Ich Too Quick

dragonfli

Member
I HAVE YET ANOTHER NOVICE QUESTION. MY WATER LEVELS ARE IN PERFECT SHAPE. NITRITES, NITRATES,PH,AMMONIA ETC. NO MEAN AGGRESSIVE FISH, YET I STILL SEE ICH WITHIN A WEEK OF PUTTING A FISH IN.
DO I NOT ACCLAMATE THEM PROPERLY?
IS MY TEST KIT WRONG?
OR SOME UNKNOWN FACTOR THAT I DONT KNOW ABOUT? (WHICH IM SURE THERE ARE MANY)
PLEASE HELP.
I QUARANTINED MY NEWEST MEMBER TWICE ALREADY!
 

who dey

Active Member
is this your first fish, if so it had ick before you put it in your tank. ick just doesn't show up from what i understand it is introduced into your system by a host, which would be your new fish from your LFS
 

thejdshow

Member
Welcome to the forums, I would say over 90% of the time there is an expert on these forums that has an answer for your questions. I would suggest not using all caps, It is diffucult to read because it gives the impression that you are screaming. lol. And the little voice in my head screams it to me as he reads it.
 

masala4080

Member
Fish ALWAYS have ich, but it appears when they become stressed out because the stress lowers the ammune system, which then the fish is unable to fight it like it usually does. Some fish stress easier than others. Some tangs are a good example of this, but any fish can get ich if they are stressed. Stress can occur from many situations, especially after just being put into a brand new "box" after being in the entire ocean. There are some products you can use, but dont. These are copper based and will kill ALL inverts, and you will never be able to get the copper out of the tank. Your best bet is to put the fish in a quarintine. There are severl "natural" ways to treat ich, such as hyposalinity. I would look in the disease form to find further information, as well as reading THIS You will have to scroll down quite a bit to find info. about ich. Good luck!
 

who dey

Active Member
some people find it a controversial piece of hardware, so it's your call. I bought a uv sterilizer when one of my clowns got ick a month ago and 3 days later no signs of ick. I found it worked. I only run it now when i introduce a new fish or see a presence of disease(which is never since i bought the thing) good luck
 

dragonfli

Member
Sorry the software at my store is all run in caps. i am way too used to seeing it. my apologies for all those with little voices that are screaming. (been theredone that)lol
this last fish i had in a copper treated tank for three weeks. 4 days after i put him back in the main tank it was there in full effect. so was it in my main tank or was my pajama cardinal not cured yet. (he sure looked like it) and all of my damsels, and clowns are fine. my water is still doing great. and every one is behaving.
uv sterilizer?
 

skrimpz

Member
I heard that ich can be cause by any steress realed issue alot of the time from tempature> I keep allmt tanks salt and fresh and 80 ive heard that is suppose to help ward off fungus and ich sometimes
 

who dey

Active Member
a uv sterilizer is a tube which houses a very bright uv light which kills any free floating parasites which pass through it, it is controvertial because some may say that it can kill beneficial bacteria which passes through it, thats why i run it on a limited schedule. solved my ick problem
 

fishieness

Active Member
a product which i have found to work is called "prevent ick" for less severe cases. Dont use the "Rid-ick" because it contains formaldihyde and will kill your live rock and put more stress on your fish. But the "prevent ick" is great for adding new fish and also if you have a mild case of it. It is 100% organic and can be used in reef aquariums too!
 

jenncarol

New Member
:cheer: I am learning a lot so far. I am so new to all of this and having a bit of stress myselft (will I get ich? LOL)
My boyfriend grew up with saltwater tanks. We agreed no reef tank, but love our fish. We got our tank in very early January. Only one of our original damsels survived out of 4. Two died pretty quickly and that left our 2 yellow damsels. One was pregnant and died after depositing eggs. The other yellow, whose name is "Yellow Fish" (how original, i know), he is going strong. We bought a domino and a zebra stripe damsel soon after Mama died.
 

jenncarol

New Member
sorry, I ammending my last post... thanks for reading!
We had our local fish store check the water. They gave us the okay to get a few things. So we went crazy: chocolate chip starfish (named Patrick), Coral Beauty (named Cora L. Beauty), Snowflake Eel (named Spaghetti) and a Bi-Color Angel named Mitch ( I am a big University of Michigan Fans and he was the right set of colors!) Well, we bought Mitch from a different store. He just wasn't right after getting him in the tank. Within a few days he died from Ich and infected the tank. All died but the Zebra Damsel (named Gil) and Yellow Fish; oh, Spaghetti the Eel and Patrick survived. We relocated Patrick to a family member's home with a salt water tank and treated the tank with copper. This happened in early March. Well, Patrick is still at the in-laws and we bought 2 fish this week.
 

