How quickly does ich fall off?

[Squared]

I bought a fish two days ago, no visible signs of ich. On the second day, when I came home from school, the fish had a single white dot on it's tail, and about 2 or 3 three hours after I saw it it was gone.

Can the visible stage of ich finish feeding off a fish in less that 24 hrs? I moved the fish to a QT so I am ready to start treatment at any moment.

 

[Squared]

The fish is now breathing more rapidly, and sometimes bobs it's head up above the water. Appetite is not what it should be.

Should I assume the worst and start a cupramine treatment? The fish is a dwarf angel.

I don't think I have enough time to safely bring the salinity down to hypo levels.

 

[Dmorty217]

Every three days the ich will fall off and become tomites or something to this effect that then reside and multiply in your substrate. The tank transfer method is very effective in eliminating ich.

 

[Squared]

Well then it's probably not ich, but he is breathing rapidly and whenever I turn the filter off on the QT, he tries to jump out of the water. Is he gasping for breath? When he swims, he is also a bit wobbly.

 

[sleepydoc]

Could be ich, or velvet - they can resemble each other at times.

You can drop the salinity pretty quickly for hypo - just have to go slow on the way up. As mentioned, tank transfer is a quick, effective method of dealing with ich.

If it's not ich then hypo and tank transfer will be useless. Copper will treat both ich and velvet. Angels are known to be sensitive to copper, so I would go slow if you choose this route.

Was this fish in your display first? If so you've exposed your entire display to whatever it has. Have you tested the qt water? If the white speck occurred in the DT, it could have been sand and now the fish is reacting to something in the QT.

 

[Squared]

Unfortunately I did put the fish in the DT first even though I had a working QT. I honestly don't know why I do certain things some times...my only other fish a hawk, so I'm not too worried as he is easily caught with food in a glass jar.

Ammonia and Ph have been stable, as well as temp. Salinity is around 1.030, I'm trying to bring that down.

Running carbon and filter floss atm. He eats very little, but I'm starting him on metro/focus soaked foods, alternating with garlic/vitachem soaked foods.

As of now he is still breathing rapidly and shimming..

If it's a parasitic infection in his gills, can I start dosing prazipro? That will be fine with hypo if needed right?

Edit: I put some dim blue lights over the QT, and the angel decided to take a late night stroll through tank. He does gasp at the surface, or is lethargic, but he is still breathing heavily.

He only flops at the surface if I leave the filter off for a few minutes, and try putting food next to him. I think he is trying to jump out, because he went airborne and did a flip and splashed my face. I have no idea what would have him so distressed.

 

[Squared]

Today he is not eating, he tried to munch on piece of mysis but it was too big for him, and he did not accept brine.

The fish is coming out a little more, but he is still breathing very rapidly. The hawk in my DT looks perfectly healthy.

Coloring on the fish is still very vibrant, and eyes are clear. It's just that he's breathing so quickly, he's not as active as it should be.

The fish's gills seem normal as well, nothing hanging out of them. I don't know what to do. No scratching on the rocks.

 

[triggreef]

Cupramine is very safe IMO and I think you should start there. You will need an ammonia alert badge as most ammonia tests will give a false positive reading from the cupramine. 4 weeks at least. I do this on all new fish no matter what. Then a double dose of prazi.

A seminar I just went to today explains why... A study they did on random wild caught fish, averaged 37 parasites (Internal and external) found per fish. This does not mean an average of 37 ich parasites. This means 37 different types of parasites.

Between copper and prazi, you can kill most of them.

 

[Squared]

I'm skeptical to start copper as I've read that dwarf angels are a bit sensitive and that it shortens the fish's lifespan. I didn't know people used copper as a preventative. I did start a prazipro treatment, 2.5ml for a 10g QT.

 

[SantaMonica]

If it helps, when I added a fish a few weeks ago my hippo was instantly covered in ick... but I hooked up the 57w UV and once again, the ick was completely gone in 7 days.

 

[sleepydoc]

UV will not cure ich. It can potentially reduce the parasitic load in the tank, but what you probably described is the ich going through it's life cycle.

Copper an be hard on fish. I and others have lost fish from copper treatment. OTOH, it is a very effective treatment for ich and also treats velvet.