pet store ICH

magic

Member
I work at a pet store and of course there is an Ich problem, Hypo is really a unreal thing when you are talking a pet store. So what is the most effective medication or way to treat ICH in an environment like that?
Other then Hypo.
 

magic

Member
this is going to be harder then I thought, its not that it can't be done or that we done want to do it that way, its just that 90% of the fish that come in to the store have ICH. The fish store is small and we don't have nice QT setup in the back, and fish are coming in by the week. Its really hard to with that set up.
 

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Geez, if all those fish have ich comming in, all the time, maybe you should look at switching dealers.
Ich treatment takes time. There are only 2 viable treatments, copper and hyposalinity. You have to treat the fish with one of these to be effective. Both treatments are going to take about 3 wks.
I suppose if your fish tank filters, water, etc., don't mix with your inverts, LR, etc., you could run copper in your fish tanks all the time.
I would encourage you to promote QT setups to your customers. Even if you don't sell the QT yourself to the customer, such as in the case with someone who uses a rubbermaid to setup a QT, I think you will get the thumbs up in the long run because the end result of the QT will be healthy fish, thus happier customers.
You could put out a 1 page flier, for instance, that explains the benefits of QT and the options for setting them up.
 

magic

Member
thanks beth a flier is great, if we did run copper all the time what would happen if somone was to take a fish home and put the water in there reef tank, im sure we would tell them not to but if they did would it kill all there stuff?
jb1
I would love to, I just got some pictures taken but I have to wait for my buddy to send them to me, plus I just fraged some new ones that should be good to go in 2 weeks or so.
 

bdhough

Active Member
Treating a fish with copper and putting him in a tank without copper will not spread the copper at all unless you use the LFS water, which is y you NEVER use the LFS water. It will take away the treatment for the ich and the ich COULD come back. Thus y THEY need a QT tank. I understand the dilemma at the LFS. You can't very easily hypo a 1000 gallon or more system and most stores i've seen and worked at do not have QT's set up because of the high volume of traffic of the fish. In such a large system if you are not running inverts on it then copper is very viable way of controlling it. Just make sure your customers understand what is going on.
 

magic

Member
cool thanks
jb1
I work at psideons reef down on the beach, in the promanade mall. I only work like 4 to 7 pm, im in the Air Force.
 

jb1

Member
what is close to the promanade mall, i looked for ithe store before and did not find it.
got an address out of the phone book and di not match or just lost
 

magic

Member

Originally posted by Jackief1
make sure to note that the store has very sketchy hours and sometimes does not open the hours that are posted on the door. it is very frustrating to drive down there only to find "someone" decided to take the day off and not even bother to put a note on the door or change the message on the answering machine....for 2 to 3 weeks at a time even.
:rolleyes:
beth and terry, i know the owner of this store and he doesn't take advise very well, he is one of these types. i have also been in his store and seen the many dead fish from when he has returned from one of "trips" and left no one to care for his livestock. this is not a serious business for him, just a diversion. sad for the fish, i have seen some nice specimens, but i stopped using him when he started having way too much attitude for my taste and seemed to care less and less for his fish and his customers.

when was the last time you was in there, if it was less then a month you would know that a new guy is running it now. You are right the old dude ran a poor shop but this new guy is on top of it. I would not work for the guy that did have it, try not to just run people down, go have a look, I think you will be happy with the change, come in saturday and I will be there from 12 to 7, stop by and I will show you whats new. hes only had the shop for a month or so, its not where it needs to be but thats why he hired me:D
jb1
if you get some time come down and see us saturday, my name is Ryan, its hard to find but hes working on that, going to move soon. As soon as you come over the bridge, go past the first two red lights on the right you will see a sign for a country show, big sign. its right there on the left 34b come by
 

cincyreefer

Active Member
I can tell you from personal experience that I would not use copper on a system like that. The copper can be rather difficult to get out of the system, and many fish (especially centropyge sp.) will not do well with even minimal amounts of copper. I have used hypo on a large system and there really isn't much of a problem at all. Just let it clear up before you sell any fish and especially get any new ones in. Does the system continually have temperature fluctuations by any chance? Do you have a UV sterlization system set up? That can really help keep ich from spreading throughout a system of tanks if it is set up right.
If you are set on not trying hypo, then another alternative (although I wouldn't really recommend it) would be to drain the system and let it dry out. Then you can start over, and possibly redo plumbing or even the whole setup at the same time.
 

magic

Member
terry
wow, I will have a look for shure, you seem to know what you are talking about, thanks.
Jackief1
I guess run people down wasn't the right thing to say, I just felt like you where trying to say I was a lost cause or something. Any way Robby was horrible and anyone will tell you that, but now this guy named Eric has it and he’s new at running the place so its still recovering from Robby’s raen. But Eric seems to know what he’s doing and he's learning fast. Come by Saturday between 12 and 5 and see what’s new. He’s talking about moving out on backbeach road and he wants to do it by December ,I would like to see him move sooner but I don’t see that happening. I was there today and he just got some nice corals in, its all part of learning.
 

jb1

Member
what are the store hours?
can not make it this weekend, got to go to a wedding at st george island but will check it out soon
 

magic

Member
hes open wednesday thru friday 12 to 7 and saturday 12 to 5. Sunday is his day off and monday he does odd jobs around the shop, tuesday he has resturants that have him come over and take care of their tanks.
 

magic

Member
eric learned the pen and paper side from robbie I mean he knows the pen and paper part but I think he had robbie around for a bit to get set up. A lot of the trouble that hes haveing now is, no one knows where his store is, and every one thinks he is out of business, all thanks to robbie. He wants to try his hardest to get set up so he can be there all the time but a lot of his business comes from people that want him to take care of there systems. I went down and helped Eric out, we had to put lights on a system(there are two big systems) that robbie had not had lights.
 

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Well, no matter how much effort the new owner is putting into the store, if he is having a major ich problem, then he should really give this some serious consideration.
I honestly don't know how a retail store owner is going to do hypo on all in-coming fish. This would mean that you would have to commit yourself to keeping your incoming livestock for a month....or at least 3 wks. You would also need to have hypo tanks separate and apart from non-hypo tanks---meaning no shared filtration. Obviously incoming fish are not going to be compatible with one another, thus you will need to have serveral tanks to accomodate these fish for around a month.
It would be great if a fish store would do this, but the end result would be higher prices in fish. I'd pay the extra bucks, but most hobbyists won't.
Teach your customers about QT. If you are really having health issues with your fish, look in to finding another wholesaler.
 

magic

Member
THANK YOU BETH! that was what I was trying to say. I can't see any other way then to tell people to do hypo, but people are so in a hury to see it in the tank. it makes me feel like to make it as a fish store you have to not care, but I do. I want to have a fish store in the years to come, thats why im working down there, so I can learn. I hope I don't stop careing :(
 
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