Help...copepods discovered this morning and...

jiminbing

New Member
I found a pet store open and bought a 20 gallon tank,heater and whisper filter. Took the water from the main tank and put the fish in. Boy was that fun catching them.
I didn't put anything else in it. So should I put a piece of LR in? The guy at the store said if you turn the heat up to 84 F it will kill the parasite. And he also said to soak there food in garlic. Has anyone else heard of this? I'll try to take a picture.
 

spiderwoman

Active Member
84 is not going to kill the parasite and may make your start breathing a bit more heavy. I'd keep the temp where it is right now. Remember to test the water daily so that you can do a quick water change when the params go down the hill.
I do soak just about everything I feed my fish in garlic and vitamins.
 

beth

Administrator
Staff member
There are examples of ich on fish in the Diseased Fish Thread at the top of this forum. The "dots" you saw crawling around the tank are definitely not ich, but it may be that your fish has ich. Check out the picture examples, and, if you can, post a picture of your fish.
 

jiminbing

New Member
Beth after looking at the pictures my yellow tang and coral beauty angel definitely have ich.(I even had my wife look for a second opinion) I have all the fish out of the DT and into the QT. I'll hold off on the temp change. I'm confused... How do I get my fish well again. Do I need to drop the salt level? Will just time in the QT cure the fish? What about my DT, I removed 20 gallons and put it in the QT. So I did a 20 gallon water change in the DT. What else needs to be done to the DT in order for it to be inhabitable. I really appreciate everyones help.
 
K

krichardson

Guest
as far as the display tank goes you just need to keep the fish out of it so the ick parasite can die off. to treat the fish in the qt you need to lower the specific gravity of the water to 1.019 by doing small water changes daily. this will kill the ick parasite on the fish. this is all the advice i can give you since i have never had to treat a fish for ick....(knocking on wood) i have just done a little research on it just in case it happens. someone correct this info or add to it if I'm wrong please. good luck!
 

geridoc

Well-Known Member
OK - now we know that you are dealing with ich, and the steps are pretty straightforward from here on out. You can use hyposalinity (preferred) or treat with copper (actually, much more difficult to do properly). Put a piece of 3 inch PVC piping in the QT to give the fish someplace to hide. You will need to treat for 3 weeks to be sure all the parasites are dead. But your fish will have to remain out of your display tank for 6 weeks to allow the parasites in there to die for lack of a host. Take a look at the stickey at the top of this forum for details on how to perform hyposalinity. If you do get an ammonium/nitrite spike, use Amquel Plus to get through the crisis, and keep a QT ready for use at all times in the future.
The advice about raising the temperature just tells you that the lfs you are dealing with doesn't appreciate the difference between fresh water and marine fish. Marine ich is not killed by elevated temperature. All that happens is that the fish are stressed, and the ich gets worse. Read the stickey, get a refractometer, begin hypo and keep posting your questions to the folks on this board. There are some really knowledgeable people here who give the information away without the need to make a sale. Good luck!
 

jiminbing

New Member
Thanks for the response GeriDoc. The tempature advice was given by a guy that works at a chain pet store in the area. It was the only place open today that I could get supplies. Thanks for the info. I guess I need to read the sticky.
 

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by florida joe
http:///forum/post/2531989
why do you think isopods would kill the fish From the research I have done experts are of the opinion that isopods do not affect a fish’s life span
I think I was thinking of cirlanoid (or something like that) isopods.
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by florida joe
http:///forum/post/2531989
why do you think isopods would kill the fish From the research I have done experts are of the opinion that isopods do not affect a fish’s life span

Originally Posted by alyssia

http:///forum/post/2532475
I think I was thinking of cirlanoid (or something like that) isopods.
Joe, Alyssia is correct with the type that she is thinking of. There are MANY different kinds of isopods. Some are very devastating to the system. Most need to at least be removed from the fish. They feed off of them and certainly have the potential to kill the host, not all, but some. To the OP; Use the filter pads from the display. Be up for many water changes. You will have to manually keep this tank from cycling. I am terribly sorry, but it is the cost of not keeping a cycled quarantine tank.
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by sepulatian
http:///forum/post/2532506
Joe, Alyssia is correct with the type that she is thinking of. There are MANY different kinds of isopods. Some are very devastating to the system. Most need to at least be removed from the fish. They feed off of them and certainly have the potential to kill the host, not all, but some. To the OP; Use the filter pads from the display. Be up for many water changes. You will have to manually keep this tank from cycling. I am terribly sorry, but it is the cost of not keeping a cycled quarantine tank.
Sir Q can you physical remove them from the fish with out doing harm or must you use other methods?
 

sk8shorty01

Active Member
Originally Posted by krichardson
http:///forum/post/2532198
as far as the display tank goes you just need to keep the fish out of it so the ick parasite can die off. to treat the fish in the qt you need to lower the specific gravity of the water to 1.019 by doing small water changes daily. this will kill the ick parasite on the fish. this is all the advice i can give you since i have never had to treat a fish for ick....(knocking on wood) i have just done a little research on it just in case it happens. someone correct this info or add to it if I'm wrong please. good luck!

