Fish - Disease

Print Page | Close Window

Disease

Printed From: Utah Reefs
Category: Specialized Discussion
Forum Name: Fish
Forum Description: This is the place to ask questions about fish.
URL: http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=29
Printed Date: February 16 2025 at 6:13am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.03 - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Disease

Posted By: Marcus
Subject: Disease
Date Posted: August 28 2002 at 10:06pm

I am currently having what I think is an ICH problem. I have a 125 gallon fish-only tank with a lionfish, trigger, wrasses, clowns, grouper, marine beta, puffers, and morray eels. I dropped the salinity to 1.010 about 2 weeks and most of the fish look better, but some look worse. Any suggestions on how to combat this. I have thought about medications but, since this is a 160 gal system with the sump, the amount that I would have to buy might put me in the street. I don't want to use cooper because of my ray and eels. I would like to put an anemone in the tank later so I don't want anything that will harm inverts to stay in the tank. I would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks!

Replies:

Posted By: Ryan Willden
Date Posted: August 29 2002 at 11:37am

I don't want to open this up for debate or anything, (because it is highly debatable.) However, I have found 100% success from feeding fish (especially in a reef environment) with food soaked in Kyolic (Garlic Extract.) It works miracles as a daily supplement for your fish also. Can't explain it. All I know is that it works every time.

Ryan

Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: August 30 2002 at 8:56am

Water changes. Don't be afraid to vaccuum the gravel. I'm also not aware of any side effects of copper on rays and eels. Maybe there are side effects but I'm not aware of any.

It never hurts to not feed the fish for a week so that the nutrients drop. And of course my favorite is filter the water with macro algae (tough in low salinity, I know).

Adam

Posted By: Marcus
Date Posted: September 01 2002 at 3:11pm

Thanks Ryan and Adam! I appreciate your feedback. I will have to double check the issue with copper on eels and rays. In any case, I want to put some inverts in later so I don't think copper would be a suitable solution. How do I filter the water with macro algae? I plan on raising the salinity in about a week and I will try it then.

Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: September 03 2002 at 8:54am

Macro Algae filters the water all by itself. The trick is to get as much water flowing through the algae as possible. Some people use channels or large sump pumps. Basically if you can get a large water movement through the field of algae then much of the particulate will drop out of the water and be trapped in the sump, where it is harvested.

Adam

Posted By: Firefish
Date Posted: September 13 2002 at 6:06pm

Something also to consider is a UV sterilizer if you don't have one. I had a similar infestation in my tank. One reason I think I had a problem was too many fish. Your tank doesn't seem to have too many fish, but what I did to fix the problem was water changes and UV. The UV is debateable as to whether it actually works and it may effect corals in some way if you have any. Also I think that UV might give you a problem with your PH because I think it kills any freefloating algae that may be in your tank because it kills the algae as well as ICH. I'm not certain of this, but it seemed to help in my tank. I run my UV for about 2 or 3 weeks and then shut it off for about 2 weeks.

-------------
5 gal fluval spec v http://www.utahreefs.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=65727&KW=&PID=531710&title=my-new-little-one#531710 12 gallon jbj nanocube reef Stansbury Park (Tooele Area)

Posted By: Marcus
Date Posted: September 14 2002 at 2:26pm

Thanks Firefish. I do have a UV sterilizer on my tank. You said to try water changes and I bet that I am not doing that enough. I will try to do more water changes. I just raised the sailinity back up in the tank for the reef tour so that I could put my urchins and cowry back in it and it seems that the ICH has come back. I wonder if eveything in my is just really stressed out because it is a "predator tank." Maybe I will never be able to get rid of the problem because there are so many skermishes. Thanks for your suggestions.

Posted By: KeoDog
Date Posted: September 18 2002 at 6:36am

I have done a lot of research on Ich and some of the best info I found was at http://forums.about.com/ab-saltaquarium/messages?msg=7240.6&redirCnt=1&dpkey=MTF8fEtldmlufEt1bnp8d2lzaGlkPUtlb0RvZ3xrZXZpbmt1bnpAeWFob28uY29tfEtlb0RvZ3yfZahNAex796yqbCGZBTWJ is here . I'm not sure if you can post a link here. If not copy it into your browser. You need to maintain your tank at a specific gravity of 1.009 for a minimum of 3 weeks and if you are doing it in your main tank 30 days. If that link doesn't try this one http://www.saltwaterfish.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=14&t=000001 read all the posts by Terry B. He is well respected on many forums and has written papers and articles for several magazines and also has been keeping fish for over 30 years.

-------------
Kevin Kunz (Sandy, UT)
300g reef

"A trade by which one gains and the other loses is a fraud." Ayn Rand

Posted By: Ryan Willden
Date Posted: September 18 2002 at 9:11am

Keodog, you may want to clarify that lowering salinity can only be done on fish only tanks. You wouldn't want to lower salinity on a reef tank! Lowering salinity on a reef tank would be bad...

Posted By: KeoDog
Date Posted: September 18 2002 at 12:46pm

You're right about that. Also Lower salinity will kill all life on live rock and in your sandbed except for the essential bacteria needed for your nitrogen cycle. That includes coraline algae, macro algae, amphipods, snails, shrimp etc. That is why it is best to do this in a quarantine tank.

-------------
Kevin Kunz (Sandy, UT)
300g reef

"A trade by which one gains and the other loses is a fraud." Ayn Rand

Posted By: Marcus
Date Posted: September 29 2002 at 12:34pm

Thanks for the advice guys!! I am using NO-ICH and I have dropped the salinity to 1.010. My look-down jacks have it pretty bad, but maybe I can see it more on them because they are silver. I have read that I need to keep the salinity low for 3 weeks after the last sign of ICH. I will try this and see what happens.