Ok I have read a bit on Ich but I really would like some input as to the clear signs. I currently have a powder brown, hippo, and chevron Tang. I am worried that they may have all came down with Ich. It is a little hard to tell, it almost looks like tiny air bubbles on them. How do you differentiate if it is a real concern or just looking into it too much. Nay input would be great.
Ich Clarification
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Two words.... U.V. Sterilizer. If you have tangs and plan to keep them for a prolonged period of time the UV is your friend.
It looks like salt on your fish. You should be able to distinguish bubbles from ich. If there are bubbles sticking to your fish, something needs to change.
Just my .02
Pat
It looks like salt on your fish. You should be able to distinguish bubbles from ich. If there are bubbles sticking to your fish, something needs to change.
Just my .02
Pat
ich troubles
ok, i am 99% sure it is ich. Now the quetion is treatment, yeah UV would be great, not something i want to purchase right now. Water parameters off a bit, salinity .25, pH 8.2, nitrates 30 to 40 ppb. What is a decent marine safe treatment, kent line, ruby red, or something else. I really think i have diagnosed it early enough to get rid of it. Just curious as to what others have done. I know about copper sulfate but I really dont want to tear up my tank and stress my fish. The cleaner shrimp seem to be doing nothing. I do have garlic enriched food, but obviously that is not enough. Suggestions please!
ok, i am 99% sure it is ich. Now the quetion is treatment, yeah UV would be great, not something i want to purchase right now. Water parameters off a bit, salinity .25, pH 8.2, nitrates 30 to 40 ppb. What is a decent marine safe treatment, kent line, ruby red, or something else. I really think i have diagnosed it early enough to get rid of it. Just curious as to what others have done. I know about copper sulfate but I really dont want to tear up my tank and stress my fish. The cleaner shrimp seem to be doing nothing. I do have garlic enriched food, but obviously that is not enough. Suggestions please!
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Ich is the devil, and it will continue to get worse. You really only have two choices for treatment that have been proven effective. You can A.) set up a QT tank, move all of your fish into it and use copper based medication to treat your fish. You need to leave your other tank void of fish for at least 4 weeks, but I'd go 5 just to make sure. This allows the full life cycle of ich to run it's course, and then die without a fish host.
The other option, and the one i prefer, is to do hyposalinity. Once again, you set up another tank and move all of your fish into it. You gradually drop the specific gravity down to 1.009 over a 3 or 4 day period. You leave your fish in there for 4-6 weeks, and then gradually raise the specific gravity back up to normal levels. This keeps the ich from reproducing, and thus they all die off.
No matter what route you choose, it's gonna take a while. There is no other way to get rid of ich for good though. UV kills good things along with bad, and it never will completely get rid of ich. Garlic, though it is good for the fish, doesn't kill ich either. And even though your fish may look healthy and have no ich visible to your eyes, they will still probably have it in their gills. You gotta destroy it, and then never put anything in your tank ever again without first putting it through QT.
To get good, detailed instruction on how to treat it, go to advancedaquarist.com, click on archives, click on aquarium fish, and then read the 5 articles on
"news from the warfront with cryptocaryon irritans" They are excellent articles that cover the life of ich, and how to treat it.
Hope this helps.
The other option, and the one i prefer, is to do hyposalinity. Once again, you set up another tank and move all of your fish into it. You gradually drop the specific gravity down to 1.009 over a 3 or 4 day period. You leave your fish in there for 4-6 weeks, and then gradually raise the specific gravity back up to normal levels. This keeps the ich from reproducing, and thus they all die off.
No matter what route you choose, it's gonna take a while. There is no other way to get rid of ich for good though. UV kills good things along with bad, and it never will completely get rid of ich. Garlic, though it is good for the fish, doesn't kill ich either. And even though your fish may look healthy and have no ich visible to your eyes, they will still probably have it in their gills. You gotta destroy it, and then never put anything in your tank ever again without first putting it through QT.
To get good, detailed instruction on how to treat it, go to advancedaquarist.com, click on archives, click on aquarium fish, and then read the 5 articles on
"news from the warfront with cryptocaryon irritans" They are excellent articles that cover the life of ich, and how to treat it.
Hope this helps.
Fallow tank
I have gone the fallow (without fish) tank method, and this has failed twice. The first time I went for two months and then added some un-dipped LR on week 6. Possible mistake that could have re-introduced the Ick.
Second time I left the tank fallow for 5 weeks, returned the clowns , fine. Waited a week, then returned the yellow angel. He got ick in 2 days. I removed him last night and put him in the QT tank with some copper. I may leave him there. I left the clowns in the reef tank, they do not seem affected.
I am seriously considering investing in a UV system, hopefully it will it also control algae bloom.
I have gone the fallow (without fish) tank method, and this has failed twice. The first time I went for two months and then added some un-dipped LR on week 6. Possible mistake that could have re-introduced the Ick.
Second time I left the tank fallow for 5 weeks, returned the clowns , fine. Waited a week, then returned the yellow angel. He got ick in 2 days. I removed him last night and put him in the QT tank with some copper. I may leave him there. I left the clowns in the reef tank, they do not seem affected.
I am seriously considering investing in a UV system, hopefully it will it also control algae bloom.
