Fish Have ICh i have a question !!!

Ok so some of my fish have ben dying from the ich, i have another post on how all that happen, anyways my question is. If i have some fish that survive the ich and then dont have any signs of ich, will the ich in the tank still die out in a couple months with out adding any new fish ???

 

Nope. Your fish will continue to live with ich and just not show signs of it if they are healthy and unstressed. But the ich will remain in your system. Unless you actively treat all fish in quarantine before adding them to your system, and leave your tank fallow for months, you will have ich. That said, virually all of us have ich and we do our best to keep our fish unstressed so that they remain healthy despite living with ich.

 

So should i just remove my fish into a quarentine tank and treat them with cooper and then wait a copuple months for the ich to die out then reintraduce them to my tank ?

 

Why put your fish through the stress and uncertainty of treatment when you can control ich and keep your fish healthy by keeping them unstressed instead? I think several people recommended not quarantining/treating in your other thread but instead controlling stress to keep them healthy?

Here are all of the reasons I can think of to *not* quarantine and treat:

* Trying to catch a fish to quarantine and treat it is very stressful in itself;
* Some fish are quite sensitive to copper and won't make it through treatment;
* Even fish that aren't sensitive to copper might not make it through treatment;
* Both copper and hyposalinity treatments are challenging and I personally wouldn't try my hand at them as a new aquarist;
* Setting up a quarantine and treatment tank can be expensive;
* You have to quarantine and treat every new fish you buy and leave them in the quarantine tank for 2 months prior to adding them to your display tank, or they will just reintroduce ich to the rest of your fish
* You still have to keep your water parameters in good condition and keep your fish unstressed in order for them to live regardless of whether you treated for ich or not

What's the upside to treating them?

 

There is an upside, and that is that you never have to deal with ich ever again.

But is it worth it? I don't think so, but that's just my personal opinion. Some people have lost entire tanks full of livestock due to this parasite, and they do not want to go through that again, and that's completely understandable. I have never dealt with ich so severe that it killed more than the one sick fish (and I've only lost one fish to ich, ever, and it was a powder brown tang). So to me, with all the fish I've kept, it isn't worth it. But like you said, treating for and preventing ich doesn't mean you can slack off when it comes to water quality, overstocking, aggressiveness, etc. If you keep your fish happy and healthy, they will live ich free. To me, that's easier to do than treating every fish. But, that takes work and you can't get lazy about it. If you get lazy, something else besides ich will kill your fish.

 

Ok so what els can i do to keep my fish strees free ??? my ammonia is at 0 and so are my nitrites, my nitrates are at about 15 ppm. i have a 140 lb live rock and 70lb live sand. What can i do other than that to make them not be streesed out if thats the case ??

I just installed a protein skimmer the other day should i wait for that to hopefully bring down the nitrates more ??? or should i keep treating with the ich attack even do that says to turn of the protein skimmer.

 

Feed high quality foods and regular water changes....oh and no putting fish that will bully them :mrgreen:

 

So do i keep Treating with the ich attack or do i just stop and turn back on my protein skimmer ????

 

The Ich Attack is doing nothing for the ich. Several people have pointed that out, and several people tried to discourage you from using it in the first place (myself included). I would not have even started with the Ich Attack -- it's a waste of money and doesn't work. Copper and hyposalinity are the ONLY two effective methods of killing ich.

 

Trust me im reaserching everywhere. Thays why i went with the ich attack in the first place. Somepeople said it worked.

But anyways. So i should keep doing 35glthis water changes 1 time a week. I should feed the fish regular 1 time one day and 2 times everyother day. I should turn on my protein skimmer and orey for a miracle

 

You should be doing 10% to 20% once a week -- so 12 to 25 gallons. I think it'd be fine to cut back and do less water than you are doing right now. Turn on your protein skimmer and let it run.

You can feed the fish once a day. Two times a day (every other day) isn't necessary.

Be careful of taking advice from people that are selling you stuff.

 

Also, give your fish a chance to heal. It is going to take them time to recover and regain their health, especially since you've recently removed the 2 tangs and lost the 2 butterflies. You only have the clowns and b/w heniochus now, right? Give them time and keep them eating good food. What are you feeding, by the way?

 

I googled Ich Attack. The first three forum thread results that came up:

ich . attack?

ICH-ATTACK...how good is it???

Kordon Ich Attack - FNG - The Reef Tank

If you take a look at any articles online about ich, they repeat over and over that the only two treatment methods that work are copper and hyposalinity. You can find that info all over the web, and on all the forums.

 

Usually i look on google for stuff then on youtube to see what people on there have used. But ok guys im just a little on the jumpy side when it come to trying stuff. Couse i do t want to quit and im getting to that point. Ok well maybe im changing to much water? ?? And yeah i have the 2Skinner clowns left thays it actually the henipcus died today also .

Im feeding them frozen mysis. And marine fusion. By h20 life and also was giving the nori but now i have no tangs so i do t think i need yhat any more. For a bit. But ueah i feed on monday onse and tuesday twice and wensday onece and so on

 

You are right, you don't need to feed nori. The frozen mysis and Marine Fusion will be fine for the clowns. Once a day is fine for them too -- just a little bit of food.

When you get jumpy and just do things without patience and proper research first, more often than not it leads to worse consequences than if you had just taken time and sat on a decision for a little bit... I am completely impulsive like that too. And I've made some bad decisions because of my impulsivity because I think "I have to do something NOW!!"

Just sit tight with the two clowns for now. They are very easy, hardy fish to keep. If anyone can survive what your tank is going through, it's a pair of clowns!

You are not changing too much water, in that changing that much won't hurt anything. It's just not necessary and is only making things more difficult for you.

 

So yhen.i should only do about 20 gl every week or every 2 weeks. I see people say they do water changes every other week and some say every 3 weeks ( i figured thays o e a more established tank.
So should i just do 20glthe evry week or do 35gl every other week?

 

Every week. I like to do it once a week. Might just be a touch of ocd, but i like to keep it clean and as poop free as i can make it.

After your tank has been set up a while you may not have to change water as much, but even then once a month seems to me like too little.

Some tank have been set up to only need dosing, and never have had a water change. But those tanks were specially set up for that purpose. How, i have no clue.