help on treating ich!! what should i do?

[roman17]

i have a 100 gal salt water tank, and i have ich. when i had gone on vacation a month ago, almost all my fish died because the person who was supposed to take care of them didnt, and before i left, there was ich on the fish and i treated them with kick-ich, it didnt work too well though. two small sargent majors were left alive when i came back and i havent had fish in the tank till 2 weeks ago. about 4 days ago, my royal gamma was very sick with it and i just let it go. i had caught a juvenile queen angelfish in the ocean 4 days ago too, i was hoping it wasnt going to get it but when i woke up today, it was covered in ich. it seems as if the sargent majors carried it on? im new to saltwater and i had gave the queen angel a fresh water dip because i read that it helps a little but i reallllly need help, any experienced aquarists out there?

 

[MrTuskfish]

FW dips do nothing for ich and there is no such thing as a "reef-safe" cure for ich. Sometimes, very healthy fish can fight off ich. That isn't the case with your fish. IMO, your only option is to treat all your fish in a QT and let your tank remain fishless for at least 6 weeks. (The more I hear about ich life-cycles, the longer I think this period should be, IMO- 6 weeks+ is minimum) Please read the stickys at the top of the disease section, you need this info. Also, I'd sure set up a QT and start using it on all new fish---or you'll never live ich-free.

 

[lagatbezan]

FW dips do nothing for ich and there is no such thing as a "reef-safe" cure for ich. Sometimes, very healthy fish can fight off ich. That isn't the case with your fish. IMO, your only option is to treat all your fish in a QT and let your tank remain fishless for at least 6 weeks. (The more I hear about ich life-cycles, the longer I think this period should be, IMO- 6 weeks+ is minimum) Please read the stickys at the top of the disease section, you need this info. Also, I'd sure set up a QT and start using it on all new fish---or you'll never live ich-free.

+1 on what MrTuskfish said.
I would definitly set up a qt and treat with either cupramine copper or hyposalinity.
Here is the link to the sticky:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1992196

 

[Sk8r]

Read the stickies: they will give you what you need to know.

 

[ariel47]

Ijust treated my achilles with crypto pro in a QT. worked great

 

[MrTuskfish]

Ijust treated my achilles with crypto pro in a QT. worked great

This is a brand of Quinine sulfate, right? I've heard a lot of good things about this stuff and some real experts (Fenner, et al) are considering it their "treatment of choice" for ich, in a QT, of course. I have some on the way and will try it on an ich infested fish from my LFS. I still can't figure out why this stuff isn't commonly available.

 

[roman17]

thanks guys, how big of a tank should the qt be?

 

[MrTuskfish]

thanks guys, how big of a tank should the qt be?

Of course, the bigger, the better. Craigs list is a great place to find all you need at a great price. The more fish, the bigger the tank you'll need and your wallet and available room will help you decide. When you get your present fish cured, use it to for all new livestock and you'll never need to go through this again. All you really need is a tank, HOB filter, heater, any sort of light, and some pieces of PVC (for shelter). there are many reasons, other than ich, to use a QT/HT and (IMO&IME) its absolutely essential for long-term success. I'd bet the farm that not using a QT has led to more people giving up this great hobby/addiction than any other single factor. (Except plain lack of research, maybe). here's a little light reading: http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=205
http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=205

 

[roman17]

hmm i went to my closest fish store and they said make sure everything is good before you make a qt, i found that my temp for the tank is at 85 during the day and 79 at night, wich i heard is a drastic difference, im gonna fix this and if it still comes back ill set up a qt

 

[snorvich]

This is a brand of Quinine sulfate, right? I've heard a lot of good things about this stuff and some real experts (Fenner, et al) are considering it their "treatment of choice" for ich, in a QT, of course. I have some on the way and will try it on an ich infested fish from my LFS. I still can't figure out why this stuff isn't commonly available.

Yes, it is quinine sulfate, which I believe is an antimalarial treatment. If you do this, please annotate the process for us so all can share in your experiment. Thanks!!

 

[EllieSuz]

If all your fish have died, killing off the Ich is quite easy. Just leave your tank fallow (without a single fish in it) for eight weeks. Ich needs fish to sustain itself through the various stages of its life cycle. Without a fish in the tank, it will die off, given enough time. If your living fish have signs of Ich, the comments above are absolutely accurate and you will need to treat them in a separate tank. Good luck to you.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Yes, it is quinine sulfate, which I believe is an antimalarial treatment. If you do this, please annotate the process for us so all can share in your experiment. Thanks!!

I sure will. It is a malaria drug and malaria is running rampant in parts of the world now; that may be why quinine products are hard to come by.

 

[MrTuskfish]

This is a brand of Quinine sulfate, right? I've heard a lot of good things about this stuff and some real experts (Fenner, et al) are considering it their "treatment of choice" for ich, in a QT, of course. I have some on the way and will try it on an ich infested fish from my LFS. I still can't figure out why this stuff isn't commonly available.

I've gotten opinions from some techs at a couple of fish-med manufacturers & online retailers. Most of my questions have been answered; with company opinion, of course, not necessarily proof. Q.S. is a generic drug, so anyone could market it. The retailers see very little demand, so they don't buy from the very few distributors that have it. Drug Mfgs don't want to deal with the bureaucracy of 50 states to sell a drug with little demand. We Fishkeepers are a very small group. The Tech people feel that QS will work well on ich much of the time; but copper (at proper strength) will work on all free-swimming parasites (theronts) all of the time. Both tech people commented that QS was very hard to keep in suspension and impossible for a hobbyist to monitor drug level. They both said that the claims that QS will kill not only ich, but oodinium and brooklynella (in all its life-cycle forms) were blatantly false. One Tech I talked to did the actual tests for his company and was obviously a very experienced hobbyist himself. He didn't give me numbers, but said using QS on ich infected fish, following the directions exactly, often left live theronts.
So I'm not going to use it, just one rather biased opinion. I think QS would work well, much of the time. However I like copper and sure won't argue with proponents of hypo, and will stick with the copper. BTW, the talk surrounding QS sure seems to have disappeared as fast as it appeared.