new thread-fin with ich

lovehatejon

lovehatejon

Member
saturday i bought a saddleback butterfly from a lfs. a few hours later after acclimating all it did was scratch on the sand/ rock etc. i didn't see any visible signs of ich but i really didn't want to take any chances and returned it. so in result they gave me store credit. i just went back yesterday and worked a little magic and convinced the manager to give me a thread-fin in a totally different tank for cheaper. So after the acclimation yet again... scratching everywhere. i took a closer look and there where 2 or 3 visible ich spots.
so in class today i told my marine bio teacher about this and she gave me mardel coppersafe to treat it. the thing is i lost the receipt, my question is do you think i should bring it back and probably get another sick fish or treat it? and how should i go about it?
im also open to suggestions, thanks for your time.
 
lovehatejon

lovehatejon

Member
My quality is perfect.
And absolutely, i won't buy any more fish from there. The only reason I did the second time was because I pretty much had no choice because of the store credit.
But that still doesn't Change that the fish has ick
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoveHateJon http:///forum/thread/381777/new-thread-fin-with-ich#post_3327696
My quality is perfect.
And absolutely, i won't buy any more fish from there. The only reason I did the second time was because I pretty much had no choice because of the store credit.
But that still doesn't Change that the fish has ick
how do you know your water quality is perfect and how do you know your fish has ick. post a pic
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoveHateJon http:///forum/thread/381777/new-thread-fin-with-ich#post_3327608
saturday i bought a saddleback butterfly from a lfs. a few hours later after acclimating all it did was scratch on the sand/ rock etc. i didn't see any visible signs of ich but i really didn't want to take any chances and returned it. so in result they gave me store credit. i just went back yesterday and worked a little magic and convinced the manager to give me a thread-fin in a totally different tank for cheaper. So after the acclimation yet again... scratching everywhere. i took a closer look and there where 2 or 3 visible ich spots.
so in class today i told my marine bio teacher about this and she gave me mardel coppersafe to treat it. the thing is i lost the receipt, my question is do you think i should bring it back and probably get another sick fish or treat it? and how should i go about it?
im also open to suggestions, thanks for your time.
If you just treat all your incoming fish with cupramine (instead of coppersafe) it won't matter if they have ich going in, done properly they will not have ich coming out.
 
lovehatejon

lovehatejon

Member
Florida Joe: I kind of feel like your Taking me for a fool. I'm pretty sure I know ick when I see it.
Just to prove a point.
Ammonia: .0
Nitrite: .0
pH: 8.2
Nitrate: .0
Does that fit your standards of perfect?
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
I am not taking you for a fool but I am taking you for someone that has a limited knowledge of the hobby. Your definition of perfect seems very limited as you only tested and as most of us can test for a few things. It is sad to say but there are many irritants which we can knowingly and not knowingly introduce to our tanks. Now as far as ick, so you know what ick looks like? Ok let’s assume you are going by the “gee I see white spots on my fish ´diagnostic. Well FYI there are any number of parasitic copepod and within the copepods there are 10,000 species that are known worldwide and 2000 are patristic and 90 % are marine. Now lest toss in all the other possibilities of parasites and their life cycles. Wow maybe every little white spot is not ick. So again I must ask are you sure its ick
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoveHateJon http:///forum/thread/381777/new-thread-fin-with-ich#post_3327608
saturday i bought a saddleback butterfly from a lfs. a few hours later after acclimating all it did was scratch on the sand/ rock etc. i didn't see any visible signs of ich but i really didn't want to take any chances and returned it. so in result they gave me store credit. i just went back yesterday and worked a little magic and convinced the manager to give me a thread-fin in a totally different tank for cheaper. So after the acclimation yet again... scratching everywhere. i took a closer look and there where 2 or 3 visible ich spots.
so in class today i told my marine bio teacher about this and she gave me mardel coppersafe to treat it. the thing is i lost the receipt, my question is do you think i should bring it back and probably get another sick fish or treat it? and how should i go about it?
im also open to suggestions, thanks for your time.
So you have come here open to suggestions please take what I am about to say as commentssuggestions.
Saturday i bought a saddleback butterfly from a lfs. a few hours later after acclimating all it did was scratch on the sand/ rock etc. i didn't see any visible signs of ich but i really didn't want to take any chances and returned it.
What acclimation procedure did you use?
Did you observe the critter long enough at the store to see if it was scratching there?
just went back yesterday and worked a little magic and convinced the manager to give me a thread-fin in a totally different tank for cheaper. So after the acclimation yet again... scratching everywhere. i took a closer look and there where 2 or 3 visible ich spots.
Again the question about acclimation procedure.
Again the question about viewing the fish at the store.
Did you wait long enough to see if the spots were perhaps sand grains stuck to the fishes slime coat?
If you truly believe that the fish has ich and want to treat it, do it outside of the display tank in a hospital tank setup IMO.
 
lovehatejon

lovehatejon

Member
I'm 100% that it's ick. The dots aren't on it's body they are on the fins, not much but still something to ingnore. I would gladly put up a pic but, I've taken a Couple but the camera isn't getting a visible shot. I would know if it was something in the tank but none of my other fish are scratching
I drip acclimated both of them for a little over 2+ hrs. The saddleback shown no signs of it until I had it in the tank later that night.
I looked at both for a while but the dots on the threadfins wasn't seen untill I looked at it better in the DT. So the next morning it was still on the fins and scratching. Now it's in the QT
Florida Joe: I do apologize for being a tad over reactive. But what could it be if not ick?
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
So you have it in the QT. Are there other fish in the display? You know that the chances are better than not if this is in fact Ich you have infected the tank? (oops Lois already made that point) And that to rid the QT of the parasite you are looking at running the tank fallow (fishless) for 6 weeks.
How are you going to treat the fish in the QT, medication, hyposalinity?
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by spanko http:///forum/thread/381777/new-thread-fin-with-ich#post_3327885
So you have it in the QT. Are there other fish in the display? You know that the chances are better than not if this is in fact Ich you have infected the tank? (oops Lois already made that point) And that to rid the QT of the parasite you are looking at running the tank fallow (fishless) for 6 weeks.
How are you going to treat the fish in the QT, medication, hyposalinity?
excellent post Henry, my friend i am getting to old for this
 
lovehatejon

lovehatejon

Member
Just Over night?
Yeaah I'm fully aware of the time period. Theres only one other damsel in there. Should I put him in the QT?
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
If you truely want to rid yourself of ich you have to consider every "what if" as if it actually happened.
So....
What if as soon as you put the infected fish in the tank he dropped one (or more) of its cysts into the tank and it is at this very second clinging to some piece of glass or substrate or snails shell, ect. growing little babies inside, and in about 28 days it's going to burst and send those little babies (up to 200 per cyst) swimming around the tank looking for its next victim.
What if, the cyst dropped shortly after the infected fish was put into the tank and it dropped a cysts (or more than one) and it only takes 3 days for it to make babies and explode (this peaks at about 7 days)
What if the fish that is showing signs was not the original infected fish at all? what if it was the damsel the whole time and the ich has been reproducing in its gills (as it will do to a healthy fish to continue it's life cycle) And there are hundreds or thousands of free swimming ich cruising around your tank at any given time and they haven't been able to show externally on the damsel becuase he has been healthy and stress free. (even healthy fish can be attacked in the gill area and you would never see it unless you took the fish out and inspected it undermagnification in that area.
These three things (and probably more I havn't thought of) are all real possibilities.
now step two is to assume that any one of these did happen and QT/Treat all your fish with hypo or copper (cuprimine) and leave your tank fishless for at least 6 weeks.
 
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