Ich what to do

lunchmeat

lunchmeat

New member
I have a 40 gal saltwater tank and have noticed some ich on my yellow tang i do not have a qt tank so i have been treating my display tank i used quick cure and it went away but i only used it one day and the ich was gone then it came back so i used quick cure again (for one day) now today it is back again now i have got some coppersafe for saltwater fish can anyone tell me if it will come back or should this coppersafe work and what am i doing wrong
also i raised my temp to 81 degrees and have done no water changes
 
kcsalt said:
I would just feed it very well and maybe soak the food in garlic. Don't use the copper.
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That may help but will not get rid of the ich. By doing that method you are only setting yourself up for disaster down the road. In my opinion its better to get rid of the ich and QT all fish going forward.
 
RBU1 said:
That may help but will not get rid of the ich. By doing that method you are only setting yourself up for disaster down the road. In my opinion its better to get rid of the ich and QT all fish going forward.
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Can you explain why it would just be a disaster down the road? I don't understand?
 
Feeding food soaked in vitamins and garlic is good as it adds nutritional value to the food. This in turn may or may not increase this fish's imune system helping it fight off the ich. However ich is still in the system and any stress that may occur could result in another outbreak usually being worse than the first. In my expierience it just keeps getting worse till it wipes out your tank.
 
Well there is several opinions on this. In my opinion yes adding a properly sized UV with the proper flow will help kill the ich that passes thru the light. The key here is properly sized and proper flow. If my memory is correct when I was researching UV you need a unit in watts half the size of your total water volume. So lets say you have a 100 gallon tank you need at least a 50 watt UV. The problem that may arise is the elevated water temp you may have with the UV size and water flow.
 
Alright that could probably get expensive fast. As for myself I have a 300gal system so a 150w unit would probably be fairly costly(don't know for sure haven't price checked). I do know that from past expierence that I can't seem to catch any of the fish in my DT. Seems like it would just cause undue stress to the fish in turn causing an even larger ich outbreak. Thats why I suggested overfeeding and garlic. Any ideas?
 
I was in the same boat as you. I have a 300 gallon system that I tore down twice to remove the fish. A 150 watt uv will probably run about $1000.00 that is if you go with Emperor Aquatics, thats who I looked at.

As far as idea's. It all depends on what you want to do. I like more expensive fish so I now QT and treat in Cupramine and Prazipro every fish I buy. I left my main tank fallow for 3 months, set up a 125 that I use as a QT and so far it seems to be working. I have a Blue Angel Hybrid, Multicolored Pygmy angel, yellow coris wrasse and a pair of black and white percs in the 300. I currently have a pair of crosshatch triggers and a chevron tang in the QT. I plan on getting a school of anthias and one or two more show fish all of which will go thru QT. If I were you I would remove all my fish and treat them leaving your main tank fallow for 12 weeks and I can say that because I have done it......
 
Sorry for hijacking your thread Lunchmeat....Hopefully some of this info will help you also....
 
Well I know I can't spend a grand on a UV...lol... the wife would kill me!!!
As far as taking all the fish out and letting the tank fallow(I'll search the meaning of this later). That would mean removing most if not all the LR which would cause masive damage to coral since they are all incrusted. What to do What to do?
 
kcsalt said:
Well I know I can't spend a grand on a UV...lol... the wife would kill me!!!
As far as taking all the fish out and letting the tank fallow(I'll search the meaning of this later). That would mean removing most if not all the LR which would cause masive damage to coral since they are all incrusted. What to do What to do?
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Yeah its a PITA but can save you a bunch of issues in the long run. Keep in mind that if you decide to remove all the fish and leave your tank fallow you must QT everything wet. That means snails, corals, rock .....everything. Even though snails, corals and rock can't host the parasite there is a chance it can be in the water or in the snails shell........So call me paranoid but nothing new, other then treated fish will be going in my 300
 
When speaking in terms of Crypt (Marine Ich), leaving the tank fallow means no fish as the parasite will die off without a fish host. The existing rock, inverts and sand need not be removed, just the fish, for 5-6 weeks with the temp above 80F. For future additions, it is advisable to QT everything, anything wet can and will re-introduce the parasite.

Lunchmeat - sorry we're a tiny bit off topic, but please give us some more details of your setup and if you have another tank available for QT.
 
Chris27 said:
When speaking in terms of Crypt (Marine Ich), leaving the tank fallow means no fish as the parasite will die off without a fish host. The existing rock, inverts and sand need not be removed, just the fish, for 5-6 weeks with the temp above 80F. For future additions, it is advisable to QT everything, anything wet can and will re-introduce the parasite.

Lunchmeat - sorry we're a tiny bit off topic, but please give us some more details of your setup and if you have another tank available for QT.
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All of the reading I have done suggests a longer fallow period usually in the 8 week range but I prefer to go 12 to play it safe. After all that trouble whats a few more weeks....
 
I have run into this problem as well. I have a 250gal total system and some how I have been seeing white spots on all my fish now and again for the past month. The only thing I can think of new was I bought the tangs some caulerpa to eat and I think it came in on that. All the fish are still eating and I have always run a UV, but I don't want the ICH to become out of control. My problem is I can't catch all my fish and I have no where to put them in the mean time. What should I do? I have an achilles tang that I can't exactly cram into a 50gal for 12 weeks. Any opinions on formalin as a treatment?
 
rydr119 said:
. Any opinions on formalin as a treatment?
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Formalin can be effective as a dip, but care should be taken as it's easy to overdose, and the fish should still be in QT before and after the dip. No matter how many dips you do, you'll still have the parasite in the display unless you remove all the fish for a while.
 
Never treat with medication in your display tank!!

Remove all fish from display and put in QT. If you don't have QT, get QT. You can use a rubbermaid tote, with a powerhead and heater for QT, if needed.

Treat ALL fish, IN QT, with hyposalinity, for 8 weeks. During this time, keep display tank FISHLESS for the same 8 week period. This is the only way to guarantee eradicating Ich from your display.
 
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