beth ick ?

[j carter]

Beth I posted this about a month ago I had a ick problem I tried all of the no ick, ruby reef, quick qure I wasted my money and time and stress but learned a leason I set up a 38 gal 3 ft long cure tank I added some copper safe and the ick is gone 3 days fish were fine. I will never again have a big tank without a cure tank.
My problem is now I have a 90 gal tank 175 lbs of live rock 1 lion 3 damsels clen up crew etc. Every time I try and add a new fish 4 days later I start to see ick or etc I'm not a 100% sure its ick this time Friday I added a 4 inch assasi trigger on top of his fin and the lower one It looks like ick or cloudy fin Its not real bad yet. What should I do I can't add copper because of the live rock I can put him back into my cure tank but I have a 4 inch clown trigger in it now. I'm stumped on why this keeps hapenning my water is fine on ph & ammonia salt is 1.0220 temp is 78deg. I did a water change before I put him In My lion has a filmy substance on his skin it looks like ick I was told from a guy it was (clomanaress)It comes and goes once every week or 2 so I'm trying to buy only very hardy fish #5 rating no more hippo tangs..........

 

[beth]

So glad you decided to go with setting up a QT. It really is the only answer for hobbyists who want fish in their reef or LR tanks! That is really a nice size for a QT.
Ich is really simple to cure [if you're patient]. The reason you keep having the problem is because you are not treating adequately. While copper will certainly cure ich, using it for only a few days will never work. Sorta like you taking antibiotics for a few days until you feel better then stopping. What happens a wk later?? Yeah, you got the infection again because you didn't go the full course. Treating fish diseases is no different.
Let me explain the ich cycle a bit here so that maybe you can see why you are having a problem.
Ich has a life cycle of approx. 23 days during which time the parasite undergoes 3 stages. In the tomite [free-swimming] stage, the parasite is infectious to fish. During this stage, the tomite’s goal is to find a host fish, or die trying. After they attach to the gills or body of a fish, they develop into the second stage, the parasitic trophont. During this stage they burrow into the fish, feeding on it’s tissues, which can cause considerable damage and even result in a secondary bacterial infection on the infected fish. Once well fed the trophonts stop feeding and develop cystic coverings. This becomes the inactive tomont stage and during this final stage the cysts may stay trapped in the tissues of the fish, or fall off and sit on the bottom of the aquarium substrate, rocks, etc. Within 6 to 10 days hundreds of new tomites emerge looking for fish hosts [food for them] and the cycle begins all over again, and again and again until something is done about it. Once ich is an active presence in the aquaria, having infested fish, it must be irradiated or it will always pose a threat to fish, and to any new fish introduced. All fish exposed, whether they show symptoms or not, must be treated. That tank as well must be considered also “infected” and therefore treated as such. The standard treatment for Ich is copper sulfate and hyposalinity. No other treatments are wholly effective nor recognized as effective treatments.
Now you can see why everything exposed to ich must be treated regardless of signs, symptoms, etc., including your tank.
The fish should be removed from any tank containing LR, inverts and placed in the QT. [If you have a strictly FO tank, you can treat infected fish [and tank] with hyposalinity.] Treat all your fish in the QT at this point using hyposalinity. What do you have to measure salinity?? Leave your display tank without fish for the duration of the fish treatment. This will elminate the ich in your tank. Always QT new fish for at least 3 wks before they go into the display. As a precautionary measure, you can also treat new incoming fish in the QT with hyposalinity regardless if you see ich or not.
Hope this helps.

 

[elfdoctors]

"Once ich is an active presence in the aquaria, having infested fish, it must be irradiated or it will always pose a threat to fish," Beth
I'm doing hyposalinity right now. Perhaps I should have gotten that Gamma Ray unit that some of my patients have their cancers treated with.
I think you meant eradicated.

 

[j carter]

Beth I'm using a product called cuprex 2 copper made by aquatronics in my cure tank Is this a good product? I also hace some sea cure I never used it.

 

[beth]

I'm not familiar with the product....have not used copper is a very long time. Is the active ingredient copper sulfate?
Copper treatment requires precision. You need to test for copper daily and maintain the theraputic treatment dose of .25ppm. You're test kit must also be compatible with the copper brand that you are using.
Cupramine is the best copper product. You can use the Seachem test kit with this product or Red Sea's kit.