Ich and Acanthurus tangs - Years of experience and ich management
- Thread starter 4FordFamily
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"Patty-cake, Patty-cake . . . " (>__<)
~B.
~B.
laga77
Active Member
You better put two exceptions in there....Here is my 120G FOWLR. It is one of six tanks that I have set up. I have 53 fish right now and no idea how many corals and inverts. 5 years ago I stopped all dry food and went to a fresh, frozen, and live diet and started a AWC system. Right after I lost a tank to disease. The majority of the fishes diet is homemade blender mush followed by live black worms and white worms. My 2 reef tanks get daily doses of BBS and I also feed live gut loaded brine shrimp on a somewhat regular basis. I also pull a handfull of caulerpa and/or cheato from the sump everyday and feed it to the fish. This tank was started a year ago this week. It was cycled in 12 days and the first two fish in were the Foxface and Dragon Wrasse which outgrew my other tanks. The PBT went in around last April. It was in a QT tank for 5 days because the SG was 1.013 from the LFS and got one dose of Prazi. The last fish in was the Golden Hawkfish which is in the upper right hand corner. He had a dose of Prazi in the bag from the LFS and no QT. There is also a GHS and a Blue Headed Tilefish in the tank. There have been new fish that showed spots of Ich over the years but they go away quickly and I have never had a problem. I do have a QT that has a couple of full time residents in there, a Chinstrap Jawfish and a Red Tail Butterfly. These two guys have seen over 25 fish, mostly the ones from on-line stores and for about 3-5 days, go through their tank including the ones with ich and have never been sick. I believe this can be done with good water quality, good diet, and good basic husbandry skills.
OP
OP
4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
Beautiful tank!
As someone that's watched these forums and others for years and had dozens of attempts myself, husbandry can be exemplary and it's reckless for me to suggest that this can be repeated, even by you a second time. Literally 100 others will have died in the same scenario. Although it sounds like you have great husbandry skills, and I commend you for that, 8 months though is far from a success. They should live a decade or more. I assure you that won't happen with that one. I too have kept a couple for up to a year and know of another that did for two years.
I respectfully disagree that it can be repeated to a degree statistically relevant, but again commend you on your husbandry.
As someone that's watched these forums and others for years and had dozens of attempts myself, husbandry can be exemplary and it's reckless for me to suggest that this can be repeated, even by you a second time. Literally 100 others will have died in the same scenario. Although it sounds like you have great husbandry skills, and I commend you for that, 8 months though is far from a success. They should live a decade or more. I assure you that won't happen with that one. I too have kept a couple for up to a year and know of another that did for two years.
I respectfully disagree that it can be repeated to a degree statistically relevant, but again commend you on your husbandry.
laga77
Active Member
OK, that was the FOWLR with the PBT. Here is my 120G reef with a Purple Tang that I have had for over two years. Right hand side. Sorry for the bad photo. It showed ich right after I purchased him and then it was gone 2 weeks later. Maybe I should have included this in the first post. But most people seem to center in on the PBT as being more diffilcult than a Purple. My bad.
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4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
I've managed ich with zebrasoma tangs for years it's not that hard for most of them except that these days velvet is everywhere, no tang can live with that for even a year in such a small closed system.OK, that was the FOWLR with the PBT. Here is my 120G reef with a Purple Tang that I have had for over two years. Right hand side. Sorry for the bad photo. It showed ich right after I purchased him and then it was gone 2 weeks later. Maybe I should have included this in the first post. But most people seem to center in on the PBT as being more diffilcult than a Purple. My bad.
This is why I struggled so hard with acanthurus tangs, I couldn't wrap my head around why they were so different.
This has been both informative and therapeutic as my system is blown up due to a velvet and ich outbreak. A disaster due to self inflicted actions from introducing coral (SPS and LPS) w/o QT. The 220g reef had been running pretty well (5 years), high phosphates were a bit troublesome, and then the breakout. First the angel, then the clowns and finally the tangs. Up went the HT tank, thought I'd saved a big naso and blue throated trigger but they didn't make it. Rethinking next steps. It's not been fun. Hope this thread continues on...
melypr1985
totally addicted
Welcome to R2R. I'm very sorry your first post was such a sad one, and I'm sorry for your loss.
Ouch, Jim.
That hurts just to read about.
Welcome, though, to Reef2Reef - we've got an amazing team of folks here, who are great at distilling their understanding into articles like this one.
~Bruce
That hurts just to read about.
Welcome, though, to Reef2Reef - we've got an amazing team of folks here, who are great at distilling their understanding into articles like this one.
~Bruce
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4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
Jim, welcome home to R2R, you will love it here!
I share the above sentiments, sorry you experienced this. Thanks for the kind words.
melypr1985
totally addicted
CP is best if you can get the prescription for it, but coppersafe will work too with some care to raise the levels slowly
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4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
I've always used coppersafe and cupramine. Coppersafe is a bit gentler IMO
Where can you get it? How use it
The difference is in how the copper is formulated. Cupramine is "ionic" copper, while Coppersafe is "chelated" copper. I have a regal angelfish in Coppersafe as I type this, and though she's had issues, the copper hasn't been one of them.
Both copper formulations _should_ be available from a local fish store, but it may be easier for you to order online from one of the vendors there.
Using them is a little different between the two forms, but in either case, you want to bring the copper levels up gradually if you can. Over a few days in the case of ich, but if you're battling velvet, you'll need to work more quickly, and reach therapeutic levels over as little as 12 hours.
CP (Chloroquine Phosphate) requires a prescription from a veterinarian.
~Bruce
Both copper formulations _should_ be available from a local fish store, but it may be easier for you to order online from one of the vendors there.
Using them is a little different between the two forms, but in either case, you want to bring the copper levels up gradually if you can. Over a few days in the case of ich, but if you're battling velvet, you'll need to work more quickly, and reach therapeutic levels over as little as 12 hours.
CP (Chloroquine Phosphate) requires a prescription from a veterinarian.
~Bruce
Thx for your information
OP
OP
4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
Could not have said it better myself!
melypr1985
totally addicted
To get pharmaceutical grade CP (which is important to insure the proper dosage) you'll need to get a prescription from a vet. This isn't an easy feat and even I haven't been able to get one. But others have managed it. If you do, then you can get more information (both to use to get the scrip and after you have it) here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chloroquine-phosphate.192309/
There is also a link in there on where to get it filled online.
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