ick...again!!

F

flowergirl

Member
i'm getting pretty frustrated with this whole thing! i've now lost 3 fish in qt and my newest fish now has a spot on him after i've put him in my dislay tank.
i've had two coral beauties die with ick after treating them with cupamine in a qt tank for 3-4 weeks and a royal gramma after 3 weeks.

so this time i bought a small yel tang and really talked to the marine expert at hte lfs and we discused my troubles with qt. he freshwater dipped the the tang before i brought him home and he seemed to be doing fine in the qt tank. he was eating and swiming just fine and seemed clear of any infection. i left him in there for 6 days and before something went wronge like the othersthat i put him in the display tank. now 3 days later i see a little spot on his back fin :confused:

does everyfish get ick??? this is so upsetting!

i know the whole procedure of getting hte fish out and letting hte tank sit for 6 weeks but wow..is there any other way
 
I can almost bet that the FW dip and the whole bagging and netting the fish didnt help with stress. Since these fish are primarily prone to ich any increased stress can quickly turn into a parasite.
Plus your tank could have had it to begin, I would leave the tank fallow for 8 weeks and quarantine and treat with copper for also 8 weeks. This way you can be sure it doesnt happen again.
 
my tank sat fallow for 6 weeks last time and my two clowns have been back in the tank for 2 months and never picked anything up.

the prob is that my qt tank is only 10 gal so it would be alittle crowded with three fish and i seem to have trouble keeping the amonia down with one fish in there with reg water changes let alone three fish.

have people had much sucess feeding garlic or with any reef safe meds?
 
Feeding garlic will help with there immune system but isnt a cure. For a ich medication you could use a product called Green X. I have used it before and it has worked flawlessly.
It is safe for all corals,pods, inverts etc. I didnt have one snail, crab, coral die while treating. You have to follow the directions closely. I dont like to tell people to us meds unless it is thelast resort.
 
i just called the lfs and they don't have green x but they have kick ick and say that it is reef safe..any ideas about that med?
 
thanks for the refrence to that article. i must say i'm a little nervouse seeing how i have a seabe anomone in my tank as well. oh, the problems we are faced with in this hobbie....but it is all rewarding!

blown 346 i was wondering if you have an anemone in your tank and if so how did it react?


thanks again
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6429535#post6429535 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flowergirl
thanks for the refrence to that article. i must say i'm a little nervouse seeing how i have a seabe anomone in my tank as well. oh, the problems we are faced with in this hobbie....but it is all rewarding!

blown 346 i was wondering if you have an anemone in your tank and if so how did it react?


thanks again
Click to expand...
I had a BTA and it acted like its usual self, was open and happy. The corals and such acted as if I never treated the tank, I was happy with the product.
 
Re: ick...again!!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6427525#post6427525 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flowergirl
i left him in there for 6 days and before something went wronge like the othersthat i put him in the display tank. now 3 days later i see a little spot on his back fin
Click to expand...

WAIT!!!!!! DO NOT TREAT IT YET!!!!!

I am suprised no one caught this...

If I am reading correctly you are talking about finding a small white spot on your yellow tangs back fin. This is good!! That means he is growing up. Yellow tangs have a white spot on thier back fin.. If I read wrong.. Then just ignore me and I will blame it on the meds I am taking...See below pic:

marinedepotlive_1877_10670566
 
i have used kick ich as a last resort and like blown i also don't like to tell ppll to use meds in this type of cause but anyway kick ich worked great on my tank and i have a RBTA and it didn't act any diff. than normal. just make sure to read and follow the instructions real close.

also i was feeding formula 1 pellets with garlic so i am sure that may have helped also boost their system up to help fight off the ich.
 
thanks for the responses

it is a true ick spot, not it's little weapon.

i tried to catch him last night without taking any of my tank down and it did not work. i picked up some of the kick ick but wanted to wait until today to get more advice before i treated the tank with it. i also bought some pure garlic extract and soaked his nori in it last night hoping this will strengthen his immunity.

a couple of things i am wondering about are, it says on the bottle that your skimmer will reduce the meds iffectiveness..should i turn it off and if so for how long would it be safe to do so? the lfs aslo told me to keep the lights off but won't this hurt my corals?

thanks again
 
yes.. turn off the skimmer while treating..

Also if he is in a QT tank you may slowly drop the temp to about 75 degrees. IMO and IME ick can't live well in those temps, but fish can.

Drop tank by 1 degree per day or per 12 hours.

Another trick i have learned is cut the lighting way back. i dont know if it has been proven, but here is my logic. When it is dark the fish tend to relax and sleep (if they are night sleepers). To get rid of ick you want to keep he as relax as possable.

Just my .02
 
don't ya think that if you chase the fish around, and move it AGIAN it will just stress the fish out, causing a worse outbreak?

I really say leave it alone, unless it gets worse... taking it out of the tank will stress it farther, weakening its immune system...

just... leave it alone for now, and see what happens in say: a week.
take a picture of it today, and compare it in a week. If it is worse, THEN treat it.
 
Flowergirl - I have been using the hyposalinity treatment for all newly acquired fish regardless of their health status, I then slowly bring the SG up from 1.009 to 1.025 in a 4 weeks time. All my fish are healthy. I don't know if others are doing the same thing but this process has been giving very good results.

(P.S. - If you try this..make sure you don't have any snails/invertabrates in the tank..fish only)
 
i should be doing hypo in my qt but i only have a swing arm hydrometer right now and from what i undersatnd i need a refractometer (sp) to do it properly. next on my wish list.

fareforce- if i drop the temp would it harm my corals? i thought i've read you should put the temp up so that is speed the ick's life cycle along. and.. if i turn off my skimmer for the treatment which is 15 days wont' that casue more trouble or should i only turn it off on the days that i actually dose the meds? (i think it's everythree days)

thanks
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6438630#post6438630 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flowergirl

fareforce- if i drop the temp would it harm my corals? i thought i've read you should put the temp up so that is speed the ick's life cycle along. and.. if i turn off my skimmer for the treatment which is 15 days wont' that casue more trouble or should i only turn it off on the days that i actually dose the meds? (i think it's everythree days)

thanks
Click to expand...

Yes dropping the temp that much would possablly hurt your corals (I thought he was still in QT). If he is in your main tank I would just let him be for now, and re-evaluate on wednesday or thursday.

If he still looks bad on wednesday then dose meds (make sure there is NO COPPER in it!!). With your DSB and LR you will be fine without a skimmer for a few weeks.

Between now and wednesday, make sure nothing is picking on him, and feed him what ever he likes the most with garlic. I would reccomend doing a 1.5x dose of garlic on his food. Make sure you let the garlic sit in the food for at least 30 mins before you put it in the tank. This will allow the garlic to saturate into the food.

Also dont try to QT him. That will stress him more. What corals do you have? As long as you dont have any SPS you can cut your lighting back to 3-4 hours a day for about a week, and try to keep the tank dark when the lights are off. This will help the fish "sleep" and rest up to get better. Just dont forget that when you go to bring your lights back on at full, you need to increase by 1 hours per day until you are at your full cycle again.
 
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