Ick!!!
- Thread starter ssungyo
- Start date
janakaybravo
New member
Move fish to qt tank and use either hyposalinity or cupramine. Follow directions in the threads in this forum.
Psionicdragon
New member
hyposalinity is a good method, but you need to monitor the salinity level constantly and the ph. However, this is hard on the fishs' kidneys.
Copper method is another good method which allows free floating/swimming parasite (ick) to be elimiated, but it is hard on the fish.
Make sure you do not have any inverts in either methods.
Copper method is another good method which allows free floating/swimming parasite (ick) to be elimiated, but it is hard on the fish.
Make sure you do not have any inverts in either methods.
If you are certain problem is ich, then hypo is safer method. If you choose this method, make sure you have a refractometer or a digital salinity monitor. Keep specific gravity around 11-14 ppt, or around 1.008 - this is a little low, but it will give you margin of error should water evaporate. The problem is that hypo is ineffective against some disease such as Amyloodinium. If you want to treat with copper medication, i'd recommend moving fish to bare bones hospital tank because there will be some residual copper in the tank and you'll be unable to add inverts/rock. Bottom line, if you want a simple solution and just want to treat that tank, just use hypo. One last thing I must remind you of - if you do hypo, you'll have to remove the rocks/invert/substrate during treatment. however, you will be able to add the rocks/invert substrate after treatment.
kypatriot
Premium Member
I posted the following to another thread in this forum:
I have gotten rid of ich a couple times with a diatom filter. (not repeat infestations, but newly acquired fish in QT)
Basically I just freshwater dipped and let the diatom filter run for a few weeks on the QT. It claims to filter out anything larger than 1 micron, which includes the swimming stages of ich (says in the marketing materials that it is effective for ich).
I was skeptical, but it has worked a couple times. I guess the idea is that your fish fights off the ones already on it, and the filter removes the swimming ones from the tank.
I ran normal salinity and no meds of any kind, just used the filter constantly for a few straight weeks. It seemed to work completely, and had no kind of adverse effects at all. I think it was about $100 from a LFS, and has eliminated ich from QT a few times now (as opposed to the cost of copper, test kits, fish dying from copper exposure, etc).
I've also used it in my QT a few times just to clean up the tank some (using a turkey baster to stir up the junk & let it filter it out).
I have gotten rid of ich a couple times with a diatom filter. (not repeat infestations, but newly acquired fish in QT)
Basically I just freshwater dipped and let the diatom filter run for a few weeks on the QT. It claims to filter out anything larger than 1 micron, which includes the swimming stages of ich (says in the marketing materials that it is effective for ich).
I was skeptical, but it has worked a couple times. I guess the idea is that your fish fights off the ones already on it, and the filter removes the swimming ones from the tank.
I ran normal salinity and no meds of any kind, just used the filter constantly for a few straight weeks. It seemed to work completely, and had no kind of adverse effects at all. I think it was about $100 from a LFS, and has eliminated ich from QT a few times now (as opposed to the cost of copper, test kits, fish dying from copper exposure, etc).
I've also used it in my QT a few times just to clean up the tank some (using a turkey baster to stir up the junk & let it filter it out).
kypatriot
Premium Member
I have a Vortex D-1. The manufacturer website is here:
www.diatomfilter.com
They mention Ich under the FAQs (in "Can I run my Diatom Filter continuously?") Note that they say all you can do is to knock down the population of parasites, which would lower the virulence, and thus make the fish able to fight it off easier. On the bag of filter powder (a different brand), it says that it will filter out anything bigger than 1 micron, including tomites.
I have read that the mechanism of action for copper is that the fish makes more mucous than normal, so it is harder for the parasites to imbed. My thought was that a diatom on a small enough tank (like a 10 or 20 QT) can do a good job of eliminating the tomites before they can become trophonts.
www.diatomfilter.com
They mention Ich under the FAQs (in "Can I run my Diatom Filter continuously?") Note that they say all you can do is to knock down the population of parasites, which would lower the virulence, and thus make the fish able to fight it off easier. On the bag of filter powder (a different brand), it says that it will filter out anything bigger than 1 micron, including tomites.
I have read that the mechanism of action for copper is that the fish makes more mucous than normal, so it is harder for the parasites to imbed. My thought was that a diatom on a small enough tank (like a 10 or 20 QT) can do a good job of eliminating the tomites before they can become trophonts.
kypatriot
Premium Member
Here is some more info:
http://www.diatomfilters.com/index.html?lang=en-us&target=d5.html
http://www.diatomfilters.com/index.html?lang=en-us&target=d5.html
