How to Finally Eradicate?

[cayenne]

Guys,

I need some help from the collective wisdom in this forum. I have been battling the "infamous" ich for 9 weeks now. At week 1 all fish were removed and put into Hospital. I was running Copper Power and feeding with Garlic Extreme, and adding Vitamin C as well as doing 50% water changes every other day and then re-dosing the appropriate amount of copper. All fish have been eating and are healthy.

At the last minute, just days before putting the fish back in the DT, I started noticing a few spots on the fish. I called off the plans to put them in the DT and this weekend and after running carbon for 24 hours and performing a 75% water change I switched over to Cupramine.

At this point, I am frustrated with the lack of progress and would like to ask for any help or suggestions that can be offered. This time all of the fish only have a few spots at a time, but even though it is minor, it is still present. I've made progress, but I need help getting over this last little hill, and getting these fish healthy.

 

[cgoodman381]

Sounds like your treating them the correct way. The only other thing you could try would be hyposalinity.

 

[limitdown]

Stick to the Cupramine for 6 weeks. Most fish can tolerate Cupramine for much longer than that. The extra few weeks will give you and your fish peace of mind.

Test every other day and redose to keep concentration at 0.5mg/liter. I highly recommend using Seachem's copper test kit. I had major issues with API's copper test kit.

I've dealt with stubborn strains of ich that still stayed on my fish after 5 entire weeks of cupramine. I ended up keeping the fish in QT for an entire 8weeks. He had no problems during the 8-wk treatment and is still alive after 8mths.

I've had mixed results with hyposalinity. I suspect I was dealing with hypo-resistant strains of ich. Also, hypo and copper cannot be done at the same time or else the copper will become lethal.

 

[cayenne]

Thanks for the input.

Any comments on how often I should be doing a large water change? Should I keep up ding 50% every other day?

 

[limitdown]

If you have live rock or mature biomedia (bioballs/ceramic rings) in the QT, then you will only need to change every 5-7 days.