Ich Whipe out

[Ashna]

i reciently upgraded from a 14 gallon bio cube to a 50 gallon tank. i got a little antsy and put to many fish in at once :(.i orgianlly had 2 clown fish, which were the first 2 fish i bought. then a added a blue tang, fairy wrasse, a black and white eel looking thing, emrald crab, cleaner shrimp, and 2 black fish with white tails. sorry dont remember the names of any of them. i slowly lost one fish at a time. they all died, except my larger clown fish (merlin). i brough a sample of my water into the petstore i buy fish from. he said it was ich. i treated for ich right away and after about 2 weeks merlind died. (didnt treat for 2 weeks) i left my tank cycle for 2 weeks like the petstore advised me to do before putting anymore fish in the tank. i just bought a Royal gramma and all he does it hide. im worried that hes got Ich now. i know there little white spots but he never stays still long enough for me to get a look at him. he is eating properly (this is the only time i see him not in the rock) but any suggestions on what i should or shouldnt do?

 

[BL1]

I don't think there's a way for the pet store to test your water for ich. What most likely happened was that adding so many fish caused your tank to start a cycle, a cycle can be deadly to fish on it's own but in their weakened state they probably caught the ich. Unfortunately the store lied to you, you'll need to keep your tank empty of fish for 8+ weeks to rid it of ich. But even then you'd need to treat every fish before you add them to your tank to ensure it stays ich free. Also do you have water test kits? If not you really should invest in them because the LFS tests can not always be relied on.

 

[Ashna]

yeah i have a test kit and i test my water weekly. thats one thing i've never had problems with. and i do have a fish in there now cause i was told 2 weeks, ROyal gramma. what should i do to keep him alive. how do you treat them b4 they go into my tank. i dont have a quarntine tank

 

[BL1]

The only way to treat them would be in a QT tank. You don't need an actual tank to do it though, many people have used rubbermaid containers instead. If your fish seems ok and is eating then you'll probably be ok. Most people including myself always have ich in their tank and as long as the fish stay healthy and stress-free they'll never show signs of the parasite. Just out of curiosity when was the last time you tested your water and what were the results?

 

[BL1]

Here are a couple of threads about ich and it's treatment:

https://www.livingreefs.com/oh-no-have-ich-do-do-t30950.html

https://www.livingreefs.com/hyposalinity-treatment-ich-t29672.html

https://www.livingreefs.com/copper-101-a-t29680.html

 

[Bifferwine]

There's no way for the fish store to tell it was ich by checking your water.

The tell tale sign of ich is white spots covering the fish's body. It's a very obvious and noticeable disease, if that's what killed your fish. Did you see white spots on any of your fish?

I am more inclined to agree with the others here that it wasn't ich that killed your fish, it was overstocking, and stocking too fast. A good rule of thumb to follow is add no more than 1 fish every 3 weeks to a tank, with 1 fish per 10 gallons. So 5 fish total in a 50 gallon.

If it was ich, the tank has to be left empty for 8 weeks (not 2) to kill off the remaining ich. If it wasn't left empty, then any fish you have in the tank still have ich. Usually this is not a big deal. If the fish are not stressed, eating, and your water quality is good, they won't be impacted by it.

 

[wontonflip]

+1 everyone

Sorry to hear of your losses. There's no real short cuts to this hobby, as you've seen. Take your time, and definitely do your research. I think you knew you went too fast ;)

For starters, tangs are ich magnets to begin with. And there's no way that blue tang would have been happy in the 50g...they need much larger tanks (which is why I upgraded from a 45g to a 125g for the sole purpose of getting a tang LOL )

There will be lots of people here to give you lots of useful advice...so definitely take advantage of it and ask away so you don't waste your money. With a few exceptions, most of the lfs are in the business of making money. I trusted my lfs for the most part, but in the end, I still have to have done at least my basic research so I know what to ask them.

Take your time! It will pay off in the end :)

 

[cthegame]

+1 all of the above

 

[Ashna]

oh i knew i went to fast soon as i had everything in the tank i was like oh crap im an idiot! and with in 2 weeks i literatly flushed 300$ down my toilet. it pretty much boiled down to no being able to pick just one lol. are there any signs of tellng that my fish is natually fighting ich because i was hoping to get a fish on friday lol although i know i shouldnt but i really miss merlin (Clown) and i want another one.

 

[Ashna]

Bifferwine,
i didnt notice on any fish except one. but then again i didnt look bcuz as sad as this might sound i would have cryed. my hubby is the dead fish scooper man lol. but when Merlin, (clown fish) i sat infront of my tank one day and i look at him and he looked rough looking with a few white spots on him. he survived the longest. i dont know how to explain how he looked very well so bare with me. most fish kinda look slimy/shiney Merlin didnt look right, it was all over him his scaled were all gross. but now im almost thinking maybe it wasnt ich

 

[wontonflip]

If it was ich, bad news...at this point, ich is in your tank. If you don't want to throw another $300 down the drain, you can get rid of the ich by leaving it fallow (fishless) for a couple of months.

I hope you did NOT treat your tank with any meds, especially copper. If you did, you will not be able to have any inverts in that tank. It would already be in your sand/rocks/the tank's silicone seal. Usually when people treat fish for diseases, they do it in a quarantine tank.

The other way too possibly get rid of ich would be to lower your salinity very fast to 1.009, adn leave it like that for a few weeks. As you can see, there is no short cut.

You can rush in again and put a fish in now...and just hope that he doesn't get stressed...because as soon as you put him in, he will have ich. Most of us do not quarantine our fish, but we try to keep everyone healthy so they can fight it off on their own.

Just stay away from tangs. Your tank is too small for any type of tang, and it will just be a waste of money.

At least you knew you made a mistake rushing, and hopefully you'll have more patience :D

 

[Ashna]

i didnt use anything metalic bcuz i googled my shrimpy and it said that he cant handle it so i used paragaurd instead which is suposed to be used with inveribrates.