Ich on my fish, plzzzz Help

[nitegrl33]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
You were on top of the SG reading the entire time? Before you had let it go to 1.010 with a hydrometer which is actually much higher. I thought my tank was at 1.025 and it was actually 1.030 the day I bought my refractometer. Please explain what all happened durring the time you last posted before and when you just posted. Something went wrong. I would hazzard a guess that the ich got used to the lower salinity before got the refractometer. Can you put your fish into another tank besides the dt just to watch them while you perform hypo the correct way this time? You may want to wait a week or more before starting. Do what you can for the tang to keep the ich off of him. He will need to breathe saltier water for awhile before he goes back into hypo. Feed him lots of fresh garlic.
Well, when i first started Hypo i wasn't using a refractometer so for about 2 weeks the reading was probabily off cuz the ich came back 3 times worse, and thats when i came here and asked y. You had told me then to get a refractometer, which i did, and then i restarted hypo with the correct reading. It's been 6 weeks and a few days since i restarted correctly, and the ich hadn't reapeared ever since i restarted. So if the ich got use to the lower reading, how come it only atacked my Tang now? 6 weeks later....a day after I bring up the salinity again...it's weird. But i've got the Tang in a separate tank and i'm treating him with Rid Ich, or something like that, even though i don't think those things work. For the time being i'm watching the ones in the DT, and so far so good...ever since the begining the Tang was the one with Ich anyway, not the others...but i do know they could get infected too.

 

[nitegrl33]

Let me explain the whole situation again because i'm on the edge of giving this aquarium away from so much frustation

. I have a 55gal tank. At first I had a yellow tang, 2 clows, 2 gobby, 5 anemones, 1 serpent starfish, 1 crab, and 1 javanese damsel, and about 120lb of LR. Everything was fine, then i got a powder brown tang and a flame angel. I didn't QT them, wich was my mistake in the first place, and they had the Ick. So i came on this site and started doing Hypo on my DT, but i didnt have a refractometer so i wasn't doing it right and the Ick just came back 3 times worse, in this whole process I lost the yellow tang, the javanese, one goby, the flame angel and a few anemones. I got the refractometer and restarted Hypo correctly. NO ICK for the 6 weeks of treatment. Once the time was up for Hypo, i brought salinity back up and put my inverts and LR back in the DT. 2 days later, the same tang only has Ick. i've removed him from the DT for 3 weeks now and am treating him. All the others in the DT are normal, so i don't know if my tank is still infected and the other fish r simply imune to the Ick. So i need some expert advice from someone who really knows Ick. Does Ick die with freshwater? I'm about to move so i thought of maybe cleaning out the DT, new sand, clean equipment, and totally clean out the DT, refill it with new water let it run for a week without any fish. Will that kill the Ick if it's in my DT? or how can clean it, can I wash my sand and still use it? I'm not an expert and i love my aquarium, but i don't want my fish to keep dieing. At this point i just want to clean out the DT of Ick for sure, I've tried everything...the garlic, the meds, Hypo and nothing seem to get rid of the Ick on the Tang.

 

[sc0rp_xiii]

from everything I have read and been told the only way to definitely kill the ich in the tank is to let it lay fallow for 6 weeks w/o any fish in it. not sure how that applies to your moving and breaking down everything and cleaning it though...

 

[legoalie31]

a person at a fish store told me to bring the temperature up to about 84 because most ich cant live above 82-83 degrees... im trying it now, hopefully it will work. if it does then i will post again

 

[nitegrl33]

Originally Posted by Legoalie31
a person at a fish store told me to bring the temperature up to about 84 because most ich cant live above 82-83 degrees... im trying it now, hopefully it will work. if it does then i will post again

They told me the same at the fish store...maybe i'll try that on the QT where the tang lies...but if my DT is really still infected would that work in there? And what about the LR and inverts, can they take that temperature? I'll wait on a reply from Sepulation or Beth about my cleaning off the aquarium, because Hypo did not work and i did it correctly.

 

[legoalie31]

okay. well im doing that in my display tank so ill tell ya if it works. i took my sea apple out though and everything seems to be fine.

 

[coral keeper]

I am doing the same. My angel and my damsels and my puffer rubbed thear selvs on rocks and sand now that i put the temp to 85 they arent rubbing them selvs any more!

I hope i killed ALL the ick!

But im still going to leave the temp at 85 for 2 days to make sure i killed the ick.

 

[petjunkie]

Higher temps will not kill ich, it simply speeds up their life cycle so they drop off faster, they will not be killed by this. Hypo and copper are the only proven ways but they must be done correctly.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by nitegrl33
Well, when i first started Hypo i wasn't using a refractometer so for about 2 weeks the reading was probabily off cuz the ich came back 3 times worse, and thats when i came here and asked y. You had told me then to get a refractometer, which i did, and then i restarted hypo with the correct reading. It's been 6 weeks and a few days since i restarted correctly, and the ich hadn't reapeared ever since i restarted. So if the ich got use to the lower reading, how come it only atacked my Tang now? 6 weeks later....a day after I bring up the salinity again...it's weird. But i've got the Tang in a separate tank and i'm treating him with Rid Ich, or something like that, even though i don't think those things work. For the time being i'm watching the ones in the DT, and so far so good...ever since the begining the Tang was the one with Ich anyway, not the others...but i do know they could get infected too.
Tangs are scaleless fish. They are very likely to get ich and to be re-infected. Ridich will only harm your fish. The only time that hypo fails is when it is not done correctly. Give him a few weeks to calm down then re-hypo him. If this fish was in the display then the whole thing needs to be done over the correct way, without flutuations. Add him back in and do it over the right way.

 

[legoalie31]

so the ich will just keep coming back if you just leave the temperature up?

 

[cgj]

Not that im hijacking this thread, but I just noticed the clownfish I had for roughly 4 months now has a single ich spot on his side. I nearly fell over! The ich spot is a very small, raised bump on his skin that looks much like a human whitehead. The only thought I have is this young clownfish I added 3-4 weeks ago as his companion. The young clownfish was not quarantined, but he came from a heavily coppered tank from a LFS, so i assumed he must be safe. He must be the culprit.
I managed to capture the older, sick fish and put him in a freshwater bath for 7 minutes. He handled the bath fine, and now I have him in a gallon bowl of tank water... and Im dropping the salinity in it a bit.
The clownfish did seem to itch himself a bit on the rock and decor... but he had no spots or signs of ich... this is the first one... do you guys think he had it for a while?

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Legoalie31
so the ich will just keep coming back if you just leave the temperature up?
The temperature only speeds up the life cycle of ich if it is over 86 degrees which is way too high for your fish. If the fish are treated correctly and all new purchased are quarantied (including rocks and corals) then ich will not be an issue again. For anyone else with ich issues, please start a new thread