ICH question

Joe0813

Joe0813

Active member
Im pretty sure my flame hawk has ich... I QTed him for 4 weeks (i know its not long enough, my stupidity) I will take him out and put him back into the QT and medicate and leave him for the 9 weeks.... my question is if he has Ich does that mean my two clowns and mystery wrasse can get it/ will get it even if i take the flame hawk out? no other fish right now show no signs at all of any white spots. And all the fish are still active and eating. :headwalls:
 
never mind i found my answer... great so now i have to catch two clowns, a mystery wrasse in my sump and the flame hawk..... if i just waited out the flame hawk QT this would have never happen. what do you guys use as a ich treatment
 
Joe0813 said:
Im pretty sure my flame hawk has ich... I QTed him for 4 weeks (I know its not long enough, my stupidity) I will take him out and put him back into the QT and medicate and leave him for the 9 weeks.... my question is if he has Ich does that mean my two clowns and mystery wrasse can get it/ will get it even if i take the flame hawk out? no other fish right now show no signs at all of any white spots. And all the fish are still active and eating. :headwalls:
Click to expand...

Visibility is not a good indicator of ich. Now your whole tank has ich, not just the hawkfish. The only way to eradicate it is to treat ALL of the fish in a QT and leave the DT fishless for at least 10 weeks.
 
Unfortunately, if one fish has Ich then it's very likely the tank he was in is now infected. Not 100% (nothing is) but very, very likely. It's in the water, rocks, sand now; and it's only a matter of time before the parasites reach your other fish. You'll have to QT, treat all your fish, and the DT must be left fallow for 10+ weeks. Sorry :(
 
thanks guys for confirming.... what do you guys recommend to treat hypo or medicine?.... i have a 20 gallon qt already set up and running... is that good for 4 fish? or should i set up my 55 and use my water change water with some new saltwater?

Not really looking forward to a empty tank for 10 weeks but its my own fault. The hawk fish got very stressed when i pulled him out of QT and put him in the DT so thats why the ich became visible. but it already had it from what ive been reading in the stickies...

Gahhhh note to self - FIND YOUR INNER PATIENTS
 
Any cycled media you can use, or are you going to have to do WCs to control the ammonia? If the latter, I would setup the 55 to give yourself more leeway. All the fish you mentioned are good candidates for Cupramine; so that's what I would use.
 
i have a few sponges in my sump that i could throw in the 55... i think the 20 is to small for all 4 fish. especially since the wrasse is a jerk. im off tomorrow so looks like i have a lot of work to do. somehow i need to catch 4 fish, should be interesting. Im going to go the Cupramine route. Hopefully my LFS has it.
 
There are only two verified treatments for ich: copper and hyposalinity. I've used both, and greatly prefer hypo. I've had a much better success rate with it. If you do decide to use copper, get one of the chelated ones. It's a little gentler on the fish (but not as gentle as hypo). Any other treatment is at best, unproven by scientific tests.

Read this and you'll know as much as the experts about ich:
http://www.atj.net.au/marineaquaria/marineich.html

How to hypo:
http://www.atj.net.au/marineaquaria/hyposalinity.html
 
Read up on tank transfer. It's in a sticky. It's pretty easy, some work. It ur fish are smaller fish so should t be to hard -
 
Hal said:
There are only two verified treatments for ich: copper and hyposalinity. I've used both, and greatly prefer hypo. I've had a much better success rate with it. If you do decide to use copper, get one of the chelated ones. It's a little gentler on the fish (but not as gentle as hypo). Any other treatment is at best, unproven by scientific tests.

Read this and you'll know as much as the experts about ich:
http://www.atj.net.au/marineaquaria/marineich.html

How to hypo:
http://www.atj.net.au/marineaquaria/hyposalinity.html
Click to expand...

Hal there is 3 - tank transfer
 
i dont really think the tank transfer is good.... wont that stress the fish out chasing them around with a net.
 
Joe0813 said:
i dont really think the tank transfer is good.... wont that stress the fish out chasing them around with a net.
Click to expand...

Every method has it's downside. Most people don't know that copper is actually a poison, not a med. It works only because the fish is more adapt to outlast the parasite in copper conditions; but it is not without side effects. I've never done hypo myself; but I understand it can be difficult to maintain a proper pH in hypo conditions, and I've read countless threads from folks claiming it didn't work for them. Now I'm sure a fish doesn't necessarily appreciate being chased around with a net, and I have gotten some fish hung up in a net more than a few times. But I've never lost a fish to it. Besides, you could always just drain the water and catch the fish in something like this.
 
IMHO especially w ICH is the stress level of the fish. I don't know any method of testing the water for it but when a fish gets stressed it always comes down to it. Since its a parasite it needs a host and an unhealthy fish is perfect. You definitely need to destress the tank and make your fish healthier maybe soak all the fish food in garlic and I have used a homeopathic method to fight off ICH in the past with huge success. Keep all inhabitants bellies full, lights off or shorter periods, garlic, hypo-salinity (which can be done quickly if I remember right) and the homeopathic (which is made from a tea tree oil).
 
the tank transfer method looks a bit pricey... first id have to buy a 40 gallon tank for my other QT. Second after every transfer id have to drain the tank out, clean it and refill it.... thats a lot of salt which will had up and get pricey. Unless im reading how to do it wrong.

I went to the LFS today and they had this stuff called Ruby Reef kick-ich.... she claimed it was fully reef safe. Will not harm corals, inverts or anemones.... I did not buy it until i did some research. i cant see it working though. I did buy some other stuff that i forget the name of. Ill look when i get back from dinner.


speedo2wet what is that homeopathic method? never heard of it
 
Reef kick ich ,rid ich ,,super ich away,ich go bye-bye or whatever else they sell won't work..
Like stated ,,only 3 proven ,tried and true methods work ..

I've done hypo many times with success ..I think a big mistake people make is first they take to long to lower the salinity ..6 hours is plenty long enough to take..Then they don;t cover the tank and top off every 12 hours..

Very easy to do hypo,,never done TT,but it sounds like a bit of work
 
Joe0813 said:
if i do hypo i need to go and order a refractometer
Click to expand...

A PERFECTLY calibrated refractometer is THE key to hypo. Hypo fails a lot and I think operator error is the #1 reason. And a poorly calibrated refractometer is the #1 cause of operator error. A hydrometer is nowhere near good enough for hypo. FWIW: There a lot of folks who think some ich strains may beginning to show a resistance to the low salinity used with hypo. I think its very possible; our forum just has too many hypo failures show up. Exponentially more than when I first joined this forum.
 
I guess anything is possible ,,ich now immune to hypo,,great!
I admit i used the glass float about 7 years ago and i agree its not as accurate and i also agree with user error..
IME dropping the salinity very quickly (when compared to 48hrs or more like most people do anyway) and even going a bit lower ,,1.007 never killed a fish ..
I have read that ich may now be able to adjust to the lowering of salinity just as the fish does when it is done over a period of days rather than hours,but not become immune to it..This is why i think a lot of people also see poor results when doing hypo..IME i have never had ich come back after hypo..
 
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