Ich... Is pulling one fish worth it?

[MarcusH]

I got a new purple tang Sunday evening and placed in system. I do not quarantine and have never seen an ich outbreak in 15 years of exp.

Today the tang has white spots (3 days later). It's not bad but it's there. Like 10(ish) spots total, 5/side. Fish was in copper at lfs but not sure the concentration. He eats and acts fine (for a new fish). He was in my frag tank but it's plumbed to the DT.

I have a 5.5g brand new tank I planned to use as a sump for another project so I pulled the fish and put in the 5.5 with fresh sw, a heater and air stone. I wanted to remove immediately before parasites fall but I fear it's too late already and it might be futile. No other fish show anything at this point. Worth a shot I guess.

I'm not sure if he brought the ich or my tank already had it and my fish all are resistant? I think the former is more likely since I haven't encountered this before.

I'm probably going to go get another small tank (maybe a 10g) and do tank transfer method on him, so I'd move him Saturday. Unless other fish show signes before then and I have to reassess. Is this the best plan?

 

[rtparty]

Ich is in your system. You either pull everything, go fallow to eradicate the ich, all while playing TTM or some other ich eradication method with every fish or you play ich management like you’ve already been doing.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I got a new purple tang Sunday evening and placed in system. I do not quarantine and have never seen an ich outbreak in 15 years of exp.

Today the tang has white spots (3 days later). It's not bad but it's there. Like 10(ish) spots total, 5/side. Fish was in copper at lfs but not sure the concentration. He eats and acts fine (for a new fish). He was in my frag tank but it's plumbed to the DT.

I have a 5.5g brand new tank I planned to use as a sump for another project so I pulled the fish and put in the 5.5 with fresh sw, a heater and air stone. I wanted to remove immediately before parasites fall but I fear it's too late already and it might be futile. No other fish show anything at this point. Worth a shot I guess.

I'm not sure if he brought the ich or my tank already had it and my fish all are resistant? I think the former is more likely since I haven't encountered this before.

I'm probably going to go get another small tank (maybe a 10g) and do tank transfer method on him, so I'd move him Saturday. Unless other fish show signes before then and I have to reassess. Is this the best plan?

In general, if a fish with ich has been added to a tank for really any period of time, there is a chance that the parasite will spread to the other fish. Then, in many cases, all of those fish will need to go through a treatment of some sort.

That said, are you 100% sure the tang has ich? They also develop mucus plugs when stressed - these are larger and do not hurt the fish. One issue is though, the stress of ich can cause mucus plugs - so you can see both the a fish at the same time.

If you post a picture of the fish, i can try to help you confirm ich or mucus.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

I got a new purple tang Sunday evening and placed in system. I do not quarantine and have never seen an ich outbreak in 15 years of exp.

Today the tang has white spots (3 days later). It's not bad but it's there. Like 10(ish) spots total, 5/side. Fish was in copper at lfs but not sure the concentration. He eats and acts fine (for a new fish). He was in my frag tank but it's plumbed to the DT.

I have a 5.5g brand new tank I planned to use as a sump for another project so I pulled the fish and put in the 5.5 with fresh sw, a heater and air stone. I wanted to remove immediately before parasites fall but I fear it's too late already and it might be futile. No other fish show anything at this point. Worth a shot I guess.

I'm not sure if he brought the ich or my tank already had it and my fish all are resistant? I think the former is more likely since I haven't encountered this before.

I'm probably going to go get another small tank (maybe a 10g) and do tank transfer method on him, so I'd move him Saturday. Unless other fish show signes before then and I have to reassess. Is this the best plan?

This tang is in a 5.5 gal tank ?

 

[MarcusH]

For an evening, yes

 

[MarcusH]

 

[MarcusH]

Ich is in your system. You either pull everything, go fallow to eradicate the ich, all while playing TTM or some other ich eradication method with every fish or you play ich management like you’ve already been doing.

Thank you for your reply.

So by this do you think it's likely it was already in the system being managed, and being new, this guy was more susceptible to it? Or the new addition introduced it?

If it was already in there I should just move him back and see how it plays out. Even if I cure him he'll just catch it again immediately on re-introduction.

I'd need a big QT to go fallow. I have a 34 cube that's unused but I don't think even that will hold a dozen fish. Also have 2 tanks plumbed together and some fish in the one likely aren't compatible with those in the other.

 

[nuxx]

Many people live with ich for the lives of their systems.

You have more luck if stress on the fish are down, diet is great and the tank is large enough that the fish have more than enough room.

... but then again people have lost entire tanks even when meeting these conditions.

... but yeah, you'd have to pull ALL fish and go fallow.

 

[MarcusH]

I almost made it. This was my last addition to my 120 dt.

Fallowing is not the end of the world. All my stuff is established, eating well and I don't have finicky species to begin with. I just need a big QT to do it, probably at least 55g

 

[MnFish1]

I got a new purple tang Sunday evening and placed in system. I do not quarantine and have never seen an ich outbreak in 15 years of exp.

Today the tang has white spots (3 days later). It's not bad but it's there. Like 10(ish) spots total, 5/side. Fish was in copper at lfs but not sure the concentration. He eats and acts fine (for a new fish). He was in my frag tank but it's plumbed to the DT.

