My powder blue has ich but I have a friend who has a pb and at one time it had ich. He has a full blown sps tank and he did not take his fish out. One day it did not have ich and I know he didn't treat his tank. However mine is eating well and active. What should I do? I have beed feeding food soaked in garlic. I wanted to order some bartlets while they were on sale and am willing to take my pb out the tank.
Powder Blue has ich.
- Thread starter mmotown
- Start date
Gwynhidwy
Meat Popsicle
If you want to continue to have ich in your tank then feed the fish well and hope his/her immune system is adequate to keep the parasites in check. It is likely that you will have regular outbreaks when new fish are added and risk losing fish, even well established fish, at these times.
The other option is to remove ALL of your fish to a hospital tank and treat them. During that time, leave your DT completely fishless for 8 or more weeks. Then you will have no parasites in your DT and provided you quarantine new fish from then on you won't have to worry about ich again.
Personally, I would take option two and treat all your fish with Cupramine.
The other option is to remove ALL of your fish to a hospital tank and treat them. During that time, leave your DT completely fishless for 8 or more weeks. Then you will have no parasites in your DT and provided you quarantine new fish from then on you won't have to worry about ich again.
Personally, I would take option two and treat all your fish with Cupramine.
wooden_reefer
New member
+1, except that I generally use straight copper.
How large is the pb? Do you also have other fish in the same tank?
The reason I ask is that you have to rid the QT of ammonia.
If your pb is small and you have a rather large DT, you can try collecting existing nitrification bacteria from the DT water to be used in QT. If you used polyester floss in an HOT power filter box on the DT, or its sump, you would likely see that the floss turns dark. Some nitrification bacteria are collected in the particles of the DT water. If you start now, within 3-5 days you may have collected enough nitrification bacteria for one small pb. You may want to keep collecting in the same way during QT treatment and add such medium into the QT filter.
You can, in addition, start a cycle for the medium intended for QT in a separate container. After three weeks (particularly if you cycle wet-dry) , your cycle may be complete enough for use in QT and you would no longer have to do water change in QT.
Yes I do have other fish. I was going to buy a qt tank to set up. In my tank I have 1 yellow tang, a pair of clowns and 6 chromis. I was going to take them all out and treat them. I was going to use my DT water to put in the qt and use new salt water for water changes. How should I go about this? Thanks to all of you for this information
As mentioned above, you can use your main tank to seed your QT. I keep some filter material in my sump all the time so that if I need to get the QT up quickly I can. The only things I use in the QT are the filter, a pump for circulation, and a few rocks to give the fish a place to hide. These rocks must never be placed in your main tank so don't use really nice pieces. You can use some water from your main tank to fill the QT to make acclimating your fish to the QT a snap. Once you get the tank setup and the fish in there you can begin your treatment and here's how I'd do it.
I have used Cupramine in the past with good results and have no problems recommending it to you. I don't use it at the strength called out on the bottle though. I use about half what's called out and then monitor the fish. If the ich continues I slowly increase the concentration while monitoring the fish and testing the water. While I'm treating I feed a bit heavier than normal, primarily nori sheets. I want the fish to have plenty of food available to them when they want it so that there is no stress from competition for food. I also keep the tank temp up just a bit more than normal too, but only a degree or two. It is supposed to speed up the parasites life cycle a bit so they hatch into the copper and die faster. Leave the fish in the QT for at least 8 weeks, doing regular small water changes and monitoring the copper level. DO NOT USE WATER FROM THE MAIN TANK FOR THIS! Hopefully you understand this but never hurts to make sure. At the end of treatment you can reacclimate them to the main tank and you're good to go.
Mike
I have used Cupramine in the past with good results and have no problems recommending it to you. I don't use it at the strength called out on the bottle though. I use about half what's called out and then monitor the fish. If the ich continues I slowly increase the concentration while monitoring the fish and testing the water. While I'm treating I feed a bit heavier than normal, primarily nori sheets. I want the fish to have plenty of food available to them when they want it so that there is no stress from competition for food. I also keep the tank temp up just a bit more than normal too, but only a degree or two. It is supposed to speed up the parasites life cycle a bit so they hatch into the copper and die faster. Leave the fish in the QT for at least 8 weeks, doing regular small water changes and monitoring the copper level. DO NOT USE WATER FROM THE MAIN TANK FOR THIS! Hopefully you understand this but never hurts to make sure. At the end of treatment you can reacclimate them to the main tank and you're good to go.
Mike
cablebox2003
New member
I had the same problem. Powder blue had it was eating well for about. Then the next week I noticed that the powder blue was very weak. The next day it died. It spead the ick to all my other fish. So I bought some Ick attack , and the none of the other fish died. I think it was the fishes' immune system than the Ick Attack. Just be patient what ever you do unless its too late
phizzle
New member
i've been feeding my fish garlic based foods to help build its immune system. ich is such a pain in the a.ss. im using copper power in my qt and the garlic based foods. after about 2 weeks, the signs of ich were disappearing, and after 5 weeks i put my fish back in the main tank. 2 weeks later, ich started appearing again. it's best to wait at least 8 weeks, i now know that 
Gwynhidwy
Meat Popsicle
Anything wet can potentially contaminate your tank. This is why many people quarantine invertebrates as well as fish. That being said, the risk is fairly low and not something most aquarists worry about. In the case of ich, the snail would have had to come from a tank infected with the parasite and have a tomont attached to its shell, reproducing, which would then be release tomonts in your tank. Since one tomont can produce up to 200 free swimming theronts, this can effectively infect all the fish in an aquarium.
wooden_reefer
New member
Ich drops off on its own, as a part of its lifecycle.
UV sized to combat bacterial infection is not much useful to even just slow the spread of ich by much.
fishybudguy
Member
pb are delicate with all scaleless tangs be carefull and watch the fish in the store for a few weeks before bringing it home
percula99
New member
I always QT every fish that I put into my tank using old tank water. My PB was QTd for three weeks and was ich free when I put him in. A couple of days later he had ich. Whether he had ich in his gills when he went in, or it was present in my tank I am not sure. But I have a 180 with over 250 pounds of LR. I decided to wait. I soaked all food in Zoe and garlic and feed Nori every day and he has been ich free for several weeks now. The ich has not made a come back and all fish are ich free, not just the PB.
wooden_reefer
New member
At least eight weeks, not three weeks, of active treatment, not observation.
Eight weeks of complete fishlessness in DT.
RBU1
Moving on Up
I would use Cupramine if I were you.
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