Saltwater ich???

It definitely sounds like you have ich, and it's no fun in a saltwater tank. Do you have a quarantine tank?? I personally found that copper treatment works best for ich but it will kill all of your inverts and live rock if you use it in your main tank.

If the fish are acting ok you can just wait and see, I personally don't like throwing tons of chemicals in my tanks so I know how you feel when you say you don't want to treat if you don't have to. I would definitely recommend feeding them garlic xtreme with their food, help fatten those babies up : ) fat fish are healthy fish

Good luck, I hope everything turns out ok.

 

Nik,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I'm new to the hobby as well and just went through the whole ICH thing as well. If you read down a ways on the page you'll see several different posts about ICH and different treatments used. You can try garlic, natural remedies, etc, but none are really "proven" to work. I bought Kick Ich, it was an expensive joke. A QT tank is the best way to treat, although not easy of course. Once in there you can use Hyposalinity, Copper, Formalin, Quinine Sulfate, etc. You might read the faq's on crypt on Wetwebmedia.com, very informative. There are benefits and drawbacks to each treatment. I treated in my main tank (just removed snails and shrimp) but I did not have well established rock, or any corrals, etc. (It was not ideal, but my QT tank was new and not cycled and I was going to be out of town for part of the treatments so unable to monitor ammonia levels) I used QS and had very quick results, you would not be able to use that in your main tank with the nem and other inverts though.

Also I'm by no means an expert but could your Nitrite reading be irritating the fish and causing them to scratch some? Also I do believe the tangs do some color changes at night.

I'm sure some of the much more experienced reef keepers will jump in here, just wanted to offer some encouragement in the mean time.

Best of luck, and I wish your tank a speedy recovery!

Pam

 

Where are you located? I'm sure there's someone close to you who has a quarantine tank you could use. Most people will gladly offer to help, preferably if you're a paid member(Only $20 to support GIRS!).

My yellow tang will always look white at night, that's completely normal. The scratching on the other hand, that is a sign of ich. Feed them the best foods you can and soak them up with some vitamin(selcon) and garlic. The vitamins and the garlic will help them fight the disease off naturally, plus they will be able to fight off future diseases.

How long has this tank been set up? I ask this because you said you've only been in this for about a month. Most saltwater tanks tank about a month before they are cycled enough to even start adding the first, most hardy fish.

Hope everything works out.

-Adam

 

Sure fire way to get rid of ich is to let the tank go fallow. Get the fish out and let it run for a month. The life cycle of ich is 3 weeks and without fish in the tank it will die out. Inverts and LR can stay.

 

Hey Nik

Welcome to the club first.

For now I would monitor your tank & fish. Making hasty decisions & panicing is sometimes the worst thing to do. From what I know, ich will not be there one day & not there the next (as far as spots).

I agree with Adam, my yellow looks almost see through at night sometimes.

Remember your inverts cannot get ich, it is a fish only parasite.

Good Luck
Craig

 

Yes...welcome to the club.

Sorry to hear about your recent issues...bummer to start up with issues, but you're not alone. I had tank issues when I started also (some still lingering), but not an Ich problem. Keep in mind that Ich is (most of the time) a stress-induced issue....so, curing the parasite issue does not cure the symptoms that caused the initial outbreak. Sometimes acclimation of new fish can cause stress and thus an Ich outbreak. Another stress cause can be water parameters and overall stability...which, is a problem for new tanks. Another factor also is over-crowding or territorial issues. So, if you quarantine the fish and let the main tank go fallow to rid the parasites, that doesn't necessarily eliminate the stress factors....so, you'll want to evaluate the overall tank/water situation before reintroducing the fish.