I have a 5.5g brand new tank I planned to use as a sump for another project so I pulled the fish and put in the 5.5 with fresh sw, a heater and air stone. I wanted to remove immediately before parasites fall but I fear it's too late already and it might be futile. No other fish show anything at this point. Worth a shot I guess.

I'm not sure if he brought the ich or my tank already had it and my fish all are resistant? I think the former is more likely since I haven't encountered this before.

I'm probably going to go get another small tank (maybe a 10g) and do tank transfer method on him, so I'd move him Saturday. Unless other fish show signes before then and I have to reassess. Is this the best plan?

You would need to treat all of the fish (whether with TTM or copper, etc). However - sometimes white spots on tangs aren't ich - but rather something else - can you post a picture? PS - if you remove the fish and treat/Qt them the recommendation would be to fallow the tank for 45-76 days depending on the protocol you want to follow. Additionally, you could consider hypo salinity - if you don't have inverts in the tank

EDIT - sorry - I didn't see Jay's or any of the other posts for some reason - so sorry for the repetition.

 

[vetteguy53081]

For an evening, yes

Ok, I understand. If one has it, assume they all have it in most cases. A used 55g on craigslist, Petco or Walmart 55g starter kit which have many of the essentials would be best

 

[Idech]

I also bought new tang and it got ich after being introduced. I tried treating in the tank but it wasn’t working and I had to take him out and treat him with copper. No other fish got ich, except the firefish that had a few spots that went away within a week or so.

The tang got better in copper but then started deteriorating so I added it back to the DT after 21 days I think. Meanwhile I had set up the UV on the display to control ich population. When I introduced the tank back into the DT, I made sure to keep stress levels as low as possible and I fed him 5-6 times a day for 4-6 weeks if not more. Now he eats 3 times a day.

Since then I’ve added other fish and none had any problems with ich (touch wood).

I’m not saying to do what I did, I only have 2 years experience. Just telling what worked for me.

 

[MarcusH]

I also bought new tang and it got ich after being introduced. I tried treating in the tank but it wasn’t working and I had to take him out and treat him with copper. No other fish got ich, except the firefish that had a few spots that went away within a week or so.

The tang got better in copper but then started deteriorating so I added it back to the DT after 21 days I think. Meanwhile I had set up the UV on the display to control ich population. When I introduced the tank back into the DT, I made sure to keep stress levels as low as possible and I fed him 5-6 times a day for 4-6 weeks if not more. Now he eats 3 times a day.

Since then I’ve added other fish and none had any problems with ich (touch wood).

I’m not saying to do what I did, I only have 2 years experience. Just telling what worked for me.

Thanks yeah this is sort of best case I'm hoping for.

I'm going to proceed with tank transfer method on the tang for 12 days while watching the DT closely. If I see a breakout in the main tank I'll get a bigger, cheap tank for copper and fallow the DT. I can't do ttm on all my fish it's too much space and water.

I don't have high hopes this will fix it but it's worth a shot since if it does it'll be so much easier. The fish is still in great shape (look at him, it's a really nice specimen imo) and not showing stress so I think I can afford to take a swing here even if it's not likely to work.

 

[MarcusH]

Ok so update on this I reconsidered and just put the purple tang back into the system, figuring if ich is in there then it's in there and I don't want to stress this fish out.

First I put back into the frag tank. I let him sit in there for one day, no ich spots were visible a few hours after putting him back in a comfortable environment.

After a day I moved him into the display. My existing Tomini was real ticked about this and posturing despite the purple being 2x his size. The spots came back, purple was stressed, but not that bad because he can kick that fish's butt if he needed to.

Next day after a long lights out they've found harmony. Spots are gone. No fighting. No signs on any other fish.

Seems I have ich in my tank but it's managed by adequate feeding and fish getting along, at least eventually. Hopefully this is data for others.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Ok so update on this I reconsidered and just put the purple tang back into the system, figuring if ich is in there then it's in there and I don't want to stress this fish out.

First I put back into the frag tank. I let him sit in there for one day, no ich spots were visible a few hours after putting him back in a comfortable environment.

After a day I moved him into the display. My existing Tomini was real ticked about this and posturing despite the purple being 2x his size. The spots came back, purple was stressed, but not that bad because he can kick that fish's butt if he needed to.

Next day after a long lights out they've found harmony. Spots are gone. No fighting. No signs on any other fish.

Seems I have ich in my tank but it's managed by adequate feeding and fish getting along, at least eventually. Hopefully this is data for others.

Glad to hear it seems resolved.

It could be mucus plugs that are brought out when the fish is stressed.

If the spots return, or show up on other fish, it may end up being ich. For management, you should employ these techniques:

1) strong UV sterilizer
2) frequent water changes
3) siphoning the sand early every morning or late each night
4) good mechanical filtration to remove theronts

Ich management works if you catch the infection early enough and do it right. Once the number of trophonts on the fish reach a certain point (perhaps 30 or so spots on any one fish) then "propagule pressure" comes into play, where the effects of the trophonts themselves stresses the fish and the ich management techniques start to fail.

Jay