Sick fish

[Bremenguppie]

Since I cant post a picture. I'm pretty sure my fish have ick. I'll ne headed to fish store today to see if the have some treatment i can put in the tank. Hopefully it's not to late. Anyone else ever deal with ick and what's best way to rid the tank of it.

 

[Uncle99]

Ick cannot be resolved in the tank
Once identified, the fish must be treated outside the DT in a separate QT tank
There are only three ways to treat, TTM, Hypo, Copper

The DT must run without fish for 72 days.

There's a ton of info on how each works on this site

 

[hkgar]

How treat ick, There are only 3 ways, everything else is snake oil. Do you have inverts in your tank? If not you can do Hypo in the DT.

 

[Bremenguppie]

Yes I've got inverts. I looked at a couple options and on the advise of the fish store they recommended I use ich-x. They said copper is the best way but do to all my inverts they recommended going with the ich-x. I also picked up some test kits for nitrates and phosphate. I find that my levels are a little high. I started first treatment t yesterday and will do 20% water changes for next 3 days and hopefully I can get everything back under control. Also leaving the lights off for next 3 days as well.

 

[hkgar]

from: http://www.hikariusa.com/wp/solutions/healthaid/ich-x/
"INGREDIENTS

water, formaldehyde (<5%), methanol (<2%), malachite green chloride (<0.1%)
Recommendations: Use Ich-X to treat conditions related to ich and ich related disease".

I do not see copper listed. Ich-x = snake oil. Always remember that when you ask the LFS a question, their goal is to find a product they have on their shelves to answer your question with.

Copper is not recommended for treatment of Ich in the DT as it has very detrimental effects on inverts and once copper is introduced is becomes part of the live rock and typically cannot be completely removed. The best "copper" treatment is Cupramaine and should be done in a hospital tank and not the DT.

"

 

[Bremenguppie]

What is hypo?

 

[Uncle99]

What is hypo?

Ick-x translates to certain death

Hypo salinity is the process of lowering salinity to 1.009 until ick is clear.
It will kill anything but fish so you must do that in separate tank.

Treatment depends on which fish you are treating.

If you don't follow the recommendations of treating Ick, all your fish will die!

They attach, the feed on the fish, they fall, they multiply x 100, they swim, they attach and so until each fish becomes so weak, they die.

They have limited time, get them out.

 

[Bremenguppie]

Okay I will. I've got a smaller tank I can set up as a recovery tank. If you do the hypo way do u have to remove all your live rock as well or just your fish and inverts? How long do you keep the sanity at 1.09 to know you got all the ich?

 

[Apercula]

Hypo is fish only. Leave the rock and inverts in main tank.

 

[Bremenguppie]

Okay thanks. I'll get it set up. How long does it take to kill it all doing the hypo any idea? What a pain in ***..

 

[Uncle99]

You will maintain 1.009 salinity for 14 days past when the last dot is gone.
Then you will bring your salinity up at .001 each day until you reach 1.025
They will stay in this tank until the DT is ready, 72 days after taking fish out.
Exchange 10% water at 1.009 each day and vacuum up any uneaten food and waste this will keep ammonia from building up

 

[Bremenguppie]

Well I've lost my two eels. Only thing left is two damsels, some emerald crabs, blue leg crabs, horse shoe crab and bunch snails. So I dont know what way is right way to go to clean up this mess

 

[HumbleFish]

Well I've lost my two eels. Only thing left is two damsels, some emerald crabs, blue leg crabs, horse shoe crab and bunch snails. So I dont know what way is right way to go to clean up this mess

Pull the damsels, give them to a LFS, and go fallow (fishless) in your DT for 76 days.

Moving forward, quarantine all fish purchases so this doesn't happen again.

 

[Bremenguppie]

So should I still take the salinity lever down to 1.009 for 14 days and still go through the steps or just leave it fish less for 76 days and let the ich die out on its own

 

[hkgar]

Read through this thread. It is very short.

Once the fish are removed from the DT the DT MUST remain fallow (fishless) for 72 days before any fish are reintroduced. I have done hypo but much prefer TTM. Part of your procedure for ALL new fish should include TTM and then at least another two weeks of QT.

Not taking precautions is like playing Russian roulette with your tank. I didn't take precautions and lost 9 fish to Ich. I can completely emphasize with your situation.

 

[Bremenguppie]

I'm realizing that sorry to be a pain in *** but I appreciate everyone's help. What does TTW stand for? I'm not up on all the abbreviations yet lol

 

[hkgar]

TTM is Tank Transfer Method.

 

[Bremenguppie]

Okay thank you. I'll stop bugging everyone. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Uncle99]

Remove damsels and Do nothing at all for 72 days but maintain tank as normal.
At that point, the ick is gone

Your not bugging anyone, that is what this site is for

Good luck

 

[hkgar]

I'm realizing that sorry to be a pain in *** but I appreciate everyone's help. What does TTW stand for? I'm not up on all the abbreviations yet lol

Not a pain at all. We are here to help and have all asked questions when first starting out. Lot's to learn on this site.