Reef Discussion

[Synodontis]

When we got home today from getting water for Grug, and to do our water change, (only 400lts :p ) we noticed our Orange Shoulder Tang has a brown spot on his nose, he was rubbing his nose against different rocks and corals :(, but he is swimming around like ther is no problem. So we had a bit of a closer look at our other fish and noticed what looks like Ich (little white spots) on the majority of the fish, including the Mandarine and Moo! :eek , only a few spots here and there.

So my question is, seeing as though we can't quarintine all our fish, defeates the purpose, how do we treat the whole tank for possible Ich? :confused:

Cheers,
Jen

 

[jashay]

this is a tough one as most treatments can remove a lot of the good bacteria aswell. Im not sure if the salt water ich is the same as fresh. but raising the temperature up to 30 for a few days would generally do the freshwater ich in pretty well. if its the same with salt water then this may be a safer method then dosing with medications as your corals may not like that. they would handle a temp raise for a few days then you could lower it back down steadily over another couple of days.

 

[firebird]

Excellent article on this:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

The problem with trying to treat the display tank is that the parasite will still have fish hosts to survive in. Also the chemical treatments will affect other members of your DT. ??? maybe try the water changes method first if you are going to treat in the DT although the article does say remove the fish to a QT

 

[firebird]

read part 2 of this article as well
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php

 

[jashay]

if you do treat the whole tank remember to move out any invertabrates, most if not all will suffer badly and die from medications..

good links there too ;)

 

[malau]

IME, get a spare tank which act as HT. Put all the fish in and add copper for at least 3 weeks and change the water every 3 days and add some copper for replacement. At the same time increase the DT temp to as high as they can handle (since you have corals) for around 4 weeks.

 

[Synodontis]

Hi guy's,
First chance I've had to sit down this weekend lol. Thanks to everyone for all the advice & idea's. We did a huge water change just as DavidS was turning up to get his bargain. After that everyone seems to have calmed down (not sure about Jen tho:p) Will keep an eye on things tho. Great informative article firebird, thanks.

Ken