Marine Ick

[McTeague]

I bought a juvenile sailfin tang two weeks ago. It has developed ick. I have been doing freshwater for a long time and I always use malachite green or methelyne blue drops to treak the entire main tank. My research indicates that one almost never treats the main tank but rather uses a hospital tank. I do not have a hospital tank however. Can I use a freshwater dip to treat this like is done for black ich with the yellow tangs? Can I combine freshwater dip in a bucket with malachite green/methelyne blue drops? I have found these chemicals to be extremely effective and apparently harmless to the animal. Any advice would be appreciated. Also, my research suggests thay formalin is extremely toxic and/or cancerous to me? Even the vapors from the treated water are dangerous? Seriously, is that true???

 

[kau_cinta_ku]

freshwater dips won't kill off all the ich. and the reason ppl don't treat the main tank is because most meds will kill off the LR and alot of the other things. your best bet would be to get a hospital tank setup and treat all your fish together. depending on the size of fish a 20 gal will work just fine. and then treat with hypo or copper.

also [welcome]

 

[McTeague]

Yeah, I guess a hospital tank is pretty much required with saltwater. I guess I can put it off no longer... Thanks for the quick response!

 

[harryk]

yea QT the fish. Tangs are sensitive to copper, if your gonna use it i would recommend Cupramine. It's not as harsh as the other copper products. But you might want to look into Hypo with the tang.

Good luck
Harry

 

[ahullsb]

I agree to qt the fish. And if you don't want to buy a qt tank, you can always use a rubbermaid garbage can if you have quite a few fish. Hypo salinity is my favorite method, but copper is effective as well.

 

[jennibee13]

ive never had a hosp tank , or qt anything, start soaking your food in garlic juice and kent marine-c....................it works, if you keep your parameters stable of course, stress free is a big part of it

 

[fishyvet]

McTeague, I understand your confusion regarding marine vs freshwater ich. They are actually two different organisms but are both commonly referred to as "ich." Marine ich is a much more aggressive parasite and can become deadly to fish quickly. It's life cycle is also a lot longer than the freshwater ich.

There are only 2 proven ways to cure marine ich: copper and hyposalinity (1.009 SG). Feeding garlic is nothing more than a palliative measure to try to build up the fish's immune system to fight off the parasite itself. It does not rid your tank of the disease and it will rear it's ugly head again in times of stress (heater malfunction, new fish addition, competition for food, poor water quality, ect).

Your fish need to be treated in a separate hospital tank to preserve the biofiltration and any invertebrates in your display tank. A hospital tank does not have to be fancy. A rubber maid container, heater, HOB filter and PVC for your fish to hide in is all you need. You will need to purchase a refractometer to measure salinity accurately if you go the hypo route. Copper levels need to be measured at least daily if you use it. An ammonia alert badge will save you a lot of testing. You may be doing water changes every other day if you don't have any media to cycle the hospital tank with.

ALL of you fish must be treated. Not just the ones showing signs. All fish must be removed from the tank for a minimum of 6-8 weeks to break the parasites' life cycle, which needs fish to survive. QT all your new additions from now on to keep the tank disease free.

There are plenty of stickied threads in the fish disease and treatment forum. Read them and then you can make an educated decision about how you want to handle your problem.

 

[McTeague]

Thanks!

So methelyne blue and malachite green are not used at all for marine animals?

 

[bertoni]

Not for marine ich. Methylene blue will help with some external parasites.

 

[jennibee13]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11413723#post11413723 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishyvet
McTeague, I understand your confusion regarding marine vs freshwater ich. They are actually two different organisms but are both commonly referred to as "ich." Marine ich is a much more aggressive parasite and can become deadly to fish quickly. It's life cycle is also a lot longer than the freshwater ich.

There are only 2 proven ways to cure marine ich: copper and hyposalinity (1.009 SG). Feeding garlic is nothing more than a palliative measure to try to build up the fish's immune system to fight off the parasite itself. It does not rid your tank of the disease and it will rear it's ugly head again in times of stress (heater malfunction, new fish addition, competition for food, poor water quality, ect).

Your fish need to be treated in a separate hospital tank to preserve the biofiltration and any invertebrates in your display tank. A hospital tank does not have to be fancy. A rubber maid container, heater, HOB filter and PVC for your fish to hide in is all you need. You will need to purchase a refractometer to measure salinity accurately if you go the hypo route. Copper levels need to be measured at least daily if you use it. An ammonia alert badge will save you a lot of testing. You may be doing water changes every other day if you don't have any media to cycle the hospital tank with.

ALL of you fish must be treated. Not just the ones showing signs. All fish must be removed from the tank for a minimum of 6-8 weeks to break the parasites' life cycle, which needs fish to survive. QT all your new additions from now on to keep the tank disease free.

There are plenty of stickied threads in the fish disease and treatment forum. Read them and then you can make an educated decision about how you want to handle your problem.

not to be a smart***, but if i havent seen any signs of it in 4 yrs, where do you suppose it survives and on what? surely it cant lie dormant forever

 

[Avi]

I've found that marine ich isn't so deadly as feared. That does depend on a number of things, though. First of all, if your tank is generally healthy with good water quality, for the most part, the fish are not stressed and so are able to combat the ich on their own, so long as that good water quality and healthy condition in the tank is maintained. In that case, the ich should pass on its own in a matter of three to four days. If the fish are eating while the ich infection is apparent, that's a sign that they will beat it.

The treatments that fishyvet described are the way to go if you want to treat the fish, but IMO, treating fish in a seperate tank is frequently the cause of the stress that prevents the fish from being able to fight the ich off and recover its health.

Quarantining is a good thing but the maintenance of a quarantine tank isn't always so easy because when it isn't being used it frequently loses its "cycle" and putting fish that are infected in it can generate a new cycle with ammonia and nitrate generation that seriously endangers the life of the fish, seperately from the ich infection. So, first be absolutely certain that the quarantine tank that you'd use to treat the ich is hospitable to fish and won't exacerbate the problem.

 

[NirvanaFan]

jennibee13, the ich can be on the fishes gills and so small that you don't see it. Garlic only boosts the immune system so the fish doesn't catch it as badly. It's kind of like you taking vitamins (like vitamin C) and supplements to prevent you from getting colds and things. Even though you don't show signs of the cold, you still can carry the cold.

Also, the ich strain can only live for 11 months. If you don't add anything (fish, coral, inverts) and there is no way for a new strain to get in your tank, it will die off. I believe that one of the stickies at the top of the disease forum explains this.

 

[bertoni]

I don't see any reason marine ich should die off after any given period, assuming there are fish around to support the lifecycle. The fish might be able to generate enough of an immune response to end the cycle, though.

I don't know of any evidence that garlic boosts the immune systems of fish, although that might be possible.

 

[kevin2000]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11417739#post11417739 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Avi
I've found that marine ich isn't so deadly as feared. .

Its common for aquarist to have nominal losses to ich ... but its also common for aquarist to loose all their fish. Why some fish survive and others don't isn't fully understood - depends on how many ich and the overall health of the fish. Its accepted that some fish can develop a certain level of immunity to ich and that is a factor .. stocking levels and their associated impact on stress (which impacts the fish's immune system) may be significant as well.

Qting on the front end remains the best choice to keep a healthy show tank .... easy to run a QT and so long as you keep some filter media hidden in your show tank/sump you can always transfer that mature filter media into your QT and have "instant cycled QT".