Help. Ich

[nkkm]

Hi All

Yesterday is spotted my clowns seemed to have some white speckles and today they look to be covered in it white spots. No other fish have any signs of it. The clowns are active and eating well.

The hard part.....

I go away on business tomorrow for 2 weeks. My girlfriend usually looks after the fish but I am not sure she would be able to hand ammonia issues etc if I was to QT them today.

Any ideas?

 

[devildog999]

I just got done with my 12 week hospitalization yesterday and it sucks but must be done ASAP!. Waiting 2 weeks could be disastrous for the rest of your tank. Of the 20ish fish I had in my tank, only 5 survived. If I had QTd as soon as I spotted the ich, I would not have lost over 300 bucks in fish. The other fish might not have signs but they very likely have it as well saying as ich lives in the gills and you don't see white spots until the ich has progressed.

The best thing to have her to is replace a gallon of water every day and feed lightly and she should be able to take care of it for you while you are gone for 2 weeks. Just leave her 2 containers of the same size and mark them drainage and refill. Everyday she can use a cup to fill the drainage one and fill the other one with fresh water and pour it in. Keeps it easy for you and keeps your fish alive. That and she has to add a little everyday for evap. Shouldn't be too difficult.

Good luck, was so happy yesterday when I got to put my fish back into their tank. Now I get to start restocking and will not have any fish not go in before a QT, just not worth it.

 

[MrTuskfish]

If you can't treat them, there is no reason to move them to a QT now, IMO. The entire tank has ich, so all the fish have it; not just the clowns showing symptoms. Ich takes its toll and fish need to be fed well during treatment. Moving them now, assuming to an uncycled QT, would just create ammonia issues in the QT and the remaining fish in the DT would almost certainly be showing signs of ich anyway. Assuming this ich; I'd just make things as healthy as possible in the DT, leave instructions to remove any dead/obviously dying fish, feed well, and hope the fish can fight it off until you return. The ich life cycle will often allow this much time, but not always. Unless you can give a crash course in copper or tank-transfer; I see no other option. If this happens to be velvet or brooklynella, rather than ich, your problem is much worse. I'm required by law to say that this could have been prevented with a good QT regimen with all new fish.

 

[snorvich]

/\ This.

 

[nkkm]

Thanks for the replies.

The above was my thought as well as I think it would be too much for her to deal with copper and ammonia. I realize everything has it, just hoping with them being active that they could fight it till i get back. I have kept up a QT regime with the fish but must have messed up somewhere. The only thing I can think of is maybe there was contaminated water on some cheto I put in?

My thought is that a rise in temperature the last week has caused stress to the fish. I went and got a chiller this afternoon so I hope that will help. I will have her feed with garlic whilst I am away.

 

[MrTuskfish]

"Stress'' doesn't cause ich; only ich causes ich. Garlic has no short-term benefits, but long-term, it may help the fish's immune system. It won't cure parasites, but can improve appetite and your fish need the help while you're away. Garlic seems to give many folks some peace-of-mind.....and that's OK too.

 

[h2so4hurts]

Might want to think about getting that QT tank going while you're gone. I bet your girlfriend can add top off water to it for you