ICH strikes again - how long?

[gfox]

Today was a sad day. Ich took down my 3 little buddies and now I am looking for the solution. I realize that the disease remains in the tank, but my question is... for how long?

Now I have an under water garden of soft corals. As much as I want to go get a new set of aquatic friends, I am going to keep a quarantine tank for as long as its going to take.

Thanks for the help fellow reefers.

 

[e55MD]

I am caught up in the same mess. You need to keep your tank fallow for 8 weeks. My tank is a FOWLR- at least you have some corals to look at. All I have is rocks!

 

[JurisHP]

My Hippo Tang has been fighting a bad case of Ich for over 2 weeks now. I tried a course of Kick Ich--no change. I have treated the food with garlic--no change. It seems like it comes and goes. When I get home from work, it seems pretty much gone, but when I wake-up EVERY morning he is COVERED in Ich. It doesn't seem to be affecting him too much--still swimming, eating and having minor scraps with the other fish (3 Yellow Tangs, 2 Percula Clowns). I can't remove him--too fast and too much LR---any other suggestions? My water parameters are great.

 

[limitdown]

5wks of Cupramine at 0.5mg/liter was not enough for me on a few occasions.

 

[e55MD]

Limitdown,

My bioballs did not have time to fully colonize in my DT sump. So, my ammonia spiked to 2.0 in my 240 gallon HT. Consequently, I have been doing daily 30-50% water changes. Tonight I did a 75% one. Do the math- it really sucks. Today I got some mature biomedia from my LFS so hopefully thing will get better. Ich really sucks..........

 

[limitdown]

Yes, mature biomedia from the LFS should work for ammonia.

The one problem I see is that the biomedia could carry with it other pathogens like flukes. Although Cupramine can kill flukes, I've found Prazi-Pro to be much better. If your fish starts to twitch his body or head, then consider dosing Prazi-Pro alongside copper. The 2 drugs are compatible.

 

[CAROLGYRL]

MAKE A CLEAR PLEXIGLASS BOX, WITH A LONG HANDLE SO YOU CAN HOLD ON TO IT,AND LOWER IT INTO THE WATER A WAYS- WITH A SLIDE LID ON THE SIDE,RAISE LID UP, PUT SOME FOOD IN IT, ATTACH IT,THAT WON'T COME OUT, OTHER FISH WILL PROBLABLY GO IN THERE AND NIBBLE SOME, BUT i SAW SOMEONE( WHO FILMED IT) CATCH THIER HIPPO IN 6 MINUTES!!WHEN HE FINALLY GOES IN, LOWER THE SIDE LID, GOT HIM!!

 

[e55MD]

Limitdown,

My LFS has a large QT facility separate from their retail store. The biomedia I got has been seeded with nitrifying bacteria for several weeks. It is "sterile" in the sense that it has never been in water habited by fish so it should not be carrying any additional disease.

 

[limitdown]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13319639#post13319639 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by e55MD
Limitdown,

My LFS has a large QT facility separate from their retail store. The biomedia I got has been seeded with nitrifying bacteria for several weeks. It is "sterile" in the sense that it has never been in water habited by fish so it should not be carrying any additional disease.

It's great that your LFS offers this. I wish the LFS's in my area did.

 

[scouncil]

I added a powder blue tang and a purple tang to my 220 gal mature tank with a large naso tang. The naso has survived a prior ich attack several months ago and all my fish (the surviving ones) went into a quarantine tank with low salinity, elevated temp and no lights for 8 weeks. The 220 only had live rock, shrimp and starfish in it which I was told couldn't carry ich.

Now it's been over 8 weeks AFTER the finish of the quarantine and the powder blue AND purple both got ich. Garlic, plenty of food and greenery and the powder blue bit it after a difficult fight of about 2.5-3 weeks. The purple looked bad, but not as bad and I got a cleaner wrasse that basically followed the purple around and cleaned him up. The powder blue wouldn't let him near. Then the purple and naso were doing well, several weeks later, added a regal (I'm stupid, I know) and now he's got ich. In just 3 days. I'm trying kick ich and my LFS says they will have some cleaner wrasses in tomorrow. I know they don't live long, but they sure did save my purple. I just hope the regal lives long enough to make it with the cleaner wrasse. I have cleaner shrimp, but they just don't do the job. If this regal dies, I'm not going to add any more tangs.

 

[limitdown]

I've had mixed results with hyposalinity, but have had great success with Seachem's Cupramine copper. Some people have mentioned hypo-resistant strains of ich. Others have suggested 1.006 as a better level.

Either way, I've found Cupramine to be more consistent and it's been well-tolerated by every fish I've administered it to. I highly recommend using Seachem's copper test kit (the one with the dip stick and white powder) as I've had major problems with API's copper test kit.