Ick Question

[trebor126]

Hi All,
I am new at this hobby, and have started up a 55gal FO tank with about 10lbs of LR, and will continue to add more LR as time goes on.
My question is, I started cycling my tank with a pair of Domino Damsels and the 10lbs of LR, as suggested by my LFS.
Today I noticed some white spots on one of the damsels. After reading some posts on this excellent site, I think it is Ick.
Should I treat for it, or when the tank cycles and the ammonia, trates, trites shoot up, will this take care of the paracites?
Thank you for the help

 

[ebeckels]

you actually have a fowlr...not fo...but that's besides the point. If I were you I'd treat the fish, and take them out of the tank and put them into ur hosp. tank...if you don't have one you might want to think about getting one.... Put some shrimp from ur grocery store to cycle ur tank in the main tank...after a month the ich will be gone and u can see where ur cycle is. Treat the damsels with hyposalinity in the Hosp. tank.

 

[beth]

In my opinion, it is a mistake to use fish to cycle tanks. Even damsels are animals and when your ammonia spikes, as it must for your tank to cycle, then these fish will suffer. This is probably what you are seeing now with the outbreak of ick. Your LR would have helped in cycling your tank, or you could have added to this some fresh seafood to get the cycle going rather than using live animals.
Additionally, you should never add any fish to your main tank wo quarantining the fish first. Fish commonly have parasites when they are brought in to the LFS. Once they’ve been thru the stress of capture, transport and retail sales, they become extremely susceptible to diseases, particularly parasite disease. Thus the best thing to do is to quarantine fish before introducing your tank to a potentially sick fish---which is exactly what has happened.
If your fish has ick, then now your tank is infected. If you do not have a separate quarantine tank, then I would suggest that you remove the live rock and treat your fish and your tank with hyposalinity. A search here on our BB will give you a through rundown on the procedures for hyposalinity. LR can not tolerate hyposalinity so you cannot do this procedure with the live rock still in your tank. It will be appox 6 weeks from the beginning of this treatment until your fish and tank complete treatment [this is a safety margin].
Good luck, and let us know if you need more help!

 

[trebor126]

Thank you for the great advise. I am on a limited budget, by I will definately get a Q tank in the near future..
In doing a search on this subject, as sugested, I read something about feeding the fish frozen food w/ liquid garlic added.. any thoughts on this?
Again, I do not have a seperate tank to treat the fish and/or put the LR.
Will the LR survive in a bucket w/ just saltwater, while I treat the fish in the main tank?
I have also seen some additives that say you can add to the tank to treat fish and will not harm the biological filter. Any thoughts on this?
Sorry for all the questions, and thanks again for all the help! This is a great hobby, and sure a lot to learn..