad but some are good. Your best bet for treating ick is to do it in a qt tank, you should have one of these set up and use it anytime you buy a fish. I cant say much though I dont have one yet. I dont know anthing about that medication, sorry. From reading your stats I think you added the anemones and copperband too soon, also you should upgrade the skimmer, I started out with that skimmer and it didnt take long to upgrade. The tang will get to big for your tank they reach a length of 14 inches and need a min tank size of 110 gal. Another thing you might want to add is more live rock.

[jlr136]

What kind of protein skimmer do you all recommend?

[bobby]

Do you have a sump? If you do a in sump model is your best bet.

[bobby]

If you dont have a sump go with the aqua c remora or the coralife super skimmer 220.

[Bifferwine]

Aqua C Remora Pro

[jhnrb]

At this point do not add any more animals or corals to your your system. Your system is not matured enough to handle the bio load you currently have. You said your water parameters are fine. I would be curious for you to post your Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, calcium, Magnesium, Ph, alkalinity, dkh, Iodine, salinity, and temperature. Also what salt do you use. If you do not have a protein skimmer, what is your water top off and water change schedule and what kind of water do you use. With the above information you can then receive a lot more precise help here. Keep us posted on your progress and do not add any more animals until you can keep everything alive without any losses for at least 4 months. (Tip-patients is rewarding long term).thanks for the post. good luck.