Lost My Sailfin !!!

[Civicdemon]

Ok Guy for those that have ready before i added a Atlantic Blue tang to my tank and he was good for the first couple days and then turned evil picking on everyone. a couple of my fish broke out with Ich and i pulled the ABT. Anyhow all the fish looked like they where recovering good no more spots or anything then about 2 days or so ago i noticed my sailfin was not eating as good. Today he did not eat at all and by the end of this night about an houor ago he was dead. :( Por little guy him and my yellow tang where best buds.

Ok well heres my question, i know i have had ich in my system since the longest. But any how i know theres provably alot of free swimming ich in there at the moment so im going to wait atleast a couple month for that to stop. I know it will still be in my system but atleast this way it wont be as much swimming around and hopefully everything gets to be stress free.

But do you guys think i should add some sort of ich treatment thats reef safe to kill the free swimming stuff ??? Before i attemp another sailfin or tang of any kind ??? I know i dont want to add one now since the ich is provably muliplying at the momment. My other fish look really good and fat still so i know they will be fine.

 

[Greenman]

if you can stand to wait and stay away from chem. I would... I think safest way to do that is change salinity but I know crustations and corals cannot handle that. but chemicles can cause more problems than it fixes.

 

[salt_for_brains]

Sorry for your loss. There is no chemical I know of that is proven to kill ich in a reef tank without killing all your inverts. Lowering salinity is also not an option with inverts as Greenman pointed out. The only thing I know you can do is to run your tank fallow for a couple months then you will have to quarantine every fish you introduce. A lot of us live with ich in our tanks and since you had the stress with the ABT it set it off. Good luck!

 

[Civicdemon]

Im not trying to kill of the ich. Just wanting to get rid of most of the free swimming ich so there aint as much.in.the water before i try and add another fish. I know if my fish get healthy again they can fight it of and new ich wont attach to them so it will die off in the water colum. So im just trying to figure how long i should wait or if i should treat.

 

[Steveg229]

I am going thru the same thing....ich has been gone for several weeks after all of my fish got it. I lost my kole tang, but all others have recovered and are back to 100%. I am almost scared to buy more fish now... Should we wait? is there any benefit from waiting any specific length of time?

 

[Civicdemon]

To be honest this happened to me before and all i had left where fire fish. I added a kole and lost him with in a week. So then i waited 2 months and added my yellow tang and sailfin toghetjer and they where fine for a long time untill recently that i added the atlantic blue who became a menace. So believe it does make a difrence since your fish are healthy the ich wont attach again and eventually die out in the water or atleast really reduce in numbers. My other fish all look better now and are eating like crazy. So i think im going to wait again. I jist wanted more info from others on here wheather i should treat anyways or not.

 

[Civicdemon]

I know ich will alwys be in my system so for now, untill my upgrade ill just make the best of it. When i upgrade do im going to swich vorals over first. Then im going to reduce salinity and treat the fish for a month or two with hypo salinity before introducing them to the new sysyem. That way im sure there wont be ich in there and i can qt any new fish before placing them in new tank.

 

[Steveg229]

sounds like a good plan

 

[salt_for_brains]

Ich (Crypt) does not go dormant according to any research I've found. If it has been introduced it is there and cycling. So I'm not aware of any better times to introduce a new fish other than making sure your current fish are healthy. All we can do is feed our fish healthy foods and try to maintain a stress free environment for them unless you are willing to do one of the three proven methods of eliminating Crypt.

 

[ErinCahir]

+1 salt. Whatever life stage the ich is in, it's there.

 

[Civicdemon]

Yeah i fully understand that ich is going to be in my system in one for or another until I do Hypo or copper and what not. But what im trying to say is that right after a ich break out the number of swimming Ich and eggs are way higher than usuall when your fish are healthy. I have experienced this and thats why i believe it to be true. When the fish is healthy it does not allow for new swimming ich to attach with the slime coat even do the fish still has ich it does not show signs of it and the ich does not produce the usuall eggs we see as white spots. So Even do the fish still has it in there system they keep it at bay until they stress out. So what i have come to think is that the free swimming ich that eventually wont find a host because the fish are healthy will die off in a couple weeks then the what ever eggs are left would hatch and have the same sycle. So if you wait some time i would figure that the free swimming ich and eggs would be down to a minimum VS if you just had a break out. There for giving the New fish a better chance of fighting of a small ammount VS loads of the Perasite that you would have durring a outbreak.

