fairy wrasse ich

[norcal]

Ive been in this hobby for only about 6 months now. i have kept two tanks very successfully through that time period. I believe i have my first case of ich tho. my velvet fairy wrasse is starting to get small white specks on him. he doesnt have a lot, not as much as the fish in those pix. however there are some and i think he is getting more daily. no other fish in the tank are showing signs of ich yet tho. i do not have a qt tank as of yet, but have a large rubbermaid container i could potentially use to help him out. i am pretty clueless about how to go about treating this guy, can somebody please help me out.

 

[norcal]

i just looked more closely at my other fish and i believe they may have ich as well. at least my royal gramma for sure. they have white dots and are starting to scratch themselves on rocks. what should i do? please help i am really discouraged :scared:

 

[92protruck]

what kind of fish do you have? what size tank? reef or fowlr? do you have inverts? Can you treat in the display? If not, get a QT up and running now while you are gathering more info. Add vitamins and garlic to food in the meantime. Read the FAQ thread at the top of this forum about setting up hospital/QT's and hyposalinity treatment. Gather RO/DI water, pH buffer, and what ever you need to get a QT running. Read up and decide on hypo or copper. If copper make sure it's cupramine and a good copper test kit to go with it. What kind of fish may eliminate copper as an alternative. Not advised for tangs and angels. Check back with more info.

 

[norcal]

it is a 55 FOWLR. there is only about 20 pounds of lr though so i think i will treat them in the main tank. i have a velvet fairy wrasse as already mentioned, a royal gramma, 3 very small convict tangs ( i know they need to go, 2 are on the way out asap.) as well 3 hermits. Im planning to move the lr and hermits to a large rubbermaid and do a hyposalinity treatment (especially for my tangs, plus i dont want trace copper in my tank forever!)on the fish that are left in the tank. couple of questions.
1. how long about should i treat them with the hypo.
2. what are the exact levels my tank should be at for the treatment (sg, pH, temp)
3. my lfs has some fish coming in for me on friday. could i use this as an opportunity to quarentine the fish along with the others who are already infected with ich? i mean, normally i wouldnt even consider this option, but in this case im in a location where it is very hard for me to get the fish i want, and if i pass on this fridays fish, i may not get the fish i want for a long time. also by then i will have just 1 of the three tangs.
thanks for the replies!

 

[92protruck]

I don't know where the experts are!!! I am not one. I can tell you what they told me but I lost 5 fish in hypo. I have one survivor now in 4th week of hypo. So far you are on the right track with getting the inverts and lr out. If you live sand you will have die off and need to watch ammonia. You want to keep temp and pH steady what are they now? No magic number here generally speaking, pH 8.0 to 8.4. I think the FAQ on this site says keep in hypo conditions for 3 weeks after last sign of ich is gone. I think longer. Many say 4-6 weeks. Salinity should be 14 ppt or 1.009. I would not mix new fish that possibly have other issues. Hypo may work for ich but not for other disease. If you get the new fish in hypo and find out they need some other treatment you will be in a bad spot. I would try to hold off. It is hard enough without extra worry. It's not fun...it's not easy...alot of people lose fish despite best efforts.

 

[beth]

Truck, I can't believe you're teaching "Hypo"?? LOL
Yes, take a look at the posts on hyposalinity and ich in the FAQ at the top of this forum. If all you have is LR, and no snails, inverts, corals, etc., then the easiest and safest thing to do is to do hyposalinity on all your fish.
Take care to ensure that pH does not drop during the procedure as hyposalinity may cause significant drops in pH. Monitor this daily and be prepared with buffers to make adjustments.

 

[norcal]

thanks a lot both of you for the help. beth what do you think about me adding those other fish? i think its probably a bad idea, but wanted to see if it would be possible at all considering my lack of a reliable source for fish. also, how long would you suggest hypo for beth and is 1.009 the magic number?
thanks again

 

[beth]

I don't know what to do tell you about those fish. YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT SETTING UP A QT, otherwise you will continue to have this issue. Can you wait til Friday to start the treatment? You can not just add new fish to hypo-saline conditions.
What if these new fish have ich too? See my point?

 

[norcal]

i see your point completely. but see what im saying. these will probably be the last fish i add to the tank for a long time. if i wait till friday and treat them all including the new fish, it would be like qt-ing the new fish right?! then i could set up a small qt later if i find the need to add another fish (like if one dies or something happens.)
it makes a lot of sense to me, but i dont know half as much as you do. what are the odds i could lose a fish or two in the hypo-salinity process? oh yeah, and it wouldnt affect my bacteria right?!?!? (the process)
thanks again beth.....you are my hero

BETH

 

[hunter29]

try asking your lfs if you can pay now and take later. explain the situation, and ask them to hold them in a separate tank by themselves. they might say no but it couldnt hurt to ask. if they say no ask another store if they could hold them for you and promise future purchases there. win-win stuation for the both of (you if it works).
just an idea

 

[norcal]

thats a very good idea. i know the guy at my lfs well so that might just work out. thanks for the idea hunter. im kinda waiting to see what beth thinks about puttin them in. i mean if its a dangerous process where fish commonly die, i probably wont risk it for their sake, but if its fairly safe, i want to try that route. thats a great idea though and i will definetly try it if it is too big of a risk to add them to my tank and put them through the hypo as well.

 

[92protruck]

the point I was trying to make, albeit unsuccessfully, is that the new fish could have amyloodium, brook or a number of other problems that hypo will not treat. So, you have to get them out of hypo into a QT (which you don't have), raise the salinity and treat for whatever. Hypo works for ich but the idea of QTing new arrivals is so that if you see a problem you can treat with antibiotics, formalin dip, hypo, etc. in a QT without infecting your other fish. I don't think there is any huge risk here and you seem to have made up your mind already, I'm just pointing out that you are defeating the purpose of QTing new fish and posing some slight risk of infecting your ich fish with something other than ich. No biggy, just offering advice since you asked. Good Luck with whatever you decide.

 

[norcal]

Ok i see where you are coming from. it makes sense. How common are other diseases?? i was under the impression that ich was the only common disease in marine fish. that the others were rarely found. i may seem like i have made up my mind, but i really have not yet. i still have a couple of days. i just think it would be way easier to do it this way cuz like i said it will probably be the last fish i add to my tank. then i wouldnt have to worry about setting up a qt for a while. But if its a huge risk i wont try it. let me know how common those other diseases can be. And again thanks again a lot for the opinions and information. it may seem like i have made my mind up already, but everything anyone says sticks in my head and affects my viewpoint. so thanks for the heads up on those other diseases.
Beth if you are around i would really appreciate your opinion on this and if you can let me know how much of a risk it is to get a different disease on these fish (bar goby, coral beauty/lemonpeel) or what would be the risk they would die in the hypo treatment. thanks

 

[norcal]

i think i just decided to go with some rid-ich. i will take out my lr and inverts and do it in the main display tank. how long does it take before most of the copper is out of the system? if i do water changes very often after finishing treatment, will the copper go back down to an acceptable level fairly quickly, or will it take a long time.