Title says it all. Last fish added was a powder blue tang, it spent 6 weeks in qt. Showing no signs of anything, added to dt and bang overnight looks like someone put a salt shaker to it. So I caught all fish in my 125g not fun btw. And put them in. The qt for treatment. I think this will be difficult. 7 fish in a 30g. One question i have is how do i make sure my mandarin goby gets food with no pods present in the qt? Also any other suggestions on treatment as i am using cupramine for the treatment, any advice with using this. I also have the seachem copper test kit.
some how got ick in my DT
- Thread starter bigdoug
- Start date
RBU1
Moving on Up
Well its hard to say how that could happen....Any chance Crypt was already in your main display but your fish never had any signs? Did you QT everything that went in that tank?
CAll Seachem and ask them for the treatment advice with the Cupramine. The bottle says 14 days, but I am confident if you call them they will tell you 4 weeks at .5. Just follow the instructions on the bottle.
CAll Seachem and ask them for the treatment advice with the Cupramine. The bottle says 14 days, but I am confident if you call them they will tell you 4 weeks at .5. Just follow the instructions on the bottle.
Texastravis
New member
I wouldnt treat all those fish to be honest. I have tried the ole "ichless" tank thing and it is impossible. The ich can hichike right into the tank via a snail/hermit shell or on a piece of coral.
With that being said, while in quarantine he was all alone and feeling comfortable therefore he was resisting the ich. However, when you moved him to DT with other fish that have already grown somewhat territorial his stress meter went up which allowed the ich to attatch.
From my experience, I havnt had a fish die from ich, they died from stress/not eating. If the fish has been eating great and he gets ich while in DT I would just leave him. He will soon establish himself in your tank becoming comfortable and eventually warding off the ich himself. This however wont work if he is stressed out about something wrong with water (ammonia, wierd pH, etc) until it gets fixed. If I have a fish that has ich and is eating heartily, I dont worry about it at all.
With that said you have already pulled your fish so I guess treat away. Just go word for word on the back of the cupramine bottle. Be careful having 7 fish in a 30 gallon....if ammonia starts to rise you run the risk of killing all your fish and most types of ammo-locks cant be used in conjunction with cupramine/copper.
To keep the mandarin fed you will need to get him to eat frozen food, no way around it. Not sure how dragonites do during treatment. These dont get treated often since they dont get ich due to their slime coat. You could run the treatment and throw him back quickly and hope he doesnt starve to death by then, I doubt he would.
With that being said, while in quarantine he was all alone and feeling comfortable therefore he was resisting the ich. However, when you moved him to DT with other fish that have already grown somewhat territorial his stress meter went up which allowed the ich to attatch.
From my experience, I havnt had a fish die from ich, they died from stress/not eating. If the fish has been eating great and he gets ich while in DT I would just leave him. He will soon establish himself in your tank becoming comfortable and eventually warding off the ich himself. This however wont work if he is stressed out about something wrong with water (ammonia, wierd pH, etc) until it gets fixed. If I have a fish that has ich and is eating heartily, I dont worry about it at all.
With that said you have already pulled your fish so I guess treat away. Just go word for word on the back of the cupramine bottle. Be careful having 7 fish in a 30 gallon....if ammonia starts to rise you run the risk of killing all your fish and most types of ammo-locks cant be used in conjunction with cupramine/copper.
To keep the mandarin fed you will need to get him to eat frozen food, no way around it. Not sure how dragonites do during treatment. These dont get treated often since they dont get ich due to their slime coat. You could run the treatment and throw him back quickly and hope he doesnt starve to death by then, I doubt he would.
Thanks for the advice. Yes the goby seems fine, the only fish showing signs are the powder blue, and my hippo tang. But per reading all the other posts I am going with the treat alltreat the tank to rid ick. As far as it coming in, all of the fish were qt'd for at least 6 weeks b4 going into the dt. And nothing else was added. Upon doing more reading is it possible that the ick was present and the tang being a ick magnet it just took to him? Or could it come in via frozen food?
Mandragen
New member
Man, you've scared me, lol. I just got done leaving the tank fallow for 8 weeks. The first fish I have gotten to put in is a Powder Blue, which is in QT right now. He looks great and the little dottyback that is in there looks good too. I'm wondering if I should just give them a cupramine treatment to be safe with the powder blue.
noobtothereef
New member
yep, i also believe the ichless tank is impossible, my tang has shown ich twice, but has never slowed down his eating or other habits, and it dissapeaars in a day or two, and also i believe the reason he showed ich was each time it happened was when i missed a day of feeding from being gone.
I have not had luck with tangs, so far, and dont want to lose these, $$ down the drain so i am trying my hardest to "cure" these guys. If you read up on the PB Tang, they are considered an "expert level" fish, which i missed in researching before buying, but did s read that they are ick magnets. I dont know about treating "just in case" might want to start another thread and ask. Mine was fine for 6 weeks in QT but overnight in the DT it showed. has me baffled.
But being the first in your DT it will be able to get its territory.
