Treating Mandarins for Ich?

[Bluespot22]

I normally Qt most of my fish that go into my DT, but I added a bluepsot jawfish and did not QT him because QT is usually so stressful to this species. I took a chance, and what do you know, he had ich.

I removed all my fish and put them in a QT tank with copper and all visible signs of the ich have disappeared, but I will run the full treatment due to the nature of ich and it's life cycle.

I have a mandarin and I'm not sure what to do with him. I know they have a slime coat that protects them to an extent, but I don't want to take any chances. If it were any other fish, I would pull him and treat with hyposalinity, but I'm afraid he would starve. He is from ORA, so he nibbles on frozen foods, but I don't know if that would be enough for him. So, I'm looking to hear from those of you who have treated mandarins with hypo. How long did you treat, and was it effective?

 

[THEDLO]

I wouldn't. They are basically immune to ich.

 

[b0bab0ey]

I wouldn't go so far as to say they are immune to ich, but it's highly unlikely. I'd just leave him be and observe very closely. First sign of ich, treat with hypo. You don't have any other choice then. Try feeding frozen brine to sustain him while in hypo.

 

[MechEng99]

They are not immune to ich, nor are any other fish. Some fish have better immune systems/coatings, but they aren't immune completely.

I treated mine with hyposalinity and hatched baby brine shrimp every couple days for him. Thankfully baby brine shrimp can live in hypo for several days and have decent nutritional value...which make them perfect (which is why I went ahead with treating my mandarin that way.) I will say that he got extremely skinny, but he survived. I tried adding pods from my tank, but they died within a few minutes, and the mandarin wouldn't have anything to do with them at that point. Mine was not from ORA, so it was a bit difficult. Since yours is from ORA, if you feed baby brine shrimp and frozen foods, you should be ok.

 

[Bluespot22]

Great, Thanks. I'll keep a close eye on him.

 

[Spar]

curious on the result of the hypo treatment with your mandarin. did it go ok? been over a year at least so should know

 

[alprazo]

They are not immune to ich, nor are any other fish. Some fish have better immune systems/coatings, but they aren't immune completely.

agreed.

Even if the mandarin doesn't develop symptoms, it doesn't mean that it is not a carrier. Without treating all the fish, you cannot eradicate it from you tank.

An alternative choice would be chloroquine.

 

[tmz]

I just got a nice mandarin, (Synchiropua splendius), . He is in tank 2 or the tank tansfer method. I've treated several other mandarins preventatively for ich this way. . The pair of (synchirpous pictarus) spotted type did very well They eat mysis and cyclopeeze while in lthe qt and like to peck it off the bubble up sponge filter.