ich

[justlooking]

In my tank, everyone is fine, except one small small cleaner goby I got from the fish store. Looks like he has ich by looking at him, but otherwise he seems fine. Anything I should do or do fish generally fight through ich by themselves. Can it effect the other fish or not really?

 

[nacl-h2o]

If it is Ich, it will spread to your other fish and it is deadly. You should start by feeding your fish garlic saoked food. If this is an invertabrate free tank there are many good copper based meds on the market that work faster than garlic.

 

[itchy]

Have you tried a fresh water dip on the fish? I had 2 damsels that had ich while I was cycling my tank. I did a fresh water dip on them and 1 survived and the other I didn't chance because the dip didn't seem to get rid of all the ich on the one fish! I now have a isolation tank the I use for new fish ( I isolate them for about 7 to 10 days) this helps with new fish. I have inverts in my tanks so I can not treat with copper. Good luck

 

[justlooking]

What do you do just take the fish and put him in freshwater for a minute? Whats that do

 

[carrie1429]

I would have to disagree with the FW dip, they are very stressful on the fish an IMO not effective, you would also have to do all your fish because most likely all of them have ich. Also the fish will just get reinfected since the parasite is still in the tank. IMO the best way of treament is hyposalinity. This is the easiest and safest way for your fish, but requires a hospital tank to do it. Hypo is lowering the salinity to where ich can't live.

 

[itchy]

You take a gallon of Fw and a Quart of salt water put the fish that has ich in it for 3 to 5 mins. This might get rid of the Ich on the particular fish however it is my understanding that Ich can live in the sand bed or gravel of your tank. Like I said one of my fish survived and the other went away. I have had no other problems with fish in my tank. I now have finished cycling and have added 2 angel fish and 2 clown fish all doing fine. I have anemones in my tank so I cant treat the whole tank for Ich. If you decide to do the dip the fish may become disoriented for a moment however will come around. Good Luck
ps. I did a Fw dip on the angels and it helped but I am treating with Kordons Rid-Ich to be sure. there looked to be a few spots on the tail fins that didnt want to go away.

 

[itchy]

ooo by the way....If you do the Fw dip then you still may need to treat your tank. Turn up the temp in your tank this will help the polyps that have fallen to the aquarium floor and treat with meds you can get at the pet store. It would be wise to turn off any carbon filtering as this will slow down the treatment process. If you do the Sw dip it will only help in treating the one fish and may save it as the parasite falls off the fish. try this web site for info http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dyn...ishdisease.htm

 

[clarkiiboi]

I agree with Carrie 100%, again to state the ich will still be in the main tank and reinfesting of ich is most probable--the fish is still a host, whether FW dipped or not. Best solution is a hospital tank with all your fish and do hypo there. Let the ich die off in the main tank with no hosts. HTH

 

[itchy]

all this talk about Ich and I have it again. I have set up a hospital tank since I have Inverts. But I can not move all of my fish from a 75 gal to a 10 gal hospital. what to do what to do!!! Furthermore I am wondering if anyone knows how long Ich will survive without a host? I have always been told to turn up the temp as this will help rid of it faster but it never says what faster is. 1 week or 1 month or hell 1 year. Lmao. At this point I cant do anything but treat as I go and try to laugh to keep from crying . If it is not one thing its another. Damn fish.

 

[carrie1429]

It usually takes 4-6 weeks for the ich to die off in the main tank so all the fish must stay in the hospital tank for at least a month, inverts are ok though.

 

[carrie]

Justlooking,
I have the same problem. I have 72 gal main tank, 29hospital tank. All my fish in 72 gal w/inverts. Purchased royal gramma & put in hopsital tank 10 days. No sign of ich.
Added gramma to main tank and now all my fish have ich. I even feed my fish garlic soaked food and every fish now has ich. I completely understand what you are going though!
Can't do hyposalinity because hospital tank prev. had copper in to treat ich problem i had in the past. If I put inverts in hospital tank, they may die. I can't put all my fish from main tank that live in 72 gal tank, where my biological filitriation is set up, into a 29hospital tank where the tank has little to no biological filtration. I'll get all kinds of ammonia spikes.
UGH!
I have no idea what to do now. The last 6 days I've used a product called 'no ich' and even double dosed. As I stated above, now all my fish have ich. As to what happened here is my idea:
every time I add new fish to my tank, they get ich!
I'm completely at my wits end!
I know i have not helped you but maybe though some of my problems we can learn together....

 

[itchy]

well Carrie i know most people do not like to do FW dips on their fish but as a last resort I did on my damsels that was giving me hell and today he looks much better. There is one spot on him that I am not sure if it is Ich or a defect in the fin. He is eating fine and chasing the other fish around. I am using a treatment by Ruby Reef called Kick Ich and am now feeding garlic soaked foods as a preventive measure. This treatment is clear so it wont stain my glass. I have ordered a UV Sterilizer from www.bigalsonline.com that will be here in a couple of days. My guy I buy from tried to keep me from doing a Fish tank with inverts but I was stubborn and had to have it as my other tank is fish only. So what worked for me might not work for you but you can try it. Now I did loose my two angel fish but I think that had more to do with the fact that I was gone for 2 days and didnt catch the ich in time. None of my other fish are showing signs as of yet. I have a Manadarin goby, a scooter blenny, a tomato clown and a percula along with 3 damn damsels I can not catch, 2 sebea anemones and lots of crabs and 1cbs. If you would like to email me feel free Robynlex@msn.com and we can chat some more about this big pain in the as*. Another thing you may could do is keep treating, don't add any new fish and do water changes every other day as this will physically extract some of the Ich polyps. You know that Ich is always present it just needs to be in a tolerable stage? When you get a fish that is stressed it allows for the Ich to spore and multiply. good luck

 

[itchy]

okay Terry thanks for the blast....lol I am aware of your feelings about Ich. I have a hospital tank to move my fish to however I have more fish than will fit in the Hospital tank and until I get a bigger tank treatment and water changes will have to do for now. As for ich always being present I have read this and been told this several times. I take it from your post you do not agree? I have always been told that Ich is in all tanks but only becomes a problem when you have a sick fish for it to host on and multiply. What is your theory? You cant tell me that Ich falls out of the sky and infects perfectly healthy fish if you have had them for awhile!! This is not the case with this infestation this time but in my other tank I did have Ich show up after my tank had been established for 6 months without adding new fish.
Could it have been stress that caused it? sure, but where did the parasite come from? Just curious. I am always open to new theories and advice. I read your post on Marex as a treatment but again it will not work due to inverts. Your advice...nicely....would greatly be appreciated.
ps...do you agree that inverts can be carriers of ICH? If you go to WWW.FFEXPRESS.COM and click on the top right hand corner of Q@A then do a search on Ich there is a post about Ich being present in ALL marine tanks. I was looking for something to back up my opinion from experts I deal with here. Please if you find anything that I may read that will give another point of view on wether ICH is always present please let me know. I will continue to look for other articles as well.