# Need help with an ich problem that keeps coming back!



## Sixgear (May 24, 2012)

Hey all. Just signed up on here, need some thoughts with a problem I'm having with my saltwater tank, as I'm now at a loss.
I have been in the freshwater hobby for just over 2 years now, chiclids, community, several tanks ect ect.
In February I decided to start up a 20g long saltwater tank.

The problem:
I cannot get rid of ich!

History:
After the tank had cycled, around march I put in a kaudens cardinal, a peppermint and cleaner shrimp, hermit crabs and snails. Everything went great. I then put in a dwarf coral beauty angel and a single ocellaris clownfish.
The coral Beaty and cardinal done great. The clown stayed in one corner and wouldn't eat, so I got it a buddy.
Once I introduced the second, the first clown Started eating and was behaving normally.
Then I got an outbreak of ich. Both clowns died due to stress, coral beaty and cardinal had a fight, cardinal won but gained and died from fungus. All in 1 week.

All that was left in my tank was shrimp, hermits, crabs, snails and coral.
I left it until April and put in a single scooter dragonet. The scooter is still doing great and is very healthy! No signs of ich or anything.

Everything in the tank has been doing good since that outbreak of ich happened and killed my fish.
So 2 days ago I decided to buy a black and white ocellaris clown fish.
Today, it gained ich!
It is eating great, very active, vibrant colour. But has white spots all over it.
But the dragonet still has no signs of illness.

So my question is, why are my clownfish getting stressed out??

Tank specs:
20g long reef tank.
Been running since feb (4 months).
Live rock and live sand.
Heater set at 77f.
Can't remember the brand and gph of the power head I have right now until I head home and look at it.
No protein skimmer.
Running a bio-wheel 150 with carbon for filtration.
Marineland compact fluorescent light, 10k and a 50/50 bulb. 10k runs for 12hours and the 50/50 runs for 14hours.
I try to do water changes once a week, at 25%.
Corals: have frags of a Kenya tree, 2 types of zoas, starburst evergreen polyp, finger leather, toadstool, candy cane trumpet, xenia, and mushrooms, and a coco worm (feather duster).
Fish: 1 black and white ocellaris clownfish, 1 scooter dragonet, 1 cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, and several hermits and snails.

Water spec:
Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates are all zero. Ph is between 8 and 8.2. Salt level is 1.025. Everything is stable.

I am having a problem with Cyanobacteria right now.

Right now I am feeding him 2-3 times a day with frozen mysis shrimp that have been soaked in kent garlic extreme.

I am currently building a sump with a refuge out of an old 20g I had laying around. And I will end up putting a protein skimmer in the sump.

Sorry it's long, thought I'd throw everything out there.
But please give me your thoughts.
My LFS is a very good store.

Obviously, I need to figure out what is stressing the clown fish so I can defeat the ich.
I can not dose the tank for ich because of the coral and inverts, and I'd rather not transfer the clown to a QT.

Can a cleaner shrimp harass a clown? Or too much water flow be a problem?


----------



## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Thanks for throwing everything in, makes it a bit easier to answer. Stress, all fish go through it, you are taking them from one environment to another, tends to be a bit stressful to them. A QT tank running Hypo will kill off Ich. (Salinity at 1.009). Ich can live in the substrate for up to 6 weeks without a host, yoiu may have introduced the fish to soon, or it came on the fish from your LFS. Cleaner Shrimp would not be the issue, and I really doubt it would be flow, unless you see the fish pinned up against the glass. Also, Ocellaris Clown Fish, and your Black and White, usually find a spot in the tank to call home, and do not venture to far from that spot. You are feeding entirely to much, and your tank has nutrients running all over the place (cyano issue), cut back to 1 maybe 2 light feedings per day. You can feed Mysis, Plankton, Squid Chuncks and the like, so what you are feeding is fine, you are just feeding to much. Now with Ich, if the fish continues to eat and move about the tank normally he has a chance to beat the parasite himself, without any intervention. He just has to keep eating, but you can't just keep feeding the tank, this will eventually cause more problems. A Dwarf Coral Beauty is way to big to be in a 20g tank, may have been an issue, may not have been, sounds as if your tank is quite full, and its really still to new and not mature enough as of yet for all the things you have in there at this point in time.
One more thing, your Scooter Blenny is a Dragonette, and eats nothing but PODS, which your tank does not have, its to new, and you do not have a Sump with Macro Algae in it to harbor more of them, I would recommend dosing the tank with PODS, or your more than likely going to be missing a Scooter Blenny in time. Unless yoiu got one that yoiu saw eat frozen food at the LFS.
Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com


----------



## Sixgear (May 24, 2012)

Reefing Madness said:


> Thanks for throwing everything in, makes it a bit easier to answer. Stress, all fish go through it, you are taking them from one environment to another, tends to be a bit stressful to them. A QT tank running Hypo will kill off Ich. (Salinity at 1.009). Ich can live in the substrate for up to 6 weeks without a host, yoiu may have introduced the fish to soon, or it came on the fish from your LFS. Cleaner Shrimp would not be the issue, and I really doubt it would be flow, unless you see the fish pinned up against the glass. Also, Ocellaris Clown Fish, and your Black and White, usually find a spot in the tank to call home, and do not venture to far from that spot. You are feeding entirely to much, and your tank has nutrients running all over the place (cyano issue), cut back to 1 maybe 2 light feedings per day. You can feed Mysis, Plankton, Squid Chuncks and the like, so what you are feeding is fine, you are just feeding to much. Now with Ich, if the fish continues to eat and move about the tank normally he has a chance to beat the parasite himself, without any intervention. He just has to keep eating, but you can't just keep feeding the tank, this will eventually cause more problems. A Dwarf Coral Beauty is way to big to be in a 20g tank, may have been an issue, may not have been, sounds as if your tank is quite full, and its really still to new and not mature enough as of yet for all the things you have in there at this point in time.
> One more thing, your Scooter Blenny is a Dragonette, and eats nothing but PODS, which your tank does not have, its to new, and you do not have a Sump with Macro Algae in it to harbor more of them, I would recommend dosing the tank with PODS, or your more than likely going to be missing a Scooter Blenny in time. Unless yoiu got one that yoiu saw eat frozen food at the LFS.
> Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com



Thanks for the reply!
Yes, I think I certainly jumped the gun with the coral Beaty, it was a hard fish to pass up, won't be making that mistake again. I would like to keep with just 2 black and white ocellaris clowns and try to breed them in this 20g.
yea, I am putting in triggarpods for the scooter. The main reason I'm building the sump is so I can try to grow my own pods, plus relocate all the electrics to the sump.

The clown dosnt seem to of found a home yet, it's swimming around all over the tank. But looks very happy and healthy, apart from the ich.
Ill cut back on the feedings, read online somewhere that a good way to rid ich is to feed a lot of garlic soaked food to them. Only started that much feeding today, but I do still have a lot of nutrients in the tank.

I'm hoping that the stress and ich is just because it's a new environment like you said, but want to be certain that there's nothing in my tank thats causing stress to the clown.
Only time I got ich in my freshwater tanks was when I was buying fish from petsmart or something is up in the tank.


----------



## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Right on. Sounds like you got it together. Hope all goes well for him. 2 Occelaris Black and Whites will be fine in there, no worries. Keep him eating, and he should be fine, and be patient, it will take alittle time for him to kick it.


----------