jenncarol

New Member
the end, I promise! :nervous:
Our 2 new fish are a blue hippo (named Dori, of course), bought Tuesday, and a Gold Rim Tang (named Buster because he is huge), bought last night (Fri.)
Buster is doing well, but not so sure about Dori. She spits water at the top lid a lot, why? and she loves the bubbles. She is a loner right now. Are some fish that shy a lot? Oh, I should preface by saying that she came in a shipment Tuesday at the local store and we took her home before she was even acclimated at the store. A blue hippo is so hard to find. And she is beautiful and rather large, about 3 inches at the least. I hear they act sort of funny. Should I worry?
Thanks for any input and thanks for reading my story... I promise I am not always that wordy!!! LOL:happyfish
 

who dey

Active Member
get spaghetti outtathere! snowflakes or eels of anykind are very intimidating to other fish, I had one and it eventually stressed out my whole system. When i removed him things got alot better. Blue hippo tangs are especially susceptable to ick. so trade spaghetti in for some penne or angel hair. lol
 

jenncarol

New Member
:jumping: Thank you so much for the advice... he does freak me out, but my "man" loves him. What can we do as an alternative... keep him and keep him OUT of our tank?
 

jenncarol

New Member
Another question... I will post a pic of my tank as soon as I can, but in the mean time.... should we invest in live rock? I have read about it and it seems like a winner. But is it for all saltwater tanks?
 

dragonfli

Member
JENNCAROL....how many newbies are you adding at a time? sounds fun and exciting to have all the new action, but it also sound like grounds for ich. thats what started my epidemic...too many too quickly. it didnt seem like it to me, but the fishs breathing start to quicken, and the i saw the spots.
my water is in optimal shape, but i still have the ich lingering i guess. eventhough my damsels dont seem to mind it, the "dory" fish i have noticed they feel crowded quickly. but im sure youve heard this all before. good luck and id love to see some pics
 

scubadoo

Active Member
Jenncarrol...I used to live in New Orleans before moving out west in search of gold:D
I beleive you have several issues going on and I will give you my opinion. Please know it has been awahile since I sucked the crawfish heads so my brain ain't what it used to be..
You are adding too much too fast. You should wait about a month between additions. Also, do not overcrowd the tank as this is prime for ich to spread assuming it is in your system. Tangs are big poopers so they will but a strain on your biological filter in the short term which creates a condition for disease due to stress from descresed water quality.....provided disease is present in your system
Unfortunately, taking home the Blue Hippo before you witnessed it eat is a crap shoot. This animal may have been just removed from the ocean and has yet to adapt to living in a cube. Also, larger to medium size tangs need 6 feet of swimming space in order to thrive for a long time and be happy. As he gets bigger he may not be happy in your tank.
Too late now but placing copper in a system is a big no-no as it is difficult to totally remove. You may have problems keeping inverts alive in the future.
Live rock is one of the best things you can add to your system. It provides a natrual food source for some animals plus increases your biological filtration as it provides the perfect enviornment for beneficial bacteria to grow. I beleive it provides a more natrual home for you fish. ALways be sure the live rock is cured. If uncertain do not add it to your tank without recuring,. Uncured rock can cause another cycle and you could lose all your animals.
Concentrate on keeping your water quality constant, temp at about 80-82, plenty water movement, a good nutritional diet, feeding garlic soaked food a few times a week and vitamins.
You want to keep the immune system of your fish in good shape as they can kick mild cases of ich.
UV steriliers will only work to kill the free swimming stages of ich. It does nothing for the parasites living on the host fish. SOme feel it does little but give the parasites a sunburn...I beleive it can help in keeping ich under control....but it does not cure ich.
It takes about 45 days for ich to cycle. I have no idea if the copper you used totally wiped it out. Early March to now indicates the cycle could still be "active". Therefore, it is possible that the disease is still present which is why it surfaced so quickly. Also, please test your water for copper as it is tough on tangs.
Sorry I rambled.....GEAUX SAINTS!!!!!!!!
 

dragonfli

Member
thankx scubadoo. im going in to my "local"FS (45 min away) to look at the uv sterilizer. and to get some other stuff thanks for the informative post.
 
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