hypo & ich - how long?

[Benny Z]

when treating for ich via hyposalinity, how long into the treatement should it be before the spots on the fish are visually gone?

i've been running hypo @ 1.009 (freshly calibrated refractometer) for a little over a week, but still see spots on my powder blue tang. is it possible my refractometer is off? i had anticipated the spots would be gone after a day or two. was i expecting too much?

also, is there any harm in treating via hypo for longer than a month?

 

[6stringpenguin]

The total lif cycle of Ich is 2 weeks. 6 weeks total at .009 is the suggested amount of time for hypo.

 

[Gwynhidwy]

It is my understanding that it is possible for the parasite to remain attached to the fish for as long as two weeks, however it is normally a much shorter time period. However I have also been told that when water conditions are not optimal for the parasite, as is the case in a hyposaline tank, they will remain attached longer than the normal amount, but not longer than two weeks. I have been fortunate to not have much experience with ich, so this isn't based on experience just what I've read/heard.

 

[Benny Z]

thanks! that's what i was wanting to know. i'll see how it looks after another week and report back. everyone is acting fine - no striking - eating normally - etc... the pbt just still has maybe 10-15 specs on him.

 

[Zooguy]

Powder blue with ick

Powder blue with ick

My Powder blue got ick as soon as I put him in the tank. To much rock to get him out so I started putting the tangs food in a blender with a small chunk of garlic. Then after it was ground down I let it sit for 10 minutes then I just poured it in the tank. I also went out and got 2 cleaner shrimp (yellow and red with a white stripe down the back. They jumped right on him and chowed down. Now after a week he is ick free and has made 2 close friends.
My yellow tang and flame angel fish also line up for a cleaning.

 

[Gwynhidwy]

I've heard good things about garlic too. I've also had great luck with the skunk cleaners actually cleaning fish, but I know some people who've bought them and they don't clean the fish at all. Also, because the parasite that causes ich infests the gills as well, I'm not sure that they could actually rid a fish completely of the parasite. They can certain help though and are great fun to watch. No hyposalinity for them though!