is this ick or something else?

luv4jjt

luv4jjt

Member
We identified it as ick 6 days ago and started treating with chem marine for parasites. Its a reef safe med that my lfs suggested. (they deal in only salt water) I do trust them implicadly. Well i was wondering if maybe we identified the wrong disease. It is not helping and our puffer is looking worse. So can someone tell me from the pics if we really are dealing with ick?
 
kingsmith

kingsmith

Member
Im no expert but it looks like ick is the fish scratching itself on things? I tried those reefsafe meds with with little to no luck, QT in hypo and leaving the DT fallow is your best bet.
 
kingsmith

kingsmith

Member
Hypo is lowering the salt to alevel where the fish can survive but the parasite cant. The DT is you main tank if you leave it without fish for 8 weeks the parasites life cycle will be through and the tank will be fine this combined with hypo in your Qt for 8 weeks will rid you fish of ick, but try searching ick in the disease section there should be tons of info and more specifics
 
luv4jjt

luv4jjt

Member
Thank you very much for clearing that up. I am only about 8 months young for salt water. Is there a safe way to quickly set up a qt tank before i loose my puffer. ( I know I should have set one up before but like i said I;m new and didn't realize how important one was) I have a 30 gal tank i can set up i just need to know what i should and shouldn't put in it.
 
kingsmith

kingsmith

Member
No prob dont feel bad there is alot of stuff to absorb with this hobby and its hard to not just buy things on a whim believe me I have been there, actually i had to do the same thing a while ago
 
luv4jjt

luv4jjt

Member
ya. I thought i had done a lot of research before taking the plung but once you get into action it feels like you didn't learn anything at all. Like starting all over again. I am setting up the quarentine as we speak. How much of the dl tank water should i put into the qt tank?
And do i put all the fish in their or only the ones with the ick. 30 gal isn't big enough for all the fish. I am worried about the stress on the fish. Only my dog faced puffer and bi colored angel are showing signs of ick. But the dogface looks real bad.
 
kingsmith

kingsmith

Member
You can use as much of the water as you want and you'll want to slowly lower the salt to hypo levels, there should definaly be specific instructions in the disease and treatment section.
 
al mc

al mc

Active Member
Been there with Ich, several fish (including a dog face) and fast QT set up before....not fun.
Before you start moving everything you should read Beth's notes about treating Ich. Second, before moving anything, you might want to at least consider doing hyposalinity treatment IN the DT instaed of a separate tank.
First, What is the size of the DT, what fish and/or inverts do you have in it and is the biological filtration (nitrogen cycle) in it up and functioning well?
 
al mc

al mc

Active Member
Reason for asking all this: IF you have a Fish Only With Live Rock (FOWLR) set up you might consider using the DT for your treatment. Even if you have
only a few inverts in the DT it might be smarter to move them into the 30g you have and leave the fish in the DT for treatment. Once treatment is finished then move the inverts back into the DT.
 
al mc

al mc

Active Member
Originally Posted by luv4jjt
http:///forum/post/3181203
thank you so much for your help. wish me luck on saving fido, lol (my dog faced puffer)
Sounds like you are already moving fish to the 30G QT/HT. Good luck!
Please remember that any of the fish in the same DT as the puffer have also been exposed to Ich and eventually will need to be treated. If you make the
move to the QT you need to be prepared to deal with a possible ammonia surge as your biologic filtration begins to develop. You should be prepared to do large frequent water changes and would be well advised to have ammonia locking chemicals on hand (ammoniaLock or Amquel plus). Again, Good Luck!
 
luv4jjt

luv4jjt

Member
sorry for the lack of response. I was setting up the qt. But i haven't moved any fish yet. was waiting to be sure it was the right way to go. Just getting it ready in case. It is a 90gal with 30gal sump system. Fish and live rock only. fish list is a young volitan lion, 1 yr old dog faced puffer, adult sailfin tang, almost adult yellow tang, young bicolor angel, and 3 young damsels. 2 powerheads for water movement. Levels are not purfect but not dangerous. I do 10% water change every week and 50% once a month. Solinity level is about 1.023. Although i just did a 40% water change with lower salt levels in the r/o water so i will know the salt levels in the dt shortly. Any help would be great. The only fish seeming to be affected by the ick are the dogface and the angel. I really want to save him.
 
al mc

al mc

Active Member
Originally Posted by luv4jjt
http:///forum/post/3181290
sorry for the lack of response. I was setting up the qt. But i haven't moved any fish yet. was waiting to be sure it was the right way to go. Just getting it ready in case. It is a 90gal with 30gal sump system. Fish and live rock only. fish list is a young volitan lion, 1 yr old dog faced puffer, adult sailfin tang, almost adult yellow tang, young bicolor angel, and 3 young damsels. 2 powerheads for water movement. Levels are not purfect but not dangerous. I do 10% water change every week and 50% once a month. Solinity level is about 1.023. Although i just did a 40% water change with lower salt levels in the r/o water so i will know the salt levels in the dt shortly. Any help would be great. The only fish seeming to be affected by the ick are the dogface and the angel. I really want to save him.
You will get many opinions...Mine is since you do not have a reef tank (inverts) and all the fish have been exposed to Ich and should be treated ANd it would be stressful to try to treat them in a 30G tank I would perform hyposalimity on the DT with the fish in it. Beth has a good write up on it and I would read it and post any questions for someone to clarify for you. To do hyposalinity correctly you should have a refractometer.
I would set up and establish the 30G as a future QT tank for any new additions to go into for 3-6 weeks
 
luv4jjt

luv4jjt

Member
I will try the hypo methode in the dt. The only crustations are a rather large crab, and some snails. Will they be ok during the hypo or should i move them into the qt?
 
al mc

al mc

Active Member
Originally Posted by luv4jjt
http:///forum/post/3181328
I will try the hypo methode in the dt. The only crustations are a rather large crab, and some snails. Will they be ok during the hypo or should i move them into the qt?
Inverts include corals, mushrooms, snails, crabs, shrimp.....None of them would survive hyposalinity. If they are easy to move into the 30G I would do so and then treat the DT with hyposalinity and keep the normal saline levels in the QT with those inverts. You can use the water you remove from your DT for the 30G.
If you have all kinds of corals and/or snails, crabs and shrimp that you can't easily get out of the DT then we would need to reconsider the plan to do hyposalinity in the DT.
Able to read Beth's thread about this yet? It has lots of good info.
 
luv4jjt

luv4jjt

Member
I don't think i will have a problem then. I only have a few snails and 1 crab. The rest are just fish.
 
luv4jjt

luv4jjt

Member
I'm affraid he isn't going to make it. He looks real bad and he isn't eating now. As a last resort i was thinking of putting him in a qt tank with a copperbased med but that would probably kill him to. heres a pic of what he looks like now. He went really down hill since last night. Is there any last min drastick things i can try? What about a fresh water dip?
 
kingsmith

kingsmith

Member
I think a fresh water dip can provide some temporary relief, but I am not positive, if you dont want to give up treat him with meds in the QT and if he starts to eat again get some marine vitamins to supplement his food.
 
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