treating FOWLR aggressive tank... ich

cmc3502

Member
I have a FOWLR tank that has ich and it will be very hard if not impossible to pull out the fish from the tank (not to mention the stress). So I have been using garlic and zoe for a week or so and have now just raised the temp to 82. Also I am starting to lower the salinity to 1.009.
anything else I can do to the display tank for ich?
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by cmc3502
I have a FOWLR tank that has ich and it will be very hard if not impossible to pull out the fish from the tank (not to mention the stress). So I have been using garlic and zoe for a week or so and have now just raised the temp to 82. Also I am starting to lower the salinity to 1.009.
anything else I can do to the display tank for ich?
Yes, remove the rock and any inverts. They will not live through hyposalinity and will cause a whole lot of ammonia as they die. Raising the temp to 82 is about where it should be for fish. It will not affect the parasite. You can do hypo in the display, but you will have to remove the rock and any inverts into a rubbermaid tub, they are fairly inexpensive. Add a heater and a powerhead to the tub while you treat your fish. Do you have a refractometer?
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by cmc3502
yes... so keeping the live rock in there will cause die off and an ammonia spike?
It most certainly will. Go to the store and pick up a plastic tub to keep your rock in.
 

cmc3502

Member
i was just reading about another member who had to treat with hypo in his display tank. Like I said I only have a FOWLR tank and the live rock isnt too established. I was thinking about doing hypo in the DT and pulling a 1/3 of the LR (in a rubbermaid) for seeding the other rock after treatment. Can ich still be on the live rock that I pull? and if so, do I just leave it out of the tank, fishless, for about 4-6 weeks? I might just leave it all in the tank and really monitor the dieoff (ammonia and PH levels).
what do you think?
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by cmc3502
i was just reading about another member who had to treat with hypo in his display tank. Like I said I only have a FOWLR tank and the live rock isnt too established. I was thinking about doing hypo in the DT and pulling a 1/3 of the LR (in a rubbermaid) for seeding the other rock after treatment. Can ich still be on the live rock that I pull? and if so, do I just leave it out of the tank, fishless, for about 4-6 weeks? I might just leave it all in the tank and really monitor the dieoff (ammonia and PH levels).
what do you think?
I would not leave it in. We had a member do that recently and he had a VERY hard time keeping his ammonia at tolerable levels let alone keeping it low. It is very sressful to the fish to have any ammonia, let alone high spikes. Don't do it. Put the rock into a tub. By the time that your hypo is complete the ich on the rocks will be dead from lack of host.
 
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