heart broken
- Thread starter HondaHound
- Start date
sorry to hear that! Hopefully the other one recovers fast. Whenever any of my fish get anything remotely resembling ich, I soak nori in garlic and feed it to them several days in a row. Most of the time it turns out to be stray bits of sand, but I'd rather be safe than sorry, and it's good for them.
Best explanation that I've ever heard is that it's like a virus that's always there. Fish that are healthy and happy are generally able to fight it off. Tangs are the least resistant to it, particularly powders, but any fish that is stressed, underfed, etc, might have a hard time fighting it off. I've heard that some reefers have managed to rid their tank of it, but I'm not sure how they managed that, or how they know that it's been eradicated. Maybe someone will chime in.
Let the tank lay fallow (fishless) for six months to kill off all remaining larvae of the parasite from the rock, the stage that infects our fish is just the breeding stage of the lifecycle of the parasite, and the other two stages burrow into the rock and sand. When your ready to add new fish quarantine them first and treat with a copper medication to prevent the parasite from infesting your tank again. Sorry for your loss, been through the same thing. Hope this helps.