Ich on fry!!

[tooshay]

I have been doing water changes on my fry tank with water from the main tank. Well....I didn't even think about my hippo tang that gets a few spots every now and then. I looked at my babies this morning and several of them have ich. Has anyone had this happen and is there anything I should do about it? The fry are 2 week old onyx perculas. Thanks.

 

[Titus77]

A fresh water dip might kill them, but if it doesn't, then you could have created the world's first freshwater clownfish. Then you could sell them for buku bucks. Billionaire anybody?


I wouldn't fresh water dip them, or put chemicals in there. I am surprised that they got ich. Do they even have scales yet? I don't believe that there is anything that you CAN do. Sorry to be the one that has to tell you that. Maybe they will pull through. Just ride it out. They are too young to do anything to anyway. If you try to brush the ich off, you might hurt their internals. Chemicals could kill them, but maybe not straight up copper. Um, and a fresh water dip could burn them too much and give them defects, kinda like Atomic waste on humans :lol:. If you are willing to risk the lives of your fry, I would suggest the copper. Just do little increments at a time.

 

[tooshay]

Titus, have you ever raised clownfish or had fry with ich?

 

[reefman13]

I would try a hypo treatment.

How old are they?

Have they been eating?

 

[tooshay]

They were 2 weeks old yesterday. They are all eating like pigs and seem healthy other than the spots.

 

[Titus77]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12711606#post12711606 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tooshay
Titus, have you ever raised clownfish or had fry with ich?

Actually, yes, I have. I bought 2 Ocellaris from my LFS when they were 2 weeks old. Had them until they were 1 year old, but then the male thought that one of my tube anemones was one that he could host in, so I had the female a couple months after the male became anemone food. She died of ich. And by fry, I thought that you meant a couple days old to a week. Sorry.

 

[tooshay]

I wasn't sure if you had actually tried any of the things you mentioned on babies or were just trying to figure out a solution that will help them. I had a baby cardinal swim right into a tube anemone immediately after I put him in the tank. I was heartbroken because I had raised him from birth.

 

[reefman13]

I would say hypo is your best bet along with adding garlic to their foods.

 

[Titus77]

It sucks. Sounds funny though. And what a tradgic death. They were probably happy to be put into the "big tank" and were swimming with their eyes closed (I know that it is impossible for them to close their eyes) and swam right into it...........or they were just suicidal! LOL! :lol:


I would try putting them in your QT (if they aren't already) and put a little bit of straight up copper (the liquid kind) into the tank. I forgot the dosage amount, but I will check once I get home (I have a ton of that liquid copper with a dosage amount on it. Don't ask me where I "found" it :lol. How big is the tank that they are in?

 

[fittiger]

Copper is a horrible idea! Clowns tend to be sensitive to copper. Fresh water will not burn them if the pH is the same, which is how it should be done........atomic waste???

I think your only real options are to ride it out or do a hypo treatment. A fresh water dip won't do any good if the parasites are still in their tank. If hypo is done, be sure to maintain the pH and watch for ammonia as the nitorgen cycle performing bacteria may not be as active.

 

[tooshay]

They are still in the larval tank with no filtration. I do small daily water changes to keep the ammonia in check. Baby clowns are so fragile and I don't want to do anything to kill them. They can die from shock just moving them to a grow out tank! I might just leave them alone and see if they can shake it.

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

That is not true about all copper treatments..I used cupramine on my two chrysopterus, now they are healthy and completely free of ich. You must use a salifert copper tester with it though. to make sure you don't go over 0.5 mg..anything over that is toxic. This cupramine has been known to be safe on copper sensitive fish and is very affective. It worked wonders for my fish

 

[Slakker]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12711732#post12711732 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Titus77
Actually, yes, I have. I bought 2 Ocellaris from my LFS when they were 2 weeks old.

I highly doubt that...2 week old clownfish have BARELY completed metamorphosis. Unless your LFS breeds the clowns themselves and are incredibly irresponsible about selling them, this statement is simply not true. 14 day old clownfish look like THIS.

 

[Titus77]

Well, they must have done something wrong, because they sold me an 8" gigantea nem for $40. :lol:

 

[Slakker]

.....oooookay.....that doesn't mean they sold you two week old clowns. The fish would likely not have survived even being moved to your tank at 14 days. The store may have only had them for two weeks...but contrary to popular belief, creatures are not born the moment they arrive at the store.

Back to the topic at hand, the gentlest Ich treatment is hyposalinity, however I have no recollection of ever reading about it being used on fry. Either way you choose to go on this is going to be a gamble...if they're eating well for you, maybe the best course of action this time around is to wait and see...if they make it, you've got some tough little clowns...if not, well, it'll be a sad day.

I don't know what to suggest in avoiding this in the future, either...unless you move EVERYTHING out of the display tank and leave it fallow for a good month, it's pretty much always going to have ich in it, and you certainly don't want to disrupt the spawning pattern of the parents...hopefully someone else has dealt with similar issues in the past.

All I can say is best of luck...I hope they pull through.

 

[tooshay]

Thanks. The only way I can think to prevent this from happening again is microwaving the water and cooling it before adding it to the fry tank. Hopefully that will kill any pathogens that could harm the babies. They all continue to eat well and are very active, so I will keep watching them for any signs of distress before taking action.

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

Why aren't you using water that you've mixed, insted of water from your display, to change water in your fry tank? Is this what everyone does when they do water changes for their fry tank? I thought I remembered people using aged mix water.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12715795#post12715795 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tooshay
Thanks. The only way I can think to prevent this from happening again is microwaving the water and cooling it before adding it to the fry tank. Hopefully that will kill any pathogens that could harm the babies. They all continue to eat well and are very active, so I will keep watching them for any signs of distress before taking action.

hehe be sure to double check the salinity after doing this...not sure how much it would be effected by heating but if you bring the water to a boil you are going to lose some water...

 

[tooshay]

Newly made salt water is too harsh and can kill the delicate fry. Joyce Wilkerson suggests using water from the broodstock tank when doing water changes.

 

[phender]

I think I remember JHardman saying that his fry actually did better under lower salinity. I would give it a try. I don't want to sound mean, but if your clowns are like most you probably have a new batch ready to hatch if these don't make it.