Opinions on Treating Ick

[captbunzo]

Nice work, Sean. It is great to see more responsible retailers out there. I know we have some great stores in OKC.

If I am ever in your area, I will have to stop by.

 

[SeanF]

It is just a hop skip and a jump. I think I have driven it in 36 hours before. I am going to have to come out and check out the 500 new stores in town one of these days.

 

[exoticaquatics]

Well said SeanF. Ich is not and does not have to be present in every system. A simple QT tank can be set up and can be one of the most important elements to keeping a marine tank. As a retailer we try(or at least should) to keep any parasite, disease, infection out of our tanks and our customers tanks. But at the same time we try to keep the cost of our livestock down, so treating every fish/coral untill it is free of any said pest can be costly. So further QTing should be done by the consumer. I try to stress the importance of a QT tank to all my customers, but most of them think they dont need one unless a problem arises. And when one does they want a cure for their reef tank. I have never used a "reef safe" treatment for ich that has actually worked. Until we can convince everyone that owns a fish tank that a seperat QT tank is as important as any other piece of equipment, we will have these discussions.

 

[rdonchann]

When my tank was new I had a lot of outbreaks. One thing I did was use a UV sterilizer. When the life cycle gets to the point where the tomites leave the fish and are free swimming if the uv contacts them it kills them. If they are killed during the free swimming stage it keeps them from settling in the sand and starting a new cycle. Without it each cycle was more intense with a heavier population.

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6948492#post6948492 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MyMonkey
Question: If you use Copper in your QT, then do you have to use a separate QT for inverts when you bring them in?

Technically, yes. But that is what a hospital tank is for. In recent years, quarintine tanks and hopsitals tanks have seemed to roll into one. An effective set up would include a three stage system. A quarintine tank to hold everything for observation, a hospital tank for treating something that is infected, and of course the wonderful display.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6950576#post6950576 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rdonchann
When my tank was new I had a lot of outbreaks. One thing I did was use a UV sterilizer. When the life cycle gets to the point where the tomites leave the fish and are free swimming if the uv contacts them it kills them. If they are killed during the free swimming stage it keeps them from settling in the sand and starting a new cycle. Without it each cycle was more intense with a heavier population.

A UV Sterilizer is a little hit and miss with its pros and cons. A UV Sterilizer is an indiscriminate killer. It kills bad parasites and protozoans, but it also kills good stuff such as nitrobacter. Also, it is not a long term solution for ich. Because the Marine Ich life cycle is in three parts, it is very difficult to actually get rid of it with a UV Sterilizer because most of its life is either in the rocks and substrate or in the fish itself. The turnover rate of the tank and UV Sterlizer would have to be tremendous to see any visual effects of it. Most likely, your fish will be able to build an immune system quicker than the UV Sterilizer could take it out. But that isn't always the case. As always in this hobby there are exceptions.

 

[rdonchann]

I like it when people call it "indiscrimanate killer", makes it sound like a terrorist from a movie headline. It's life cycle always involves the free swimming stage and that is when it thins them out. No it doesn't zap them all but if left alone, each cycle becomes more intense than the last one due to reproduction. When I was turning a 58 gallon tank over once or twice an hour and the free swimming stage lasts 2 or 3 hours, if my memory is correct, I had the potential to expose the ick to UV a half dozen times during the free swimming stage. It did not take a "tremendous" rate and helped out considerably.

 

[captbunzo]

Well, bad news. Woke up this morning and my Scopas Tang was dead. Before the Thera A and other food I ordered even arrived from Marine Depot. Grrr!!!

I am thinking about trying again. We have a second store in Ardmore that QTs their tangs for 2 weeks before selling them.... To try to provide more of a guarantee that they are going to live. I will probably ask them to get me a small Scopas Tang. They do PARTIAL hyposalinity treatments - taking the salinity down to 1.017 or something.

I will probably hyposalinate it all the way down to 1.009 for a month after it gets in. AND I will feed it Thera A with garlic, as recommended by folks here & Paul W.

I mean, can't stress the fish MORE up front by putting it in a quiet, out of the way QT tank.

Oh well, you live and (hopefully) learn.