Getting very tempted to use copper!

[jcb]

Oh, man, I am getting very discouraged.... I've been fighting (literally) this Ich infestation for about a month now. All of my fish are currently breathing heavely. I've used Greenex--it didn't work; I've been using STOP Parasites (three treatments already) and that hasn't done the job. With all the comments I've heard about how copper can definitely kick the **** out of parasites, it's getting really hard to resist. Only problem is, I've spent a good $90 on live rock. But before I take that irreversible route, I'd like to consider hyposalinity. Can yoy guys guide me through the process? How low do I go? How gradual of a decrease is safe? Since ich has a 21-day life-cycle, can the salinity level remain at its lowest for this long? If things begin to look good, should I start to medicate again? Is it a good idea to buy and run a uv-stelilzer at this time? And finally, when the treatment is over, how gradual of an increase in salinity is safe.
Please help guys.... Every morning I wake up with very high hopes. But the freakin' ich just won't die down.

 

[bicolorgod]

What I'd Do:
Don't risk the rocks. buy a 10/15/20 gal for.. about 10 for 10 gal, 15 for 15, etc, and treat them in that. buy a cheap little corner filter or something. id also put some of the display tanks water in there, along with some new water.
I do have some q's:
What size display
How many/What fish/Size of fish
=)

 

[purplepuffer]

What I have always done is use alot of different stuff. You can increase the temp to about 84 if you have no corals, and if you add garlic when you feed your fish it will help kill it off your fish and the temp will kill ick in the water. I have never done real hyposalint, I just decrease it to about 1.020 which I just do in a water change. Also, Cleaner shrimp work miracles, and help clean up the stuff even faster. I hope that you can get rid of the ick.
~~Megan

 

[jcb]

I hear you guys.... Here goes a description of my set-up: 60 glln FO with about 25 lbs of LR; no inverts yet; have a total of 9 fishes: 5 are about 3 in, 2 about 1.5 in, 2 about 1 in; all fishes seem to have ample hiding places; temp has been kept at approx. 82 degrees (due to warm Souther California weather).
With the amount of fish I have, I can't seem to transfer them to a hosp/qt tank. During the weekend, however, I did bring down the specific gravity to about 1.0185.

 

[porkypuffer]

HYPOSULINITY: REMOVE LIVE ROCK, CORALS AND INVERTS, LOWER TO 1.009 OVER A WEEK, LEAVE IT THEIR FOR MONTH, RAISE IT BACK OVER A TWO WEEKS. CLOSLY MONITOR WATER CONDITIONS. THIS IS HOW I CURED MY TANK OF ICK. I LEFT MY SULINITY AT 1.009 FOR ABOUT 3 MONTH. THE FISH DIDN'T SEEM TO KNOW THE DIFFERENTS. A UV STERILIZER WILL HELP TO CONTROL, ADD IT ANYTIME YOU WANT. ALSO SOAKING THE FOOD IN GARLIC HELPS. GOOD LUCK.
THE TANK WILL NEED DAILY TOP OFFS TO KEEP THE SALINITY DOWN AND THE PH WILL ALSO DROP SO YOU'LL NEED TO ADD BUFFER.
[This message has been edited by PORKYPUFFER (edited 08-15-2000).]

 

[jimi]

If your fish are infested porkypuffer is right,also check your ph now because stop parasite is highly acidic and it is pretty much tabasco sauce.

 

[ja]

What porkypuffer said is absolutely right. I had an ick problem last year and I lowered my salinity level to 1.010 over the course of about a week and a half. Keep it at that level for 3-4 weeks. Slowly raise it back up to about 1.020. Its gets rid of ick and it has never came back. Like the others said you cant have any inverts in the tank though. Inverts are very sensitive to salinty changes especially at that level. But any effective treatment for ick hurts inverts in some way. You should see if you can sell the rock back to your lfs or have them hold it in an isolaton tank. This is a good arguement to have a f/o tank with no inverts or live rock and an additional tank with inverts, live rock etc. That way you can enjoy two different scenes in the underwater world and you can treat your fish only tank without worry.

 

[jcb]

Thanks for all the show of support, guys.... I must report, however, that when I woke up this morning, two of the nine fish I said I had in my tank passed away. This sent my morale way, way down....
On a different note, though, I am definitely going to take the advise you guys are giving me. I do hope my LFS dude is cool enough to hold my LR for me. If not, it's $90 down the drain.

 

[wrassefan]

You can try moving all the fish to a hospital tank and treat the fish with copper for 10 days or so. Be careful though, alot of fish are real sensitive to copper, espec. angels. I would use Maracyn or something with Malachite Green instead and feed the fish med. flakes.
The main tank, you can leave the rock and turn the temp upto 82. Without a host fish for 2 weeks, the ick should die off. The live rock will keep the beneficial bacterias alive until you start reintroducing the fish from the hospital tank. Just feed the tank every 5 days to feed the bacteria. Good luck. It worked for me.

 

[jcb]

At present, all I want to do is DESTROY that ever-powerful ich. I think my fish have suffered long enough. So setting up a hosp./quarantine tank is not a viable option. I will get in touch with my LFS dude to see if he'll hold the LR for me. One question: Will my LR come back to life in the future if it dies during the hyposalinity treatment?

 

[porkypuffer]

ANYTHING IS POSIBLE WITH TIME BUT I DON'T KNOW.
THE BEST WAY TO LOWER THE SALINITY IS TO DO A 10% WATER CHANGE EVERYDAY AND ADD FRESH WATER AND DON'T GO BELOW 1.009. REMEMBER, MOST SALT MIXES HAVE BUFFER IN IT SO YOU WILL HAVE TO CHECK THE PH DAILY.
SINCE I'VE RAISED MY SALINITY BACK TO 1.019 I HAVE SEEN MY TRIGGER SCRATCH TWICE ( A SIGN OF A PARASITE ), I SOAKED HIS FOOD IN GARLIC JUICE AND HE STOPPED SCRATCHING IMMEDIATELY.
I KNOW THE THOUGHT OF LOWER THE SALINITY TO 1.009 IS HORRIFYING BUT IT WORKS.
BACK WHEN I USED COOPER IT SLIGHTLY DISCOLORED THE OUTER LENSE OF THE FISHES EYES. DON'T USE IT.

 

[jcb]

Yeah, I agree with you in staying away from copper. But sometimes, when you see all your fish rubbing against the decorations or darting like crazy, it makes you want to try and use anything that with bring them some relief. You mentioned the use of garlic, though. I haven't tried that yet. I guess I'll just go ahead and use that as part of my anti-parasitic assault.

 

[jcb]

Oh, man! I really don't know what's going on! When I got home from work yesterday, I discovered that another one of my fish passed away. I'm really confused! My salinity is already pretty low, about 1.014; my water quality readings are fine. WHAT'S GOING ON!? Could it possibly be another element (chemical) that can be killing my fish?
Someone, PLEASE help me save my other fish....

 

[porkypuffer]

DON'T KNOW WHAT TO TILL YOU. THE HYPOSALINITY WILL TAKE CARE OF THE ICK. WHETHER THE FISH SERVIVE DEPENDS ON HOW LONG THEY'VE HAD ICK AND HOW STRONG THEY ARE. I THINK THE BEST THING TO DO IS TO CONTINUE WITH THE HYPOSALINITY AND SOAK THEIR FOOD IN GARLIC JUICE.
GOOD LUCK.