I might be wrong but i think it would make sense since ich dies out with out a host. The ich already in the fish is there and should not spreed since they do not reproduce eggs. but the free swimming ich that cant attach itself any longer should eventually die off. But of corse if your fish streess out again the ich thats on them already will begin to reproduce and spreed all over again.

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

So, if you have fish in a tank and it gets Ich, unless you run it fallow or treat with chem/hypo, Ich will stay in there forever? Or, a certain amount of time?

 

[Civicdemon]

Yes it will still be on the fish from what i gather. The fish just wont have an out break unless it stresses out. wich in turn lets the Ich breed and realease the eggs to where they then hatch.

This is juts my 2 cents. But i think if the fish get Better and recovers it regains its slime coat wich in turn does not let any new Ich attach it self and inbed itself into the fish again. So any free swimming ich should die. Technically. But if the fish stresses out the ich that is already on the fish starts to reproduce and lay eggs, then the eggs hatch and become free swimming.

Just what i would think im not 100% do.

 

[ErinCahir]

It will still be IN the fish. Not on the fish.

 

[Civicdemon]

Yeah thats what i meant. But not in the water after it goes thru al its stages. So thats why i said its better to wait some time for the Eggs to hatch and free swimming ich to die off before adding a new fish. That way if the new fish is a bit stressed but the others dont stress out the new fish should not catch it as easily as if there was free swimming ich in the water. Still a chance but not as much.

 

[ErinCahir]

I'm sorry. I just don't agree with that at all.

You can blame it on free swimming versus host ich all you want. It all just boils down to stress. Your fish are already stressed at the new addition that was added, shook things up and then died (which no matter how fast you pulled out will have messed with your parameters a bit). Adding another new fish, while the bacteria can handle the bioload, is a bad idea at this point because the... psyche of the tank (if you will) is already thrown off. Wait for things to calm down and then add a new fish.

 

[Civicdemon]

i think you got me wrong thats exacly what i meant. Being its better to wait a couple months after your current fish show no more signs of strees or ich to add another fish. thats what i meant. because even if you just wait a week or 2 only the eggs and free swimming ich will still be alive. So it is best to wait for that to die off before adding a new fish. Even do the ich is still in the current fish. it should reduce the chance of the new fish catching it than if you added the fish wile the free swimming ich is still in the water colume swimming around. So by waiting longer 2 to 3 months it gives the new fish a better chance at not catching it. Even do they technically can still catch it if the original fish stress out to the point where the ich reproduces and starts the ich cycle all over again.

 

[ErinCahir]

No. I do not have you wrong.

 

[Civicdemon]

OK lol

First off im not planning on adding any new fish, and i do Believe it has to do with stress. Im saying the same thing you are saying. All im saying is that When you introduce a new fish It will defenetly be stressed for atleast a bit. Your current fish might not stress out. There for If your current fish dont streess out at the new fish the host ich wont reproduce and there for wont re enter the water colume. There for making it less likely for the New Fish to catch it. ( Not saying its 100% But i believe it will be less likely for them to catch it this way.

If you would add a new fish right after a ich attack it far more likely that they will catch it than if you wait for the eggs and freeswimming ich to run its corse. Then add a new fish after waiting a good amount of time.

i have experienced this in my tank so i do believe waiting is best and reduces the chances of the new fish catching it.

But if you want to continue to argue go right ahead. Im just saying this is my opinion and personal experience. I know my fish have ich there for ich is in my system, as long as there strees free and i wait a good amount of time 2 to 3 months before adding a new adition i believe i reduce the chances of the new fish caching ich. Thats all im saying.

Wether im right or wrong its what i believe and what i have experienced.

:mrgreen:

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

Oh dear. I didn't mean to start a argument...