Ich in main display with eels :( what to do?

Kyuubi

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So I have ich, well my tank does, here’s what’s in it:

Juvenile orange shoulder tang (newest addition that was bought pre-quarantined on Black Friday) 3”

Kleins butterfly 4”

Pearl scale butterfly 4”

Flagfin angel 3”

three 1/2” blue green chromis

Zebra eel about 18”

Banana eel about 12”

CUC: about 50 nassarius, 20 bumblebee, 50 cerith snails, 20 blue leg hermit, 10 scarlet hermit, 15 red emerald crabs, 15 green emerald crabs, a fighting conch, and a sea biscuit.

Tank size 150g display, total water volume 215g


Everyone besides the tang has been in my tank for months, I pre-quarantined all the fish, but I did not do it for the invertebrates/cuc like a dummy :downcast-face-with-sweat: So here I am today, one week after the new addition, with a tank full of ich :(
The Orange shoulder tang, and the Kliens butterfly have it the worst, about 20 or so specks, the tang has more. The flagfin has maybe one, and the Pearl scale has about five that I see, they have the heartiest appetite. My banana and zebra don’t seem to be affected and are eating normally.
The tang doesn’t have much of an appetite but it is still nibbling on the food, it’s very shy so it’s difficult to see if it’s properly eating, but it doesn’t look skinny, the kleins eats normally but not as much as my pearlscale or flagfin. I’ve been soaking their food in garlic with a splash of ginger (probably won’t do much good but can’t really find much else to do).

I don’t have corals at the moment in this tank, but I can’t treat it with the normal meds because of the eels. I was wondering if it’s possible to do the hyposalinity in the tank to treat the ich with the eels present ? If it is possible, how long do I do that for? How do I safely ‘water’ it down without shocking the fish, eels, and clean up crew with the change of Salinity?
Will UV also help in this instance? If it does any recommendations on which to buy?
 

Jay Hemdal

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Yes, the presence of the CUC and eels precludes using copper (your best choice though). Hyposalinity would just require moving out the CUC for 60+ days. Some well established tanks don't handle hypo well, lots of die-off of algae and microorganisms. Here is my post on running hypo:



Jay
 
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Kyuubi

Kyuubi

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Yes, the presence of the CUC and eels precludes using copper (your best choice though). Hyposalinity would just require moving out the CUC for 60+ days. Some well established tanks don't handle hypo well, lots of die-off of algae and microorganisms. Here is my post on running hypo:



Jay
It would be near impossible for me to remove the CUC. My set up has tunnels and tons of live rock, I can’t really stick my hands in there either because of the eels, any other options I can try?
 

slowwrx137

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In the past, 8-9 years ago, I had a snowflake eel and a porcupine puffer in a 90 gallon tank. When I introduced the puffer it developed ich so I moved him to a quarantine tank and treated with copper. I left my snowflake eel and CUC in the 90 gallon tank while treating the puffer. After I re-introduced the puffer back into the 90 gallon tank he never got ich again.

You could always try to quarantine the fish and leave the eels/CUC in your 150g display. I could have just got lucky but this worked for me. Back then the general consensus was that eels were resistant to ich due to their slime coat.
 
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Kyuubi

Kyuubi

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In the past, 8-9 years ago, I had a snowflake eel and a porcupine puffer in a 90 gallon tank. When I introduced the puffer it developed ich so I moved him to a quarantine tank and treated with copper. I left my snowflake eel and CUC in the 90 gallon tank while treating the puffer. After I re-introduced the puffer back into the 90 gallon tank he never got ich again.

You could always try to quarantine the fish and leave the eels/CUC in your 150g display. I could have just got lucky but this worked for me. Back then the general consensus was that eels were resistant to ich due to their slime coat.
So leaving the eels in the tank won’t affect the fallow period? Any tips on setting up a quick quarantine tank? I got rid of my extra tanks since I was only gonna buy prequarantined fish but I can always buy a big bucket or something, or should I just buy a 20 gal long and just have an air stone, with that many fish in a 20 gal, would I have to do a water change every day?
 
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Kyuubi

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Current medications I own are ich x (I’m not confident with copper dosing) and chloroquine phosphate, I think I have. A little prazipro as well but what else should I get? I don’t have anything to reliably measure the copper so I haven’t quarantined with copper yet
 

slowwrx137

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So leaving the eels in the tank won’t affect the fallow period? Any tips on setting up a quick quarantine tank? I got rid of my extra tanks since I was only gonna buy prequarantined fish but I can always buy a big bucket or something, or should I just buy a 20 gal long and just have an air stone, with that many fish in a 20 gal, would I have to do a water change every day?
It worked for me so it might be worth a try. When I setup a QT tank I just grabbed a 29 gallon from petsmart/petco with a HOB filter. I Went to my local fish store and got some filter floss/media from their established system for the beneficial bacteria.

I didn't do water changes everyday but it was probably every few days. I tested the water most days and decided based on the results.
 

slowwrx137

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Current medications I own are ich x (I’m not confident with copper dosing) and chloroquine phosphate, I think I have. A little prazipro as well but what else should I get? I don’t have anything to reliably measure the copper so I haven’t quarantined with copper yet
I believe I used Seachem Cupramine Copper Treatment for my QT. You just need to get a copper test kit to get the copper to the right level and also to account for additional copper after you perform water changes. You can get both for $25ish so it's not too bad.
 

Jay Hemdal

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Current medications I own are ich x (I’m not confident with copper dosing) and chloroquine phosphate, I think I have. A little prazipro as well but what else should I get? I don’t have anything to reliably measure the copper so I haven’t quarantined with copper yet
Chloroquine works for eels but will kill your CUC.
For ich, leaving the eels in place for a long fallow period (75 days) isn’t optimum, but it has worked.
Jay
 

jeffchapok

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I've had ich in my tank for 2 years now. I run a UV sterilizer 24x7 and never see a speck. Haven't lost a fish since the initial outbreak. Keep your fish healthy and well fed and it's manageable.
 

MnFish1

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It would be near impossible for me to remove the CUC. My set up has tunnels and tons of live rock, I can’t really stick my hands in there either because of the eels, any other options I can try?
So then the solution is to remove your fish - treat with copper - and leave the oak with inverts fallow for 76 days
 
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