Sadly, my fish have come down with the parasite Ich! The telltale signs are the tiny spots stuck to the fish. I tried adding a cleaner shrimp to the display tank. Cleaner shrimps are very pricey!
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| Cleaner Shrimp |
It immediately started to clean my flame angel.
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| Flame Angel at cleaning station |
However, cleaning the fish does not help rid the display tank of ich. Since I have corals and invertebrates, I cannot use any medications in the display tank. The LFS advised me that the so-called "Reef-safe" treatments are too weak to be effective. The only option is to move all the fish to a quarantine tank, treat the infected fish there, and let the parasite die out in the main tank. This should take 4-6 weeks for the ich's life cycle to complete. Leaving the main tank fish-free is the only way to ensure all traces of the parasite die off. [sigh]
I set up a 10 gallon tank with a hood, heater, filter (without media), and pieces of PVC for the fish to hide in. No sand or rock since they absorb the treatment product...copper. The clownfish and Blue tang were fairly easy to catch. It took hours of ripping apart the rocks in the display tank to catch the Flame Angel and Orange Spotted sandsifting Goby. I moved all the fish to the display tank, and now begins this 6 week wait.
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| Quarantine tank. I did replace the live rock with more pieces of PVC |
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| Dory infected | | | | | | | |
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| Orange Spotted Goby before moving it to the Quarantine tank |
I am kicking myself for not placing all new fish in a quarantine tank for 4 weeks before introducing them to the main tank. Eagerness to see them swimming among all the rocks and coral I guess. Big lesson learned!! Sadly, my gorgeous Flame Angel did not not make it through its first night in quarantine :(