I think there is a typo in these directions. The specific gravity needs to be lowered to 1.009 in 48 hours by doing water changes. Then after the hyposalinity treatment is complete, the reverse is needed to bring the SG back up to normal.
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by florida joe
http:///forum/post/2532637
Sir Q can you physical remove them from the fish with out doing harm or must you use other methods?
Larger isopods can be pulled off with tweezers. Copper will kill any of them though. There are thousands of different kinds of parasitic copepods and isopods.
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by sk8shorty01
http:///forum/post/2532874
I think there is a typo in these directions. The specific gravity needs to be lowered to 1.009 in 48 hours by doing water changes. Then after the hyposalinity treatment is complete, the reverse is needed to bring the SG back up to normal.
you may want to bring you salinity up from hypo over a longer time frame then you brought it down IMO
 

jiminbing

New Member
Just an update ... Monday I went to the LFS where I bought my entire set up and fish. Told him my DT had ich and that I set up a QT on Sunday. Now I needed to know what I should do, he gave me Quick Cure to treat the fish. After one day I started to improvement. After the second dose they are looking better.
Today he told me to give it a full five days for the medication to have full effect. The coral beauty angel was just peppered with ich. Now, it still shows some signs but not nearly what it was. I also dropped my salt level to 1.019. Has anyone ever used Quick Cure? How long did it take to work. Thanks to all for the help.
 

geridoc

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by jiminbing
http:///forum/post/2536794
Just an update ... Monday I went to the LFS where I bought my entire set up and fish. Told him my DT had ich and that I set up a QT on Sunday. Now I needed to know what I should do, he gave me Quick Cure to treat the fish. After one day I started to improvement. After the second dose they are looking better.
Today he told me to give it a full five days for the medication to have full effect. The coral beauty angel was just peppered with ich. Now, it still shows some signs but not nearly what it was. I also dropped my salt level to 1.019. Has anyone ever used Quick Cure? How long did it take to work. Thanks to all for the help.

Quick Cure = malachite green + formalin = not usually effective against marine ich. It is not unusual for ich to drop off of the fish as part of their lifecycle, only to come back later even worse. Keep lowering the sg of the tank until you get to your target, then hold it there for 3 weeks after symptoms disappear. There have been many threads on this board about "miracle" cures for marine ich, but the general consensus is that hyposalinity or copper are the only "true", proven treatments.
 

tbcseod

Member
I'm still pretty new to salt water setups but I learned about Ich in a big was a month or so after setting up a complete tank with fish and rock that I bought from someone - and I thought I was gonna loose everything due to ich. I tried about 3 or 4 "Ich cure" meds that ran about 15-20 bucks each 1 of them seemed to stunt the ich but I can't say it "helped" any, one of them appeared to kill my two stars (I was later told by the same shop that sold it to me that they were amazed it didn't kill EVERY thing in the tank aside from the fish), the other two seemed to do nothing as the ich kept getting worse...... Finally I tried a 2.00 bottle of "quick cure" and within three days the fish were looking great and my tank was healing up (she had started developing open sores from the ich on her sides).......
As I said, I'm new to this also - but I used that for 2 weeks and it hasn't come back since (in fact I went and bought 4 bottles just to have on hand "just in case" I ever needed it again...
~TbcSEOD
Edit - though I have since been told that it is not very good for the LR and critters in the tank - but its the only option I had at the time......
 

tdog7879

Member
I had gotten a blue throat trigger about 10 days ago within 2 days it got ich!
So i got a bottle of kick ich (organtic stuff) and a bottle of vita chem, and no more ich. So my question is do you think it is gone?
Note: no other fish was infected.
Fish: Big yellow tang, 2 tomato clowns, 1 green chromis, 2 gobys, blue throat
1 brittle star ,3 feather duster, hermitcrabs snails
70lbs live rock
dsb
One other ? do you think my tank is over stock: 80 gal.
 
U

usirchchris

Guest
Originally Posted by GeriDoc
http:///forum/post/2536884
Quick Cure = malachite green + formalin = not usually effective against marine ich. It is not unusual for ich to drop off of the fish as part of their lifecycle, only to come back later even worse. Keep lowering the sg of the tank until you get to your target, then hold it there for 3 weeks after symptoms disappear. There have been many threads on this board about "miracle" cures for marine ich, but the general consensus is that hyposalinity or copper are the only "true", proven treatments.
+1 except I would hold the salinity down for a minimum of 4 weeks, and probably do 6 to 8 weeks.
and trust me...all of your fish are now infected. You may not be able to see it, and some may not be as effected by ich, but they still have it. Some fish can build up an immunity, but can still spread it to others. I had to learn this the hard way. Get a qt, pull the fish and start hypo, or copper.
 

tdog7879

Member
Originally Posted by usirchchris
http:///forum/post/2605217
+1 except I would hold the salinity down for a minimum of 4 weeks, and probably do 6 to 8 weeks.
and trust me...all of your fish are now infected. You may not be able to see it, and some may not be as effected by ich, but they still have it. Some fish can build up an immunity, but can still spread it to others. I had to learn this the hard way. Get a qt, pull the fish and start hypo, or copper.
Was this reply to me? It has been 4 days without any whiite spots
 
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