Dealing with Ick

[imhyder]

Hi guys,

Need some advise on urgent basis. I am new to the hobby and its my first time dealing with saltwater Ick my tank has now been running for about 6 months and everything was going great my parameters were great my fish were thriving there were no issues with bad algae and had good algae depositing on the glass and rock.

I also have live sand in my tank with about two inches of depth.

I have a saltwater 100L tank currently occupied by 3 fish, 3 hermit crabs, 3 turbo snails and a sand sifting star. There are no corals or anemones in the tank at this point.

I am pretty sure my tank has ick and currently i can see two white spots on of my small clowns and two spots on my other fish.

On doing some research I have come across a product called Polyp Lab Medic and intend to use that.

Currently the fish seems to be behaving completely normal and eating as per usual, i have increase the tank temp to 28 degree Celsius.

I also don't have a quarantine tank and that's probably the reason I am in this situation. I believe I have caught the parasite in early stage and there might just be the chance to save my fish and come out with 0 casualties, if can find the right guidance.

Please help me i need help asap



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[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Duplicate thread - linking the answered one here:

EMERGENCY - Dealing with Ick

Hi guys, Need some advise on urgent basis. I am new to the hobby and its my first time dealing with saltwater Ick my tank has now been running for about 6 months and everything was going great my parameters were great my fish were thriving there were no issues with bad algae and had good algae...

www.reef2reef.com

Also, as a note (sorry to be a downer here), if you're letting the star forage for food in your sand rather than target-feeding it, I would expect the sand-sifting starfish to die within ~8-13 months of acquisition, possibly sooner given the small size of the tank.

My best advice at the moment to try and help it live longer (as mentioned below, I haven't heard back on the results of following the advice yet, so no guarantees it's useful):

You can target feed them, but no one has gotten back to me yet on if it helps:

These starfish don’t eat algae in any meaningful quantities. They’re probably carnivorous, but may be detritivorous (see the quotes below). Personally, I’d try putting the star in an acclimation box with a dish of sand for it, and I’d try offering it a bunch of mollusks for it to eat (clams, mussels, oysters, and small but meat-eating snails like Nassarius snails would be my suggestions at this point), and see if it shows interest in eating any of them. If it does, then I’d try offering it more of that item in various sizes and see if it has a preferred food size.

I'd try something like clam, oyster, etc. and/or snail meat (you can find various frozen/live marine snails to try online, including conch meat, periwinkle snails, babylonian snails, etc.)

The quote below is specifically geared toward Astropecten spp. (predatory) sand sifting stars, but there is another genus of sand sifting stars called Archaster that is thought (importantly the diet was inferred, not studied in the research that this diet was pulled from) to be detritivorous (specifically, they are thought to be microphagous detritivores). I have heard but cannot confirm that Archaster spp. misidentified as Astropecten spp. may be more common in the hobby than actual Astropecten spp. are.

So, with this in mind:
- If your star is detritivorous (which may be a very big if), then you would likely want smaller foods than the suggested below (which is designed for predatory sand sifters). In this case, I'd suggest trying to mix something like TDO Chroma Boost into the sand for your stars to find.
- If your star is predatory (which may to our limited knowledge be possible at this point even if it is an Archaster sp.), then the below advice (and my advice above) is more likely to be useful.
- If your star is actually primarily a biofilm eater like Linckia spp. Protoreaster nodosus, etc. (which may also to our limited knowledge be possible for an Archaster sp.), then it's likely to die regardless of what you do or don't feed it at this point.

I’ve heard they climb the glass when they’re looking for food and can’t find any in the sand bed.

Generally, people recommend large tanks and waiting until your tank is established before trying these (or pretty much any) sea stars, and the star survives on detritus in the tank. Unfortunately, even in a lot of these tanks, after they finish clearing the detritus from the sand, they typically starve.

My current advice to avoid the star staving - which may or may not help, I genuinely don't know at this point (it could take someone months to years of testing it to find out for certain, as sea stars can last months without food):
Target feed the star things like clam on half shell, oyster, mussel, scallop, etc. (bivalves); snail, whelk, conch, etc. (sea snail gastropods); and a good quality omnivore food (like LRS Reef Frenzy or Fertility Frenzy). These are - according to the best sources of information I can find - the sorts of foods sand sifting stars consume in the wild, and the star should swallow these foods whole if they aren't too big - you might need to experiment a bit with the size of the pieces offered to get it sized just right, but generally I'd say err on the smaller side.

If you decide to give it a shot, let me know how it goes, and keep me updated on the long term survival of the star!