Ich Outbreak, Have Some Questions

rastaangel

rastaangel

Member
So I have a outbreak of ick in my small temp tank...
Long story short my large dispay tank bottom broke and I had to set up a emergency tank and all my fish are stressed out.
So I have some questions. From what I have been reading the 2 best treaments are copper and hyposalinity. I have no access to copper so hyposalinity is my only option right now.
I know how to treat the fish and so far its just the one damsel thats sick. But if hes sick then the rock and sand is infected, but all that really matters in there is my pair of black perculas
Can my starfish get it? is he safe to put back into my display tank when it get fixed? I know he cant take copper or hyposalinity
My main consern is how to treat my rock and sand without killing off all the good things I have worked to hard to get there. As most of the sand and rock in my emergency tank is from my display I am now kinda limited to setting up my display again.
What is my best course of action?
 
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Like joe said. Take all the fish out and put them in a tank all by themselves. Everything else in another tank.
The tank witht eh fish gets the hyposalinty or the copper (cuprimine) and the fishless tank (Fallow) gets nothing done to it for 4-6 weeks.
at the ned of 6 weeks in a succesful hypo treatment you can add everything together and be ich free.
 
After that all new additions go through the same process. Fish go to the fish tank for treatment and everything else goes in a fishless tank to just hang out for 6 weeks.
Corals, inverts and rocks cannot host ick, but they can easily carry ich from one tank to another on frag plugs, invery shells and anywhere on live rock. Once it's in your new tank it hangs out in it's little cyst until it's made enough babies inside it and it blows up and releases up to 200 of those little suckers that go in search of your fish. This would start the life cycle all over again.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
yep. although I have heard that hings that don't have skeletons or whatever for the ich to stick to may not be able to carry the ich, things like anemones and I guess that might include starfish.
I put them all in the fishless tank jsut to be safe, but i dunno on that one.
 
rastaangel

rastaangel

Member
is there any way to accelerate the life cycle of these parasites? like raising the temp or anything or do i just have to let it take its course?
 
robertmathern

robertmathern

Active Member
yes by raiseing the salinity the ich will speed up there life cycle and bredd but whats the point that defets the purpose of hypo. in the fishless tank you dont lower the salinity so no there is no way to "speed' up the life cycle. If you try raising the silinty you will kill your inverts and corals.
 
rastaangel

rastaangel

Member
Will raising the salinity in my fishless tote speed up there life cycle and cut down on the recovery time? Cuz most of my rock and sand is in there. Nothing is in there but rock and sand
All my fish are in a hypo hospital tank. Would it be a bad idea to add established bio median in the filter in there? will it host the parasite to spread? Cuz after a day the ammonia was .25 and I had to do a 25% water change and I dont really want to have to do that every day for the next 3 weeks....
 
mrdc

mrdc

Active Member
If I understand the treament correctly, hyposalintity is all you need to do for the hospital tank. As long as no fish is in your display tank, then you just have to be patient and let the ick die out....like 4-6 weeks.
 
liam

liam

New Member
Raising the Temp of a Tank to speed up Ich only works in Freshwater Setups, Ich in Saltwater Tanks is different.
 
S

smartorl

Guest
I had stopped into ***** (only place open that late) to get another powerhead for my hospital tank and of course they didn't have any on display but I asked if they had any in the back and the brainless wonder went to check, came back and while trying to leave, slipped and said that I had ich and was putting the tank in hypo. Brainless wonder told me that I will kill all my fish, so much better to raise the salinity to 1.025 because the ich can't live with that high of salinity. Ha!
Beth was so patient an awesome for my dumb questions! I had never performed hypo before and was nervous, which made me mess with things more than I should. We are now doing great! No spots for almost a week now, the fish all look great.
 
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