The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by shilala

It's an old girl, she was in the kid's tank for a couple years. She has ich bad. I have to start medicating the tank in the next couple days. I'm not looking forward to it. Everyone else is doing better, but she isn't. Good eater, though. I may just keep waiting it out. If I could catch her, I'd just dip her and set her loose.

Wow!
That is a record for a Rock Beauty.
They are very finicky sponge eaters that just gradually starve in captivity as they never really take to the foods we give them.

Scott, diseases and parasites was my thing.
As far as the ick, on a reef, that goes hand in hand. Taking that fish out and dipping it will help relieve it of the cysts on his body but the moment he is back in the tank, all the larvea free swimming from when they bust up in the sand and go looking for a host will end up on him again. Each cyst that drops off him (the little salt you see on him) will eventually release about a 1,000 larvea looking for a new host and the cycle starts all over again. The ones that find a host eventually develop into the ones you see on his body. The ones that don't find a host right away, die quite quickly.
Given only live rock in there from what I recall seeing in the photo, I would lower salinity and raise the temperature.
Lower your salinity to around .012. Sounds crazy but trust me, won't hurt the fish at all. Long term studies have revealed they can be fine two years later at that level. That helps the cysts not reproduce as much and combined with the higher temperature, causes their life cycle to speed up considerably. I have done this salinity level with many fish and tanks worth thousands of dollars a fish and have lost none to it.
Crank the temperature to 82 and if still an issue a few days post lowering salinity and raising the temp, increase a couple of notches to 84. Make sure they have plenty of oxygen which will be the concern as at higher temps, it is much less available to them.