Ich outbreak questions

I

icarly

New member
Hey guys, I have some questions on how I should go about treating my 55g tank. All my fish are absolutely covered in ich. I Will be treating with Cupramine tomorrow once I buy it.

Livestock list is as follows:
-blue tang about 2.5"
-yellow mimic tang 2"
-1 fox face rabbit fish
-coral Beauty
-blue devil damsel
-jewel damsel
-4 stripe damsel
-1snowflake clownfish
-2 ocellaris clownsfish

My question now is, should I remove all my live rock and substrate since I plan on using it for my new 125g tank build and leaving it in a big plastic tub while I treat the tank?

Will removing them have any ill effects on the tank?

Any and all help is appreciated, thanks!
 
All of the fish need to come out for 72 days, so that the ich is completely eradicated. You will also need to treat the fish.
 
If I understood correctly, you plan to treat the fish in the 55G and then move everything in a new 125G tank. If that's the case, then yes, you need to remove all inverts, corals, rocks and sand. If you don't have corals, an easy solution is to place the sand, rocks and inverts into a container such as a brute and keep them there with a heater & a powerhead. Make sure to add some fresh water from time to time to keep the salinity in the expected range.

Once you add cupramine to that 55G tank, it will be contaminated with copper. So all the equipment inside won't be safe for inverts or corals from then on. You won't be able to use any of that equipment on your new tank if you want to have inverts or corals in it.

The 55 tank will most likely go through a shock. Removing all substrate and live rock will cause a big drop in bacteria so expect a spike in ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Moreover, the copper will shock the bacteria from the water column for couple of days, so that will increase the spike in toxins.

I suggest to add a HOB filter & maybe some bio-balls to provide a medium for bacteria. Some folks also have sponges ready to be used as bio mediums. For fish add some large PVC connectors or similar to have some hideout places.

Be ready to do water changes throughout the treatment. Specially in the first phase of the treatment since you will need to reduce the toxins from water until the filter and bio-balls kick in. But through the treatment as well since the reduced filtering will have a hard time to keep up with the toxins generated by fish.

The WCs will need to be primed with cuppramine, which means the containers where you prepare the new water won't be usable later on for WC on your new tank - they will be contaminated with copper.

FWIW, I personally prefer the hyposalinity treatment for ich. I've done that twice with very good results. AFAK, it is much easier on fish, although it requires a good level of monitoring during the first weeks to keep the pH stable (a pH probe and controller helps a lot). It also has the advantage that it won't contaminate the QT tank and the equipment.

I'm not trying to sway you from cuppramine. A lot of folks used it successfully as well. Just be prepared with the consequences for the treatment tank & equipment.
 
icarly said:
Hey guys, I have some questions on how I should go about treating my 55g tank. All my fish are absolutely covered in ich. I Will be treating with Cupramine tomorrow once I buy it.

Livestock list is as follows:
-blue tang about 2.5"
-yellow mimic tang 2"
-1 fox face rabbit fish
-coral Beauty
-blue devil damsel
-jewel damsel
-4 stripe damsel
-1snowflake clownfish
-2 ocellaris clownsfish

My question now is, should I remove all my live rock and substrate since I plan on using it for my new 125g tank build and leaving it in a big plastic tub while I treat the tank?

Will removing them have any ill effects on the tank?

Any and all help is appreciated, thanks!
Click to expand...

You crammed all those fish in a 55? Wow...
If you remove all of your rock and substrate you will be removing all biological filtration. With that amount of fish in such a small tank with no biological filtration ammonia/nitrites will build up within hours.
Ich will also live on rocks until it can attack a fish so I would let the rocks fully dry out for a few days to weeks in order to kill the ich that is living on the rock. I would get rid of all of the old sand and start with fresh substrate in the new tank.
As mentioned above I would do TTM on all of the fish as it is easier on them than copper. Copper is a very harsh treatement on the fish and can kill them if used improperly.
 
agreed

agreed

WLachnit said:
Agreed. My suggestion is to do TTM. It's a lot easier on the fish than copper treatments.
Click to expand...
+1 on this.



set up the 125 gal without putting any of the substrate or rocks from the old iched up 55 gallon tank. simultaneously do TTM for the fish. After TTM introduce the fish in your 125. After 72 days you can transfer the substrate and rock from your old 55 gallon tank to the new tank. If you lose your patience and decided to use the substrate and rock just in 30 or 40 days instead of 72 days then most likely you will get the ich in your new 125 gallon as well.

TTM would be my choice as I have seen copper killing the fish (on some occasions) even before it kills the ich. During copper treatment the fish looks fat and healthy but then it suddenly dies most likely due to organ failure (liver/kidney).

never take a untreated fish anywhere near your display in future, that would be my suggestion.
 
Thanks a lot, you guys have answered pretty much all my questions!

As for "cramming" them all in there I knew I was upgrading within a few months so I didn't see anything wrong in keeping them in there in the meantime.

I'm blaming this ich outbreak on the fox face, I didn't qt him like I did with all my other fish. Never doing that again.

One O.Clownfish has passed away unfortunately.
 
icarly said:
Thanks a lot, you guys have answered pretty much all my questions!

As for "cramming" them all in there I knew I was upgrading within a few months so I didn't see anything wrong in keeping them in there in the meantime.

I'm blaming this ich outbreak on the fox face, I didn't qt him like I did with all my other fish. Never doing that again.

One O.Clownfish has passed away unfortunately.
Click to expand...

I do.
 
Formalin, ttm, prazi and then quarantine for observation then into display the fishes go. That's my routine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
MMacro said:
I do.
Click to expand...

To each is his own. Plus that's a whole other topic which we're not going to get into on this thread.

I made this thread to get some opinions and help on the best way to deal with my unfortunate ich outbreak.

Thank you for your help!
 
fool proof method but......

fool proof method but......

scuzy said:
Formalin, ttm, prazi and then quarantine for observation then into display the fishes go. That's my routine.

This method takes care of most of the diseases, i.e.,
    1. Formaldehyde for marine velvet, uronema marinum, brooklynella and other tough ones that doesn't respond well to antibiotics/prazi/CP/TTM/Other medications.
    2. TTM takes care of the ich protozoa
    3. Prazi takes care of flukes and other ectoparasites

    but...... I personally stay away from Formaldehyde as some studies had shown that rats developed nasal cancer when exposed to formalin. Formalin has been a strong suspect in other forms of cancer in humans as well. It is a strong carcinogen suspect.

    Also, if the fish has even a mild sore/wound on its body, then it is a death sentence for the fish when exposed to formalin even at mild/lower concentrations of formalin. Also, oxygenation of water is very important if formalin is used. formalin can be rough on the fish too. Just sharing my experience.

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
 
Formalin baths works for me. Haven't lost a fish since doing this regiment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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