"ICH" on a fish...IN A CORAL TANK !!

[fallnhorse]

Originally Posted by XoXoX
If you do not catch the PB it will kill him and infect the other fish whether you see it on them or not.
I'm fighting it too, but my PB is still alive and QTed.

That's too advance for "kick Ich" to work. Needs cooper quarantine tank and quick. Lots of food to to keep his strength up..and pray don't hurt anything.
Kick ich is useful if you see a couple of spots. 3 to 7 spots. Anymore then you need cooper treatment. Good luck

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by fallnhorse
That's too advance for "kick Ich" to work. Needs cooper quarantine tank and quick. Lots of food to to keep his strength up..and pray don't hurt anything.
Kick ich is useful if you see a couple of spots. 3 to 7 spots. Anymore then you need cooper treatment. Good luck

I think Hypo is the preferred treatment over copper.

 

[azaintcold]

Originally Posted by Payton 350
you can guarantee that your tank will never get it.......example...my tank is ich free.....if i add something to the tank say a coral.....Qt that coral for 6 weeks......no treatment just keep it isolated....
QT a coral. What about something that demands high lighting? Is there an easy way to do this without buying upgraded lighting for your QT tank? I understand QTing fish, but never though about it for coral.

 

[stanlalee]

Originally Posted by fallnhorse
That's too advance for "kick Ich" to work. Needs cooper quarantine tank and quick. Lots of food to to keep his strength up..and pray don't hurt anything.
Kick ich is useful if you see a couple of spots. 3 to 7 spots. Anymore then you need cooper treatment. Good luck

Reef safe products keep ich off the fish long enough for the fish to develop immunity. The problem is immunity to ich only last 8-12 months. I used RxP and it worked great so I thought. Used it once ich went away and came back a few days later. Used it again and my hippo tang didn't get ich for 8 months straight. added dwarf angel and a few days later tang has a mild case of ich. No other fish has or had any visable ich. RxP now does nothing. I knew right then it had to be done the right way which is let ich run its life cycle. I took all the fish out and coppered them in another tank and let the display tank sit fishless. Yes it SUCKS big time with your display tank with no fish ( I am going to wait 6wks to make sure they have all died out and that isn't until march 5). Luckily my tank is sparse of liverock but I still have to move EVERY rock in the tank to catch all three fish. that sucked too.
Its been two weeks and the copper has worked great. As for hyposalinity being the "preffered method", that may be true here but Fenner and the many others disagree with that. Sure copper is toxic to fish (although you have a fairly large window between .03 and .06 that fish survive in and ich doesn't) and can kill them with over exposure but the success rate at killing ich is just greater than hypo. Hypo has to be dropped very low and very accurately done and in a small QT tank simple lapses like a day or two of forgetting to top off evaporated water will bring salinity right back up to where ich doesn't die. Once you reach the therapeutic dose of copper ich is gonna die no matter what you do and with the development of culprimine by seachem its much more stable and safer to apply then it once was.
No fish will ever go in my tank again without quarantine and it only took me about 10yrs to finally see the light.

 

[sexyfishers]

journeyman.. great tip about putting food in the net! Thanks for that one! :cheer:
being a newbie.. I personally do not have a QT tank, but my lfs does offer QT services for FREE! I suggest you looking into this if nothing you are doing is working.
I am my no means an expert, but did have a 250g about 15 yrs ago and my dad started it 5 yrs before that. Although me and fiance are just getting back into it these days.
I read the other day that in order to CATCH a sick fish.. a lady took a big plastic lid from one of those big storage containers like rubbermaid and closed off an aread of the tank, took out the live rock etc and then captured the fish.
Like I said, definately not an expert, but ICH is a parasite and I wouldn't want a fish swimming around in my healthy tank with my healthy HAPPY fish.
Try to get him out in order to medicate him.
ALSO.. Chad.. I remember reading when you added that Blue tang last week or so and you were wondering if his erratic behavior was normal... looks like you were right and he was really stressed. Humm.. I am always one to agree with go with our gut. Looks like you were right and well, now too bad your fishy isn't happy right now and feeling icky.
peace-n-love Tonia

 

[1journeyman]

Your points on copper are well taken, but I would argue the dangers...
Copper is stressful to treat fish with. When I was a volunteer at the TSA they wouldn't allow divers in the shark tank after it had been treated with copper because of the sharks getting "moody".
While you are correct, salinity can go up in a QT tank, that only prolongs life of parasite. A slight miscalculation in copper will kill.

 

[stanlalee]

Point taken but Sharks are hypersensitive to copper and cant be treated with chelated and simple forms of copper at all. even safer complex copper forms warn to use with caution:
Q: Is Cupramine™ safe to use with sharks and rays?
A: Yes, but use carefully-perhaps start with a 1/4 dose and increase slowly as indicated by no signs of any adverse reaction
Sharks, Rays, any scaless fish, angels and tangs are more risky to treat with copper than other fish so if you are treating any of these you may want to stay away from copper especially if it isn't Cupramine which after some researching is the only copper treatment I feel comfortable using.

 

[joyfnp]

Do you think a cleaner wrasse or neon gobie would take care of the ick
problem?

 

[weatherman]

Love the suggestions. TO ME, a lot of work...a lot of time....and a lot of water, salt, chemicals, etc.
I, PERSONALLY, have a coral reef tank with a few beautiful fish in it. MY priority are the CORALS, and then the FISH. Yes, I hate to lose ANY fish, but would rather 'battle' the ich problem BEFORE I take all the fish out of the tank, set up another, check the salt, temp, filtration, airation, etc. And in the mean time probably knocking down rocks, corals, etc. Personally, I've only had to battle the ich a couple of times. ALL the fish are eating well, and have always done so. YES, I know the ich can come back at any time and is still in the tank, but I'll fight it when it does.
With frequent water changes, garlic, etc., I've really never had any major problems. I'll think I'll live with it..... THIS IS JUST MY PERSONAL OPINION ABOUT THIS........please, nobody, get mad.....

 

[xoxox]

This is what my PB looks like now, still not 100% but better.
I coppered the QT and part of the ich buried itself in the fishes tissue.
Powder Blues are nothing but ich factories but they sure are a good looking, tough fish.