ich treatment???

[marinefish]

i have a problem. my coral beauty is beraking out with ich. currently there are several dotts on its dorsal fin and tail. in this tank there is a sabae clown, neon dottyback and a watchman goby. my problem is i would have to tear the tank down just to catch the coral beauty. is there a treat ich wihtout removing the fish?

 

[timsedwards]

Hi,
There is but its not generally recommended at the moment, the general concensus is that reef safe (I presume its a reef tank?) treatments arent that successful, the best way is hyposalinity, that has a very good success rate. For this however you will need a refractometer and a QT either for your fish or your live rock.
The best people to ask are Terry and Beth who are experts in this field! Until they can get back to you (I am different time zone which is why I am up and they are probably asleep!) feed your fish garlic suppliments, i.e. soak their food in garlic, it builds up their immune system, like vitamin tablets.
Any idea what brought it on? Most people think that Ich is largely caused by stress, so can you post your test results, system spec etc? Added anything new recently?
All the best,
Tim.

 

[beth]

Hyposalinity is the best treatment for ich. You can use a quality glass hydrometer to perform the procedure. What type of tank do you have?

 

[fishkiller]

how low do you take the salinity? My tank has ich.

 

[fishfan]

Beth,
What is hyposalinity and how do you apply it? I got my Blue Hippo from swf almost 2 weeks ago, he has ich and hasn't been eating well. I started with garlic 2 days ago and I've been using Greenex for 6 days but he still doesn't look good.

 

[gatorcsm]

To perform hypo you will need either a high quality glass thermometer or refractometer, pref. a refractometer. If by chance you have access to a digital hydrometer, that would be extremely helpful (and very quick). Ensure there are no inverts in the tank to be 'treated'. Drop s.g. by doing mini water changes, replacing the water taken out with ro/di water (1.000 s.g.); You will want to drop to 1.009 over the course of ~48 hours. Once there you will wait till all visible signs of ich disappear.
This starts a counter of approx 3 weeks. At this point you will raise s.g. back to original levels over about a week (5-7 days)
During the treatment, ensure you monitor levels closely, and do water changes as necessary to keep levels in check. I've had luck using bactervital when/if necessary (i'm not sure if this is recommended, but it seemed/seems to work); Put some pvc of varying sizes in the tank for hiding. I sacrificed a few base rocks and put them in the tank for a slightly more natural appearance. It might also be necessary to use a buffer to control pH.
Some points that have been brought out in previous threads:
1.009 is chosen because the parasites cannot survive <1.010
> 1.008 because this is the fish's internal s.g. ...
21 days (if i recall correctly) is the life cycle of ich, so there's the 3 weeks...
Leave your main tank empty during this time to rid the tank of ich.
Hope this helps. Good luck!