I have a bit of a problem..Ich

[jazztap10]

I have a fairly new tank that i just started in January. I have one firefish, which was added about a month and a half ago, and i added my new anthias to the maintank (after several weeks of quarantine and no sign of disease) about a week ago. Yesterday the anthias showed signs of ich, so I switched him back to the quarantine, and he died this morning (sad...my first loss)
My question is, since i obviously have ich in my display tank, how the heck can i get rid of it? I know if you leave it fishless for 4 weeks it should die off on its own without a host... but that requires moving the firefish. how the heck can i catch that firefish? lol

 

[nycbob]

if its just 1 firefish u hv, i'd just leave it in there. dont put any fish into the tank for the next 6-8 weeks. most healthy fish r able to fight off icks without showing any sign of it. icks will actually slowly die off if u maintain a healthy tank. to competely eliminate it fo sure though, u will need to go fishless for 6-8 weeks. how big is ur tank? catching it shouldnt be an issue.

 

[eric b 125]

your dt has the parasite in it now, if the anthias went in with it. what i suggest is to qt your firefish and treat it with hypo for a month. the parasite in your dt will have died off from your dt from starvation of not having a fish to host

 

[florida joe]

will actually slowly die off if u maintain a healthy tank
i belive you mean the population will remain at a low level, am i right

 

[jazztap10]

okay ill try to get the firefish out... not sure if i can though! he moves so fast i cant even see him!! lol

 

[eric b 125]

i can be tricky trying to catch a fish. i had to remove all my LR to take all my fish out for hypo, but with one fish, especially a smaller one, you could make it easier on yourself and the fish by making a soda-bottle fish trap

 

[nycbob]

the firefish is very hard to catch even with a trap. firefish, unlike othe fish, dont really come out to beg for food. imo, if its small tank, just take the rocks out, and catch it.

 

[jazztap10]

Can i just do hyposalinity in the DT?
its got liverock, a couple snails, a couple hermits, and the firefish
will the inverts die from the hypo?

 

[jazztap10]

Also on that note, I was told be LFS that formalin (diluted formaldehyde) was effective treatment for ich. Any thoughts on that? Any thoughts on adding that to the main tank with snails/hermits?
Tried to catch the firefish today. gave up after a while. its a 50g tank, so tacking apart the rock work sounds like a headache, heh