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651 Posts
What did you do to the fish while the tank was in fallow?
fish
I treated them all in a QT tank with copper and antibiotics (for tail rot). The Angel caught the ick and after a week or so of trying garlic, he spread the ick to the clowns. The large clown also developed tail rot possibly because of the parasites or damage they caused to its fins. The all recovered in 1 week with no sign of re-occurrance. They stayed in the 22 gal treatment tank for over a month after visably healing.
I treated them all in a QT tank with copper and antibiotics (for tail rot). The Angel caught the ick and after a week or so of trying garlic, he spread the ick to the clowns. The large clown also developed tail rot possibly because of the parasites or damage they caused to its fins. The all recovered in 1 week with no sign of re-occurrance. They stayed in the 22 gal treatment tank for over a month after visably healing.
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68 Posts
Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.....but it's my understanding that it's possible for all fish to carry ick without getting sick and showing the spots - then stressors and water parameters can weaken their immune systems and cause them to come down with it, Kinda along the lines that humans can carry some very nasty germs without becoming ill - but when stressed, depressed, etc..then bam - sick. I don't know, maybe this is incorrect - but it's what I've been told for years. Either way I think the hypothesis sounds viable.
That's why I've never done QT.
In the past, in my FOWLR tank (long gone now) it always seemed to me that the stressed fish came down with ick - and the others would remain healthy. Kicker is - all the tangs were super healthy, it was always the non-tang that got the ick. Go figure.
That's why I've never done QT.
In the past, in my FOWLR tank (long gone now) it always seemed to me that the stressed fish came down with ick - and the others would remain healthy. Kicker is - all the tangs were super healthy, it was always the non-tang that got the ick. Go figure.
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dragonlady:
Your understand is the same as my understanding of ich. It is all around, all the time. Fish get stressed and it lowers their immunity. Out pops the ich.
I've read somewhere that some fisheries try to introduce ich to very young fish, kind of like an innoculation. Once the fish can fish the ich, they become more resistent to it next time.
It's oodinium (spelling) that kills my fish all the time. I've never lost a fish to ich, though my fish have had it on occassion.
It looks like ich in the sense of white dots, but on a much greater magnitude and smaller in size. It looks like you just rolled the fish in flour or talcum powder. I think the other name is called "velvet."
If your fish has this, take it out IMMEDIATELY. The velvet spreads fast and kills within days. I've dosed the ruby reef stuff, but it didn't help. The fish luckily were in qt at the time. They still didn't make it.
I don't sweat it when the fish get ick. I consider it a "cold" and turn on the UV. It's when the velvet shows that I start to panic. Hard lessons learned.
Your understand is the same as my understanding of ich. It is all around, all the time. Fish get stressed and it lowers their immunity. Out pops the ich.
I've read somewhere that some fisheries try to introduce ich to very young fish, kind of like an innoculation. Once the fish can fish the ich, they become more resistent to it next time.
It's oodinium (spelling) that kills my fish all the time. I've never lost a fish to ich, though my fish have had it on occassion.
It looks like ich in the sense of white dots, but on a much greater magnitude and smaller in size. It looks like you just rolled the fish in flour or talcum powder. I think the other name is called "velvet."
If your fish has this, take it out IMMEDIATELY. The velvet spreads fast and kills within days. I've dosed the ruby reef stuff, but it didn't help. The fish luckily were in qt at the time. They still didn't make it.
I don't sweat it when the fish get ick. I consider it a "cold" and turn on the UV. It's when the velvet shows that I start to panic. Hard lessons learned.
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651 Posts
Ich is very poorly understand by the large majority of fish people. It is possible to be free of it. It is a parasite, and therefore needs to have a host. Many fish have it, and you will see absolutely no sign of it on them. But you can rid yourself of it by stoping it's reproduction cycle. That's the whole reason to do hyposalinity. I know people that had problems with ich, then they did hypo, and have been ich free ever since.
the strong will survive
Ok I have spoken to a few of my reefer buddies, and they take the stance that the strong will survive. Meaning that Ich is like a cold and when your immune system is down yoursx's will increase. My one buddy insists that I keep with just increased feedings of algea strips and bring there immune systems up. Besides if youn think about it, If I was to pull those fish out and do whatever treatment it may be it will stress them out greatly, so you have the double edge sword of a QT tank and the treatment it can provide vs stress that would be induced with the move.
Ok I have spoken to a few of my reefer buddies, and they take the stance that the strong will survive. Meaning that Ich is like a cold and when your immune system is down yoursx's will increase. My one buddy insists that I keep with just increased feedings of algea strips and bring there immune systems up. Besides if youn think about it, If I was to pull those fish out and do whatever treatment it may be it will stress them out greatly, so you have the double edge sword of a QT tank and the treatment it can provide vs stress that would be induced with the move.
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What i did when i needed to do hypo was to set up a 100 gallon rubbermaid horse trough as a coral and live rock tank. I took all of my snails, crabs and shrimp out too. All i had left in my display was the fish and substrate, and i did the hypo there in the display. There was no stress on my fish due to capturing. And i put some pvc and other things in there so that they have places to hide. Do what you want, but know that no food is going to "cure" ich. It will continue to live in your tank, and it will continue to rear it's ugly head.
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