So I'm pretty sure we're having some ick problems. I'm going to recap this as best I can but I don't remember the exact timeline of events.
- About 4 months ago we noticed some white spots on our tang and one of the clownfish was acting off, wasn't eating and it's fins didn't look right. Two fish died, a royal gramma and a potter's angel. So we captured the surviving fish, purple tang and two clownfish, and put them into quarantine. I treated them with malachite green and they recovered quickly. After a few days no more white spots and they all looked good and started eating with their normal voracity again.
- We left them in quarantine for six weeks and there were no fish in the tank during this period.
- After six weeks we put them back in the tank and everyone continued to do fine, then a month or so later we got some more fish. We didn't add all the new fish at once, we added them over a period of 3 weeks I think. All of them were from tropic isle, really wish I had known about the other fish stores in the area (doh!). Over that three week period we added a scooter, royal gramma, potter's angel, flame angel, sleeper goby. We added to many fish over too short a period and I think we should have stuck with only one angel. My bad and I've learned my lesson.
- The fish were fine for about a month or so. We've been having some algae problems in the tank (this started while the tank was fallow so unrelated to the fish being added). We added some chaeto to our sump and did a three day blackout on the tank which helped quite a bit. However during this three day blackout both angels died. They showed no signs of being sick, they didn't have any spots and were eating well. But we woke up to two dead fish.
- Checked all the water parameters and everything was good. Corals were annoyed about the lights being off but still healthy and all of the invertebrates were fine.
- Made it through the three day blackout and noticed that the royal gramma was flicking itself on the sand a lot and hiding in the rocks more than usual. It died two days later.
- A day or so later the goby kicks the bucket. I loved that fish so I'm annoyed. The scooter disappeared actually before the blackout but I suspect it wasn't that healthy when we picked it up and we didn't have enough copepods in the tank yet to sustain it.
- So now we're down to the three original survivors, purple tang and two clownfish, and they're showing the same symptoms as before. Purple tang has white spots, but is still eating and acting normal, and the orange/white clownfish is acting off. The black/white clownfish seems to be fine. I've caught the purple tang and the orange/white clownfish and have them in quarantine and I'm working on catching the black/white clownfish. That little guy knows what's up and is sticking to the rocks, hoping to catch him in the fish trap later today.
- We also have a yellow watchman goby with a bonded pistol shrimp in the tank. They've made their home under and in a big live rock in the tank. There is no way I'm getting that little guy out without taking all the live rock out of the tank. It seems to be really healthy though and loving life so I'm leaving it for now.
We're not really sure what to do from here. I can treat the clownfish and the tang again and leave them in QT for a few weeks. But if this happens every time we add new fish it's going to get old fast. It also seems like there is a lot of conflicting information out there about ick and how it should be tackled. It seems like there is one camp of people who believe you can have a 100% ick free tank, this requires quarantining all new fish for a minimum of 90 days and we'd have to leave our tank fallow for 120 days in order for it to be ick free. I can't get the watchman goby out though so it seems like this isn't an option for us. The other camp of people seem to argue that most fish have ick and as long as the fish our healthy their immune system can keep the ick under control, the fish will always have it but it won't bother them. While not the most pleasant analogy I basically viewed this as the herpes virus among people, lol. The vast majority of the population has it but healthy immune systems make it unnoticeable.
So I'm leaning towards keeping the clownfish and tang in QT for a few weeks, planning on treating them with malachite green again since it seemed to help last time and then back into the DT they go. I'm going to be good and not add any new fish for a couple of months and when I do, I'm going to buy them from a better LFS, quarantine for a couple weeks mostly just to get them feeding well and then add them to the display tank. I'll only add 1-2 fish at a time and then wait a couple months before adding anything else. Self control, I can do this, lol.
Any other thoughts or suggestions? Also any other fish recommendations? I love Potter's Angels and Royal Gramma's but I've lost two of each now so I'm inclined to try something else. At some point we want a mandarin and I would love another scooter, working on getting an established copepod population at the moment.