ICH Mystery!! Somebody Please explain this!

[eden]

Ok, I am not crazy! Two days ago I noticed thin white flecks on my Klein Butterfly's fins. By yesterday afternoon he was absolutely covedred in white dots. All over his fins, eyes you name it. I was horrible. He looked like he must be completely miserable. My domino had spots and was scraping and presenting himself to the shrimp trying to get cleaned and my Yellow Tang had light flecks on his fins too.
Last night I began hyposalinity and lowered the SG from 1.024 to 1.022 and then this morning again to 1.020. Just now I was working on lowering to 1.018. I got to 1.019 and just happened to take a look at the Butterfly and there are NO SPOTS anywhere on him. He looks absolutely perfect. I can't see any spots on the Domino or the Yellow Tang either!
As far as I know the SG is no where near where it needs to be to get rid of ich. Did I just get lucky or what??

What do I do now? I assume the parasite is still in the tank. So I would imagine I need to keep the SG low for 3-4 weeks??? Should continue to lower the SG to 1.009 or leave it at 1.019??

 

[eden]

Jim - I am not one to help you as I am brand new myself. Search the board for ich and it will help considerably. If you think you have ich, perform the hyposalinity procedure described many times in various posts. Maybe post your question to it's own thread so someone looks at it individually and can answer your specific questions. As far as I know, ich is pretty distinctive, looks like table salt all over your fish. Mine started out as think white flecks and within a day covered the entire fish in salt-like specs. But overnight they are all gone at SG 1.020. Good luck.

 

[eden]

I answered my own question! It was because the cysts (or what ever you call the stage where you can see the parasite) fell off!

 

[nas19320]

I hope your not lowering the salinity in the display tank. If you are then any invertabrates will die. And yes, to be successful with destroying ich the salinity must be lowered to 1.009 and kept there for three weeks. Also I believe hyposalinity only kills the free swimming stage of ich and will not kill any parasites that are attached to the fish until their life cycle is over. I'm sure Beth or Terry B will be able to clarify or correct me.

 

[eden]

Hi Nas - Yes I did 'hyposal' my display tank. I had to because as I understand it if one fish has ich all have been exposed and should be treated and I don't have another tank big enough for all my fish for a month. I moved my shrimps out to my Q tank and now we wait! Thanks for making sure I knew about the inverts as it would not have been obvious for a newbie.

 

[beth]

Nas, you should never add so many animals all at once to a system....QT, QT, QT. Ick will never invade your tank if you QT. Get only one fish at a time, unless it is a paired "couple" or a school.
Most fish have or carry ich. Its up to us to get rid of it before introducing it to our tanks. I just got a midas blenny from SWF.com and so far, so good... no ich. Thus, its hit or miss when it comes to ich. Most likely a hit with any new fish.
eden, yes ich has a 3-stage life cycle only one of which is the parasite attached to the fish. Believe me your fish will soon have ich again unless they are treated. What are you using to measure salinity for the hyposalinity procedure?

 

[eden]

Beth - I am using a good glass hydrometer. I know you mentioned a refractometer(?), but I could not get one fast enough as I wanted to get the hypo process started right away before my fish got worse. Anyway, I have my fish in 1.009 and plan to leave them there for 3 weeks after all signs are gone as you have instructed in your lenghty hypo procedures.
I do have 3 questions:
1. My first indication my butterfly had something was thin white blotches on his fins only visible in certain light (does this sound like ich??). The next day full blown ich! He was covered in salt specs - eyes and everything! They went away as soon as I started the hypo, and now we are back to thin white blotches on his fins. Is this still the visible signs of ich? Do I wait for these to disappear before I start counting 3 weeks??
2. The butterfly was added April 21. From the moment he arrived he seemed to be breathing hard. Is this because he came with ICH and the parasite was in his gills? Would it take a whole month for him to show signs of the infection ?
3. Should I get a refractometer to make absolutley sure my salinity is no lower than 1.009? Will my hydrometer not be accurate enough?
Thanks!

 

[nas19320]

Beth I think you may be referring to the wrong person. I rarely add more than one fish at a time and I always QT. I've learned that the hard way.