Have ICH looky here!!!!!

[loyalrogue]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15270873#post15270873 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Iwishihadgills
How is it that i have an idol in the tank and he doesnt have one spec of ich lol

If there is Ich in the tank then the Idol has it.
An Ich infestation isn't always visible to the naked eye.
The gill tissue is especially susceptible to the Ich parasite and can carry a subclinical case of Ich without the aquarist ever noticing.
A subclinical infection can also escape detection by either too few parasites finding the host fish to be noticable and/or cysts in areas of low contrast.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15272752#post15272752 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by loyalrogue
If there is Ich in the tank then the Idol has it.
An Ich infestation isn't always visible to the naked eye.
The gill tissue is especially susceptible to the Ich parasite and can carry a subclinical case of Ich without the aquarist ever noticing.
A subclinical infection can also escape detection by either too few parasites finding the host fish to be noticable and/or cysts in areas of low contrast.

I agree---all your fish should be removed and treated including the idol. Your tank should remain fishless for 4-6 weeks to kill the ich off in the display tank.

 

[sikpupy]

What about me? I have been reading all day, litteraly, I am burnt and can not find a difinitive answer to my question, so I need to ask.

I want to take all my shrimp, snails, corals and basically anything but fish out of my tank.

I do not have a lot, if any, worms and just a few pods.

I plan to scoop out about 4-5 cups of sand, put that in another tank with the snails and such. Then drop the display to 1.009.



With all the sand and rock, will I get rid of the ich in 6-8 weeks if I do hypo?

The tank:

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15337474#post15337474 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sikpupy
What about me? I have been reading all day, litteraly, I am burnt and can not find a difinitive answer to my question, so I need to ask.

I want to take all my shrimp, snails, corals and basically anything but fish out of my tank.

I do not have a lot, if any, worms and just a few pods.

I plan to scoop out about 4-5 cups of sand, put that in another tank with the snails and such. Then drop the display to 1.009.



With all the sand and rock, will I get rid of the ich in 6-8 weeks if I do hypo?

The tank:

the bacteria on your live rock will take a good hit during the hyposalinity but will grow back. However when adding the fish back you should do it slowly so the bacteria can recycle.

all the organisms in your sand bed will probably die off or drastically reduce in numbers. However if you seed it with the six cups you removed you should be okay.

Plankton cycles in the water itself will also be disturbed and possible killed off.

Corraline algae on the rocks could die.

It appears like you don't have that many fish---why not remove them instead of disturbing what appears to be a nicely established tank?

 

[sikpupy]

Because I did that last time, and, its back again. This time, instead of stressing the fish trying to catch them, stress them in a holding tank and not being able to see thier normal movements ( being in a forign place like another tank, they will hide, like last time) I figure I would keep them in the DT. This way, I can watch thier actions, controll water perams a little easier, have a skimmer online supplying more oxygen, use my reactor for charchol etc.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15343448#post15343448 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sikpupy
Because I did that last time, and, its back again. This time, instead of stressing the fish trying to catch them, stress them in a holding tank and not being able to see thier normal movements ( being in a forign place like another tank, they will hide, like last time) I figure I would keep them in the DT. This way, I can watch thier actions, controll water perams a little easier, have a skimmer online supplying more oxygen, use my reactor for charchol etc.

I am not sure about the effectiveness of a skimmer with 1.009 salinity. Perhaps someone like the Water Keeper can answer that one

 

[Aquarist007]

Okay I checked it out---the skimmer will still work

 

[sikpupy]

The skimmer was basically to keep oxygen in the tank high. If it did actually produce some skim, then that would be a bonus. Thanks for checking it out for me.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15345511#post15345511 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sikpupy
The skimmer was basically to keep oxygen in the tank high. If it did actually produce some skim, then that would be a bonus. Thanks for checking it out for me.

not a problem---I like to check these things out also

 

[Aquarist007]

Tom --Wkeeper--the sticky seems to have been removed from this thread??

 

[WaterKeeper]

Yeah,

I clearing out the bulk of the stickies to help with the upgrade. It is now in the Look Here for Answers thread.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

WK, sre there any plans to make this a sticky again??
edit: never mind

 

[pclausen]

I posted here about a pair of clowns that had ich back almost 3 months ago. I used the tank transfer method with a pair of 10g tanks, and it was 100% effective. So after the 6 week fallow period, the clowns were re-introduced to the 180g reef tank and the eel was put into the 150g fowlr tank. As stated before, both tanks share a common sump/skimmer.

Anyway, over the next 6 weeks I added a number of additional fish directly to the main tanks (I know what you're gonna say) as follows:

180g reef
1 Blue Tang 5"
1 One Spot Foxface 4"

150g fowlr
2 Yellow Tangs 4"
1 Humu Picasso Trigger 3"
1 Porc Puffer 3"

Everything was going great and everybody was happy, until I introduced a 3" Dog Face Puffer 2 weeks ago.

