ich and spotted box fish

[Ritt]

I have a spotted box fish that is eating well but has come down with ich over the past few days. I would say that it is on the verge of being a fairly sever case. I have been doing 50% water changes in my quarantine tank every other day. I am torn on what to do to cure the ich because of the sensitive nature of the fish.

I have had decent luck with Hypo Salinity over the past few years. This is my normal quarantine procedure. I was recently readying some past issues of reef keeping magazine and they had a 2 part article on ich. One suggestion is to do a a 50% water change every day for 2 weeks. This is the easiest on a sensitive fish. Does it work? I have some copper safe but have never had luck with copper treatments. The one time I tried it the fish I was treating was dead by the next morning. I was also reading the quarantine procedure on live aquaria in the divers den section. They state they treat all there fish with copper. As many of you know they have some very delicate species that come up for sale.
Just torn on what to do. Should I try the hypo treatment, copper, or stick with the water changes every day and hope the fish will get better.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you
Ritt

 

[thepudge]

I would not do 50% water changes every day. First, it will not remove the ich completely and second, such massive water changes will be very stressful for the fish.

I had success using copper with my cowfish. Use copper, test every day (important!!!) to make sure your levels are right, and you should notice improvement in a couple of days. Just observe carefully -- if the boxfish doesnt react well do a water change or use a polyfilter and get the copper levels down a bit.

If you're uncomfortable with copper, you can use hypo (just don't use hypo and copper at the same time). One or the other should give your boxfish a chance at recovery.

 

[Ritt]

Thepudge Have you ever used copper safe

 

[thepudge]

Yeah actually that is what I used for my cowfish. It worked and did not seem stressful -- only problem is that because it is chleated copper it is more difficult to test for -- make sure you get a test kit specifically intended to measure coppersafe -- most copper test kits will not work. Otherwise it is fine.