Shortly after we moved, all my fish got ich. We moved them December 10th. Then slowly they died off, one by one. I have one clown fish left that looks OK. I didn’t realize it was ich until the last fish died about a week ago. I’ve never had it in 12 years of fish keeping. Should I be doing anything now, after the fact? My wife and kids want to get some more fish, but I’m hesitant.
Pat, I personally would treat the clown and your whole system. I can give you a qt idea that will make your fish and tank 99% ich free. It’s a pretty lengthy process but you’ll not have to worry about ich again as long as you follow the same procedure for all new fish.
Talk to Casey before adding any Ich meds to your display tank!!!
Many, if not all, medications are copper based and can not be used in a DT.
Casey - sounds good. What’s the plan?
I personally place the fish in a newly setup qt, wait 1 week feeding alot to make sure they get fattened up. Pull carbon and use regular filter pad with no media what so ever, lights out and block the tank from any direct light and dose chloroquine phosphate and run for 30 straight days. During this time I perform 3 25% water changes, once every 10 days. When you do a water change you must re dose ONLY the amount you took out. After that treatment and on the last water change I fire up activated carbon and start the lights back up. The lighting is said to break down the medication which is why you block light from the qt.
After a couple days I remove carbon again, run prazi pro 1 week, water changes and carbon for a few days then prazi 1 last time for a week then they are good to go…in my book.
Keep in mind do not treat with inverts or in your display.
In order to rid your display of ich ypu need to run it without fish for 13 weeks, no strand of ich with last this long without a host (the fish). It’s a pain for that long without fish but it is ultimately worth it. During those 13 weeks could get all you fish you want and qt them and have them ready to go at the end of the 13 weeks.
Do not cross contaminate during these months as you will introduce ich.
Once you start the 30 qt period on the fish do not introduce anything new to the qt during that cycle because you will just have to start the treatment over again.
My advice, setup a qt, get all the fish you want at the same time, qt them ALL together start to finish then wait out the tank to finish.
This is a proven method and is alot less stressful on the fish vs running copper.
Alot of things claim to be reef safe and will kill ich, remember just because you cannot see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Good luck with what you decide pat and lmk if I can help or if you have any questions.