HELP! Angel has Ich :(

artemk

artemk

Member
Hi,
My beautiful yellow fin angel fish has ICH. Since I am new to this hobby (2 months) I wasn't able to detect it at first when it happened. I think it strated about 7 days ago with one white spot near his gills, and now has spread all over the body (lots of little white spots) and his fins. I do not have a QT set up yet
but coincidentally I went out and got a bigger tank today to upgrade and make my current one a QT. I realized that the angel has ICH after I came back with a new tank, so the timing is kind of crazy lol.
How do I treat it with only one tank, since the bigger tank needs cleaned and cycled and etc. I have 2 clown fish in the tank as well. I read the forum on Disease and it says do hypo treatment, but in a separate tank (which I dont have set up yet)
Please help.
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
No real one way to do it with one tank. There's three ways to treat ich:
1. Copper treatment
2. Hyposalinity
3. Go away on it's own
It's always best to use a separate quarantine / hospital tank to copper treat and to do hyposalinity. You could buy the smallest tank you can that an angel can live comfortably in for the next 8 weeks and mix up some saltwater and put a couple filters on it from your already established tank and use some water from your already established tank. You can also add some ceramic tiles or coffee mugs for the angel to hide in. Other then that, there's not really much you can do.
Some LFS have hospital tanks that you can pay them to do a treatment on them. That's an option for yah...
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Ich will only go away on its own in its natural environment, the ocean. Within the enclosed tank, ich will always be in the tank until it is removed.
I would suggest using hyposalinity. You will need to treat all of your fish. Do you have live rock, corals, inverts?
 
artemk

artemk

Member
Yes, my current tank has live rock. I was thinking about filling up my new tank and putting the live rock in there and cycle it, which would leave my current tank a hospital tank. I also have about a 2 inch sand bed..what should I do with that? And the clownfish are healthy and not showing any signs of ich..do I still need to treat them as well?
Thanks for your help guys!
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
You will need to treat all of your fish, since they have all been exposed to a contagious parasite. You can do as you suggest with the live rock, however, live rock can be a source of transferring ich on it. However, if the new tank remains totally fish-less for a month, you should be just fine. Ich need a host fish to survive. The live cycle of ich is approximately two weeks.
I would highly suggest using hyposalinity as the treatment. There is an article on the procedure linked below. If you use this procedure, you can leave the live sand in your tank with the fish.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/a/hyposalinity
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/a/ich-cryptocaryon-irritans
 
artemk

artemk

Member
Beth, thank you. I will start the hyposalinity treatment today. Just so that I am doing the right thing, I wanted to verify some of the steps.
I have to lower the salinity in the QT to 14ppt/1.009 in 2 days by fresh water changes (I will use DI water for this procedure to ensure the best water quality). After the water is at 1.009, I must keep it there for 3 weeks until my fish are symptom free. Only after they are sympotm free, I then raise it back to display tank level in a course of a week.
One thing that I got from your article, is that I should have a refractometer, which I dont have. I only have a hydrometer. I looked at the LFS for one yesterday, and either missed it or they don't have one. How crucial is the refractometer vs the hydrometer for this procedure?
Thank you for your help thus far!
Seth thank you as well!
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
LFSs don't usually carry refractometers. They are easily found through hobby online vendors. They are the best and most accurate means of measuring salinity. If your hydrometer is the plastic swing arm variety, those are pretty much inaccurate. I would not even use them to test for salinity while doing water changes. A floating glass hydrometer will give you better results.
If you can order a refractometer, I would do it. They are well worth it. In the meantime, you can start the process using a glass hydrometer. One thing, as salinity lowers, so does pH. You need to keep your pH no lower then 8.0. Since you are removing your live rock, you want to avoid creating a cycle spike in the aquaria, if possible (ammonia). This may become an issue, so it is best to actually keep your pH no higher than 8.0 as you go in to hyposalinity. Ammonia is less toxic at lower salinity. Be sure to test for ammonia daily and have amequel on hand.
One more thing. The count down for hypo begins after there are no more visible signs of ich on your fish--then start the 3 week countdown.
In the absense of the rock which you are removing, your fish will need some other type of hiding spots. Fake coral or even pvc peieces will work for that.
 
artemk

artemk

Member
Also, I have some of my equipment in the QT that I am not sure if I need in there. I have a protein skimmer (biocube brand for tank up to 30G) powerhead, filter and heater. I know that I need the filter and the heater in there, but what should I do with the powerhead/skimmer? I could use an extra powerhead in my 55G to give it more flow if I dont need it in the QT.
I also just ordered a Refractometer and hopefully it will be here before this week! Until then, I will have to triple check the salinity with my hydrometer.
 
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