Hippo, ich, and feeding question

[Kaos]

When I first got my Hippo (almost a month ago) from the lfs he had no ich at all. I put him in my tank and he developed a spot here and there but went away after a couple of days (which I figured he would due to acclimation stress). Now, he has anialated my pod population and grazes constantly on the Seaweed Selects I put in there every night after feeding (w/ Kent Zoe and Garlic Extreme added). His ich goes and comes, but mostly it has been gone for the last week. Last night I ran out of Seaweed Selects and didn't put anything in there for food after feeding the tank. This afternoon when my lights came on he was eat up w/ ich (even started twitching). I fed him like I normally do and robbed some frozen spinach out of the freezer to put in the tank for constant grazing. This tang really likes to eat and will do it constantly (often stuffing himself to the point of a seriously bulging stomach). I feed once a day w/ either frozen Marine Cuisine, Emerald Entree, Omega 3 Brine, squid, brine plus flakes, and frozen Cyclopees. All of the frozen foods I soak in Kent Zoe and Garlic Extreme.

Has anyone else had this experience? What can I do to completely get rid of the ich? I am going tomarrow and picking up a cleaner shrimp or two (suggestions as to how many welcome) but other than that and getting more Seaweed Selects I don't know what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kraze3]

You need to pull your fish out and treat with hyposalinity in a hospital tank. Leave your main display fishless for 6-8 weeks and that will rid the tank of ich. Even though your not constantly seeing the ich it is still there, ich drops off into the substrate to reproduce then it attacks again. Ich is also only visible during one stage in its life cycle, and can infest a fish in the gills etc.

You could also treat the fish with copper treatment but this is a little more difiicult and the results can be deadly if done wrong.

Here is a link on hyposalinity
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

Also youll need a refractometer to measure your salinity.

 

[mark97r6]

Just wondering, can marine itch harm/be passed on by mobilee inverts? When you say leave the tank fishless, are the inverts not capable of keeping it in there?

Cheers
Mark

 

[Freed]

You CAN bring ich into your system on live rock, inverts or corals but the ich only feeds on fish. Anything that is WET should be QTd for at least 4-6 weeks before putting into main system. Although ich does not feed off of corals, inverts or live rock it can hitch hike into your system on them.