Mandragen
New member
I don't want ick in my DT at all, as I am not one that is ok with living in harmony with that parasite. I would consider myself ok for a fish that requires expert level keeping, so I am not regretting my purchase or choice of fish. I have also heard that these fish can be "ick magnets", althought I feel pretty good about spotting ick even when it isn't a huge problem. The fish I have in there with him is a little springer dottyback and I know doesn't take well to ick as I have seen him with it once before. He is acting normal as well. I am kinda using him as a way of telling if the QT has ick.
noobtothereef
New member
if you have had ick on a fish in your tank it is there for good, it doesnt just live on fish........ 99.9% of every tank you have laid eyes on has the ick protazoa present......
Unless you dose your reef tank with massive amounts of copper it CANNOT be done
Unless you dose your reef tank with massive amounts of copper it CANNOT be done
RBU1
Moving on Up
This statement is so far from the truth....Please do some research before you post stupid comments. Posting silly stuff like this might cause a new person to actually believe what you are saying...
Crypt has to be introduced for it to be present. There is a good chance for those that don't practice proper QT that YES they do have it...But to say 99.9% have it your wrong. AND you should never does a reef tank with copper.
Stuart60611
New member
As stated above, there are two explanations for why despite quarantining your new fish the fish in your display began to show symptoms of ich upon the new introduction being added to the display. First, you could have had a low level infestation already in the display which upon the stress associated with the new addition began to reveal itself in a more pronounced way. Second, and in my view more likely, the new introduction had ich which you failed to notice while in quarantine because it was a very low level infestation and therefore did not treat. This is why I am strongly believe that merely quarantining fish without profylactic treatment for parasites whether or not any signs of the parasites are observed is completely ineffective. Many times parasites are not observed, and hobbyists wind up inadvertantly introducing parasites to their displays.
As far as whether to treat now, that is a personal choice. Personally, I just do not enjoy watching fish infected with ich, and therefore, I always elect to treat.
As far as whether to treat now, that is a personal choice. Personally, I just do not enjoy watching fish infected with ich, and therefore, I always elect to treat.
Mandragen
New member
Some people just don't understand, and they don't care to learn either.
Mandragen
New member
Well stated and I couldn't agree more. I don't like the fact that you have to treat given there might not be anything to treat, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I do not want to go through catching all my fish and leaving th DT fallow for 8 weeks ever again, that was a sad time.
Orcrone
New member
I may have missed it but to answer the OP's question about treating with Cupramine.
Give a 50% dose. I believe that brings the level to 0.25 ppm. Two days later give another 50% dose to bring it to 0.5 ppm. The clock starts at that time. Hold that level for two weeks. Assuming all signs of ich are gone you can start removing the copper through water changes, carbon, Cuprisorb, etc. If your fish are ich free for the next four weeks you should be fine. Of course you don't want to return them to the DT until it's been sitting fallow for at least 8 weeks.
I went through the same thing in my 125 this summer. It's not fun, but is the correct way to rid your DT of ich.
Give a 50% dose. I believe that brings the level to 0.25 ppm. Two days later give another 50% dose to bring it to 0.5 ppm. The clock starts at that time. Hold that level for two weeks. Assuming all signs of ich are gone you can start removing the copper through water changes, carbon, Cuprisorb, etc. If your fish are ich free for the next four weeks you should be fine. Of course you don't want to return them to the DT until it's been sitting fallow for at least 8 weeks.
I went through the same thing in my 125 this summer. It's not fun, but is the correct way to rid your DT of ich.
Orcrone
New member
I used Cupramine because of ich (caused by my own mistakes) this summer. Held the level for 14 days as the bottle calls for and now all fish are thriving. I lost a couple during treatment, probably due to not eating. Copper is stressful on the fish so I wouldn't recommend dosing any longer than necessary.
Stuart60611
New member
I would add that although the bottle states to break up the dosing into two 50% doses, I strongly suggest that you break up the dosing to more like 4 or 5 doses to reach 100% (dose small amounts for 5 consecutive days). Everytime I have ever experienced a negative reaction to cupramine is when I ramped up to treatment strength too fast. Many people, including me obviously, believe that you need to ramp up to treatment strength more slowly than the directions provide. Also, you MUST get either a safert or seachem copper test kit (the 2 that work with cupramine) b/c merely dosing the correct amount will not necessarily mean you are at the right cupramine level. You should treat at full .5 strength for 21 straight days and leave the display without fish for 8-12 weeks.
RBU1
Moving on Up
It is stressful on the fish however 14 days is not long enough to get you thru the life cycle. Thats why if you call Seachem they will tell you to treat for 4 weeks.
Orcrone
New member
Stuart. This is what I'm debating right now. As I said in the previous two posts (OK, I talk a lot) I battled ich this summer and I feel my tank is ich free. However, right now I have two tangs (Pacific Sailfin and Blue Hippo) in two different QTs. I know the theory is that if there are any parasites in the QT the fish will show it, but I'm nervous about introducing the fish into the DT with a small number of parasites residing either on the fish or in the water. Of course I'm also nervous about treating a healthy fish and possibly doing harm to him unnecessarily.
Orcrone
New member
I can only speak from my experience, which is a statistically unreliable sample of one. :lol: I do find it interesting that customer support would give a different answer than they print on the product.
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