About 1 week ago, I began noticing spots on the Blue Tang, Foxface, Porc and Dog Face. Nobody else showed signs.

So this weekend, I setup a 40 breeder at a hospital tank, using a XP3 canister filled with live rock rubble and the foam pads in the bottom. It had been running on my sump for about a month already.

I moved all fish (9 total) into the breeder (I had to pull out 400# of rock from the 2 tanks to catch the tangs and trigger). I began copper treatment Saturday afternoon, and so far all 9 fish are getting along well. All are eating like pigs. I'm using Cupramine and will be adding the 2nd batch of drops tonight (64 drops for 40g).

Anyway, my primary question is, can I leave the snowflake eel in the fallow system or will he be a host for the ich?

2nd question, am I asking for trouble having the following in a 40 breeder for 6-8 weeks:

2 Yellow Tang 4"
1 Blue Tang 5"
1 One Spot Foxface 4"
2 Ocellaris Clowns 2"
1 Humu Picasso Trigger 3"
1 Dog Face Puffer 3"
1 Porc Puffer 3"

Amazingly, they all seem to be getting along fine right now, but perhaps that is because they are all still settling in?

And yes, I learned my lesson this time, EVERYTHING is going in a QT going forward!

 

[WaterKeeper]

As far as I know the snowflake is a carrier so I'd treat it too. That is quite a crowd so make sure you keep an eye on the tank for fights, especially from the trigger and clowns, and do about 10 gallons per day in water changes. You join legions of reefers that play the odds in reefing, Pete. Some people never QT and get away with it but it only takes one infected fish to screw things up big time.

 

[pclausen]

Ok, I'll see about catching the eel and setting up a tank for him. He's about 16" now, but hopefully he will be ok in a 10g with some 1.5" PVC pipe in it so that he can hide.

In doing the water changes, I take it I would add copper to the water buckets just before pouring them into the hospital tank, correct?

Also, can I get away with using water from the fallow display since I'm doing copper, or should I use freshly mixed water? I ask because my fishroom is in the basement, but the display and hospital tanks are upstairs. I have an automated water change system setup for the main tanks, so it would be real easy for me to replenish anything I drain. But I'm fine with draging buckets up from the basement if I have to.

 

[WaterKeeper]

No you can use water from the display as any free swimming parasites would be killed by the added copper. Dosing in the bucket is the easiest way as you don't need to recalculate the dose each time.

I was thinking you had a small snowflake but with a 16 incher he might try to eat something like a clown. The ten gallon is the right place for him. Eels do well in confined spaces as it is in their nature to lurk.

 

[pclausen]

No you can use water from the display as any free swimming parasites would be killed by the added copper. Dosing in the bucket is the easiest way as you don't need to recalculate the dose each time.

Excellent! That sure will save a lot of effort.

My snowflake was about 11" 3 months ago, but he's grown like crazy since then. In addition to him being a threat to the clowns, I was under the impression that eels cannot tolerate copper. Is that not the case?

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15384401#post15384401 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pclausen
Ok, I'll see about catching the eel and setting up a tank for him. He's about 16" now, but hopefully he will be ok in a 10g with some 1.5" PVC pipe in it so that he can hide.

In doing the water changes, I take it I would add copper to the water buckets just before pouring them into the hospital tank, correct?

Also, can I get away with using water from the fallow display since I'm doing copper, or should I use freshly mixed water? I ask because my fishroom is in the basement, but the display and hospital tanks are upstairs. I have an automated water change system setup for the main tanks, so it would be real easy for me to replenish anything I drain. But I'm fine with draging buckets up from the basement if I have to.

Since you are going to treat the water you can use the water from the display. It will have all the correct water parameters that the fish are used to so there will be less shock in transfering them.

 

[pclausen]

wk, looking at your instructions for copper, I see that you recommend keeping the copper level at between 0.2 and 0.25, yet the directions on the Cupramine bottle says to bring it up to 0.5 over 48 hours. The instructions also state that fish can tolerate concentrations as high as 0.8 but that one should not exceed 0.6. So should I target 0.25 or 0.5?

Also, I have coarse and medium foam pads in my canister filter in addition to live rock rubble. Should I remove the rubble as I understand it will absorb some of the copper?

 

[WaterKeeper]

I based that dosage on using inorganic copper sulfate (WK is inherently cheap and that costs the least). Organically complexed copper usually requires a higher dose to be effective. Go with the lablel instructions.

As to the rubble; if you plan to reuse it then don't use it. If you can discard it after the treatment, then fire away.