ich in my tank .... please need help

[OTCHU]

ok, i explain my situation ........

My bule hippo tang have ick (about 20 spot on her boddy) ... So I decided to put all my fish in a quarantaine tank. In the main one, I have some coral.

My question is maybe a little stupid but ... I use Coppersafe by Mardel. The bottle said: 1os per 4gallons but do I have to put this amount everydays ??? or just one time during one month. I am pretty sure that everyday but I want to be sure !

Another question: I have mandarin but I can't but him in the quarantaine tank because he needs live rock for the food .... I read that he has a better chance to be OK with the ick desease. Is that true ?


Thank you very much for your helps guys

vincent
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[FishinAround]

You'll need to take all the fish out of the tank for at least 8 weeks. If there are any fish left in the tank the ich will continune to propogate and live even though the fish in the tank may be OK or not show any signs of ich, basically ich need fish to live. To break the "reproductive" cycle of ich you must leave the tank without fish for at least 8 weeks. I'm in the middle of the same situation and have a mandarin fish, I took him out of the tank and put him in QT, he now has luckily adapted to eating frozen food, but you really have no choice you must take him out of the main tank. You also need to invest in a copper test ket to monitor levels at least daily. You usually only have to dose the recommended dose once then add a little every now and then to keep at the proper level or if you do a water change but again, you need a test kit to monitor copper level. Copper to low won't kill and and copper to high will kill fish. There are a few really good article on ich so hopefully someone will post a link, I'm not that adept. Good Luck.

 

[Tony44]

I am pretty sure you can leave the mandarin in the DT, I am no expert, and not 100% sure, but as far as I know Mandarins cannot get ich.

 

[Freed]

Tony, you may want to dive a little further into some research on ich. ANY fish can get ich, even mandarins.

 

[Grins]

I am fighting Ich with Coppersafe at the moment as well. You'll want to follow the directions and add 1 tsp to 4 gallons of saltwater. I do a water change every day and yes add the coppersafe back at the same ration. So I if I put 4 gallons of new water in I add one tsp of the meds in. Not the full dose again. You'll want to be sure you have the appropriate type of Copper test kid during this and check the levels to be sure you aren't over or underdosing.

Good luck.

 

[kevin2000]

My 02

The reason that ich is lethal in our aquariums is that each individual ich has the ability to generate 100's more. Given the right circumstances a single ich can wipe out a tank.

When dealing with ich you goal is to eliminate all ich .. that means the ich on the fish, the ich swimming in the water, and the ich that may be in the substrate, live rock etc.

When your show tank has ich you should assume that all fish have ich .. QT and treat all the fish. Once you have removed all the fish from the show tank then the ich left in the show tank will die off since they need fish to reproduce. In theory if you leave the tank without fish for about 28 days the ich should die off .. many would recommend at least 5 weeks.

Mandarins are less likely to die from ich .. they have a thicker mucus lining which helps retard ich. But Mandarins do get ich and it only takes one ich to allow ich to perpetuate in your tank.

I would recommend Qting the Mandarin. You can purchase pods or feed it live brine shrimp .. depending on the other fish you may want to qt separately since they tend to be dorky hunters.

In general you should always use a copper test kit when you use copper ... not sure which kit works with Mardel. Too much copper is harmful to the fish .. too little and it won't eliminate the parasite.

You might consider using hypo salinity .. easier on the fish and easier to administrate.

Heres a link discussing ich ... might help.

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/marineich.html