Another fish with ich.

[beginnermatt]

I have a clown in hypo. treating for ich. Today I noticed another clown in the main tank with ich. How should I go about treating them. The third and final fish is in the main and looks great. I think adding the above tank refugium may have caused some stress (temp,salinity variation?). Would a low flow rate (gph w/ph) cause stress? Thank for any help.

 

[elfdoctors]

Was the original fish ever in the display tank?
Do you quarantine?
If one fish in your display tank has ich, you have to assume they all do. They ALL must be treated not just the ones that look sick. Hyposalinity (preferred) or copper are the only consistently effective treatments.
Ich is not caused by stress. However a fish under stress will have a lot harder time fighting this. The slow flow rates probably didn't contribute anything for clownfish who tend not to be strong swimmers anyway.

 

[beginnermatt]

elfdotors,
The original was in the main tank. When he is done in hypo will the main still have ich in the tank? At this time the new clown with ich will be placed in hypo. I also have some shrimp and crabs in the main. Not sure how to manage the two fish at once. Thanks.

 

[elfdoctors]

You have to assume that ich will stay in your display tank until you treat all the fish. If you are unable to treat a tank, (because of live rocks, corals, inverts) the ich will only be cleared up if you keep it fishless for a month.
Probably your best option would be to raise the salinity of your treatment tank slightly and then add the other two fish into your treatment tank and restart the treatment. The speed that you equalize the salinities will have to depend on how sick the fish look. You can usually lower the salinity faster,safely, than you can raise it.

 

[krypton74]

We had ich (i think) in our tank and it is now fishless except for a few hermits and an arrow crab. can they carry the disease? or are we ok to add new fish after a month?

 

[elfdoctors]

Welcome to the Boards, Kryton74!
Ich has a phase in which it has to have a fish to live. Invertebrates cannot propagate the parasite. If there have been no fish for a month, you can assume that you no longer have ich in your tank.
When my fish had ich (prior to setting up my QT), I even expanded my cleanup crew in my display tank.

 

[krypton74]

Thanks for the welcome! I actually do feel like i can ask anything. anyway, when you all refer to a clean up crew - that would be... crabs and the like? pardon the small knowledge base at this point!

 

[elfdoctors]

Originally posted by krypton74
when you all refer to a clean up crew - that would be... crabs and the like?
:yes:

 

[jwhiteuwc]

krypton74,
I'm going through the same thing right now, lots of stress and I can't wait until it's done.
Listen to elfdoctors, he's is very knowledgable and very helpful with ICH.
Good luck....

 

[elfdoctors]

Thanks for the compliment.
However, I still consider myself as a relative newbie. Remember my tank has only been up for a little more than 6 months.
I am rather educated (in biological fields other then marine biology) but I certainly am not an expert compared with Beth and TerryB. I have been published (as a minor author) twice for research done on human tick-borne diseases (we have a lot of Lyme cases up here). That certainly doesn't make me an expert in this forum. I have tried to help out here as I understand principles of infectious diseases and the moderators are usually too busy to post replies quickly. (I continue to learn about my own tank the more posts I read).

 

[beginnermatt]

What I finally did was put the clown in a bag with water from the main tank. Then I put it in the hypo tank and added water from the tank to the bag a few times over the course of the day. It has been 36 hours and tomorrow morning i will remove the clown from the bag and add it to the Hypo tank. I hope this works. I did this to avoid raising the salinity in the hypo tank to readjust the new fish. I used a turkey baster to add the new water to the bag.
Elfdotor, i know someone who has limes disease right know and 15 minutes ago i just saw two white bucktail deer on my back lawn.

 

[elfdoctors]

Matt, it sounds like your treatment of that clownfish is going well. Is your display tank now fishless? It needs to be without fish for a full month to make sure the fish don't get ich again when you add your fish back.
Good Luck for your friend with Lyme disease. Depending on its stage, the vast majority of people should get better.
You must not be in the city limits if you are able to see deer! I lived for a month in Somerville during medical school. I did an oncology (cancer) rotation at Massachusetts General Hospital. Boston is a neat town!

 

[jwhiteuwc]

I had a friend about 2 years ago come down with Lyme's disease. He was bitten by a deer tick and didn't know it.
about a week later he said he couldn't even walk to the mailbox without being tired.... Put him on some med's and he was fine a week later.

 

[elfdoctors]

Depending on the year, our county is number one or two in the state's counties for attack rates for Lyme disease. We are also a hotbed for human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, which is a much more dramatic disease in that it can actually kill someone.
I've had Lyme myself. I've learned enough not to really fear the disease anymore. A lot of my job is to calm irrational fears about the disease propagated by people who often didn't have Lyme to begin with. True horror stories about the disease are actually quite rare. Greater then 98% of all definite cases will have a complete recovery. Unfortunately, the people who didn't have the disease, who thought they did, have put terror into the hearts of the rest of the area.
I'm going to be out of town for the next week for my annual refresher course. I hope everyone's tank stays well.

 

[aarmatting]

:notsure: so that is the best way to clear up ich in your main tank???? Remove all the fish to a QT tank and treat with copper for a month???:help:

 

[krypton74]

Hi!
I am definitely no expert when it comes to tanks, but i do know that if you have inverts in your tank copper will be deadly. the idea of hypo treatments is that they are less stressful on the fish and you can treat them in isolation. if you do this, you need to leave your big tank fishless for 4-6 weeks and the ich will "diffuse" itself out as there would be no hosts for it to "feast Upon". if you are going to treat with copper, you can leave the fish in the tank. it is a chemical though, so there are risks when you introduce something in your tank that is foreign! HTH!
Beck

 

[aarmatting]

I'm sorry I wrote that down wrong... I meant to say "Move my fish to a QT and treat the QT with copper"... not my main tank:jumping:

 

[elfdoctors]

Originally posted by AarMatting
:notsure: so that is the best way to clear up ich in your main tank???? Remove all the fish to a QT tank and treat with copper for a month???:help:
To clarify, the best way to clear up ich in your main tank is to leave it fishless for a full month.
The best way to clear up ich in your hospital/quarantine tank is to use hyposalinity. Copper should be used only for treatement failures.