ich?

[linz13]

alright... so i should get another tank for the rest of the fish... or should i just put them all in with the angel... that would seem to be really crowded to me... sorry im asking so many questions!

 

[kevin2000]

Once a tank has been infected its prudent to assume that all fish have ich ... as such you need to QT and treat all of those fish with either hypo or copper. The number of fish you have dictates the size of the QT ... you can always use more than one QT.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13003314#post13003314 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by linz13
alright... so i should get another tank for the rest of the fish... or should i just put them all in with the angel... that would seem to be really crowded to me... sorry im asking so many questions!

what kind of filter do you have on the qt? and how many fish are we talking about here.

Probably the best situation for you is to go and buy a 20-30 gal plastic tote from home depot for 15 bucks and use it.

In order to rid the ich from you display tank it needs to be fishless for 6-8 weeks.

 

[linz13]

alright good call.. i have an eclipse one... i took out the carbon so it wouldnt deactivate the medicine at all.. and i have about 4 other fish... ill probably go out and get a plastic tote. no more fish for my display. justttt inverts... theyll be ok right? hopefully i can rid my display of ich once and for all thanks to everyones help! i appreciate everything so much!

 

[Freed]

Even though you can't see the ich on the other fish, it could still be(very likely) in the their gills or in the sand/substrate, floating in the water or laying dormant on the rock, corals, inverts, etc waiting to hatch and then swim around to find a fish to live on and infest. That is why it is a good idea to leave the tank fallow of fish for no less than 4-6 weeks after the last spot of ich is seen on the fish in QT and why it is also a good idea to QT anything wet prior to putting anything into the main tank after a purchase or bringing a new specimen home.

And you can forget about all those "reef safe" bottles of water the LFS try to sell you. They have never been proven to cure ich in a reef tank as of yet. The three methods I mentioned above ,as well as the few others mentioned, are the only PROVEN methods of killing ich.

 

[linz13]

alright thanks! just one more question... is it true that ich's life cycle can only last 11 weeks? i'm definately not gonna play around with leaving the fish in there... i'm definately going to qt them all, but i've heard that the life cycle of ich can only last about 11 weeks then its definately gone... is that true? and should i wait the full 11 weeks before i put the fish in or will it be ok for just 4-6 weeks because it wont have any fish to survive on. it cant attack my inverts right?

 

[Aquarist007]

you need to run the filter on the display tank for 3 or so days so it can get enough bacteria to handle the ammonia in the quarantine tank.

If you are going to hyposalinate you can also add a few pieces of live rock from the display tank---they will cycle back really quickly after the salinity has been returned to 1.026

As long as there is a fish in the tank then there is a possiblity for the ich to survive.
Your tank has to be fishless for 6-8 weeks and you have to quarantine your fish now for 4-6 week
And technically you have to hyposalinate each new fish purchased from now on---although many just observe them in quarantine for a couple of weeks.

 

[linz13]

ok thanks =]. im gona go out and get a tub to put the fish in for now.. ill run the filter on it and try hyposalination. ill grab some rocks from the display and put them in and then in a few days ill put all the fish in it.. im gona get a big tub for them. thanks so much!