Ick from a Fire Shrimp?!?!?!?

[FxdupCobra]

I cant believe it. I have been ick free since last summer. I recently put in a fire shrimp in my tank (did not use the water from the LFS) and now after a couple of days I believe I see ick on one of my fish. The shrimp is the only new addition to my tank in months and I did not Quarantine it since I didnt think it can carry ick. Now I have a big problem on my hands. I am going to try kick ick (I know it usually doesnt work but I dont want to take the fish out and put them into Q-Tanks). Its just a big headache for me!!!!! :eek2:

 

[kevin2000]

While ich will only infect fish ... the ich in the tomont (reproductive) stage can attach to most surfaces including shrimp, snails etc. Most people don't QT their inverts and seem to avoid ich so I don't think that the hitchiking tomont is common but it can happen.

Another possibility is that your fish had already acquired a limited immunity to ich and you had a low (undetectable) level of ich in you system .. the insertion of your fire shrimp or some other event may have created a bit of stress lowering the immunity of the fish allowing the pre existing ich population to expand.

Best method to insure you have an ich free tank is to QT and treat all fish (whether they shows sign of ich or not) ... leave the ST without fish for about 5 weeks ... and QT all future livestock.

Hope this helps.

 

[FxdupCobra]

I had my tank in hyposalinity for 8 weeks last summber to get rid of all ick (it was a pain). Now I have live rock, live sand and corals so that is not an option. I know I am probably going to end up Quarantining the fish separate from the display tank however for now I am going to just replace my bulb in my 36 Watt UV Sterilzer , raise my temperature to 82 and use kick ick and hope it works. I just hope this process doesnt hurt my corals.

 

[FxdupCobra]

(bump)

 

[FxdupCobra]

Well the treatment is on a scheduled basis. I know its not the best approach but I just hope it takes care of it. I have turned off my protien skimmer for the time being for the "kick ick" to fully work I have heard its a hit or miss with that product. If it doesnt work I will put both fish in a Q-tank and leave the display tank empty. Lets see how it goes.

 

[snd637]

establish a hostpital tank and use ick meds or raise temp in ur current tank...

 

[FxdupCobra]

What sould I put the temp to? I have a Coralife 36 Watt Turbo Twist UV steriler, on a 700 gph pump. What should I set the rate of the pump to?

Thanks!

 

[janakaybravo]

You could try to feed garlic, but ultimately will have to pull the fish out and I know this is a pain. I just went through the 8 weeks myself (what a lot of water changing). I'm going to qt everything from now on, even inverts.

The challenge of qt tank is a cycled filter. You should put a sponge in your sump to grow bacteria and have it ready if you do decide to qt.

Also helpful to me was the fact I caught all my fish without having to remove anything using jar method and inverted bottle method.

Good luck!