Treatment for ich on lion?!?!

hawkfish203

hawkfish203

Member
Sandbed is about 2" and I have a refractometer to measure salinity.Running 1 1400 powerhead and 2 250. I could take the 1200 out of my 75 and put the 125 and put the 2 250 in the 75 if that will help. So would I be alright leaving the fish out of the tank for a period of time that would kill off the ich and treat the fish? Trying to find the least stressful to the fish and the system. I'm currently setting up a 20g long so I don't have to put all the fish in the 75. The only problem with the 75 is that I had reef in there but am moving so I didn't want to deal with 2 tanks again so there is still rock and about a 2" sandbed in there as well.
 
deejeff442

deejeff442

Active Member
i tried hypo with 1 inch of sand in the tank.5 weeks and as soon as i started raising the salinity the ich came back.i wonder if the ich gets into the sand and the hypo water doesnt penetrate it enough and the ich just stays dormant untill the rest of the tank water is back to salinity?
 
hawkfish203

hawkfish203

Member
Sounds viable to me! So maybe the idea of getting the fish out of the tank for 6 weeks is the best idea with no host they should go thew there life cycle.
 
deejeff442

deejeff442

Active Member
no doubt.is the 75 gallon cycled.you can usually stuff alot of fish in a 75 gallon for 4-6 weeks without much aggression.you can always put an eggcrate divider in if there are issues.if the tank isnt cycled put a hob filter on the dt with a biowheel and filter insert for a few days and then switch it to the qt.i always keep my 55 qt running.just ghost feed it every few days.
 
hawkfish203

hawkfish203

Member
Yea its cycled the lion is in there right now with a hippo tang and a few green chromis and a neon goby he seems to always be riding the hippo around. Anyway just have to get the 20 up and going figure ill use the 20 to put the rock in while I'm Treating the fish.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
A month should be good enough. Actually 3 weeks is good enough but if you want those extra days as a security blanket, that's ok. Hypo requires diligence and precision. It works, but one slip up can ruin the process.
Ich is not going to hide in the substrate. It can not survive beyond a few weeks with a host fish. It is a living organism that must complete its 3 stage life-cycle.
 
hawkfish203

hawkfish203

Member
Thats the best news I heard all day!!! I don't have anything in my QT but ill run out and grab a few of them thanks for the heads up. Thanks for all the help everyone!!!
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
Beth,
I'd have to disagree on the 3 weeks being enough.
as has been pointed out to me several times by Joe and others the encysted ich the attaches to a hard surface after leaving the fish can stay encysted for 28 days before releasing the tomites.
Plus you have as much as 18 hours once it drops from the fish to when its encysted for it to find a home it likes. so that's 29 days.
While this peaks at only 7 days, it only takes one to wait the whole 29 days and then make hundreds.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Jstdv8: Three weeks is the min., and works well under perfect conditions (meaning no errors in the procedure). There is not anything wrong with going to 45 days, except if the QT is not totally adequate in water quality or size, etc.; and, which often occurs, the hobbyist is unable to maintain a quality environment that produces a health fish for that long period.
Take a look at this article by Steve Pro
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php
Terry Bartelme
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2004/mini3.htm
Pete Giwojna
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_4/V4I4/hyposalinity/OST.htm
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
I agree its no fun for the fish to be in hypo any longer than normal, but I don't see how the one guy figures 3 weeks will be suffient when the cysts are known to last up to 28 days, 3 weeks is less than 28 days. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Well it is as long as 28, based on, I believe 1 study. This is in a situation where the parasite is not under hypo conditions that is usually employed for the procedure. All three of those sources state that 3 weeks is the min. My own experience with hypo and seeing countless people over the years experience it, 3 weeks is normally sufficient. There is anecdotal cases that some ich becomes resistant after failed attempts at treatment. There are also many many incidents where hypo is not done precisely correct resulting in a negative outcome. I have never had a problem with the 3 weeks.
 
al mc

al mc

Active Member
My experience has been that as long as you can keep your water quality good in your QT go for a minimum of 4 weeks. Personally, I hypo all new fish in a HT/QT tank for 6 weeks before putting them into my DT. We all have hundreds/thousands of dollars invested in our DTs. No sense in cutting corners/going with shortest time for completion of the parasit's life cycle IF you have a good QT/HT. Just MHO.
 
D

denniscoy420

Guest
I am going through a ick problem too, I have found out the BEST way to go is to ,
1. catch all ur fish and eels, please them is a QT tank with PVC pipes and then start the HYPO
2. Leave ur DT Empty for 6 weeks MIN. this will give u plenty of time to go throught the whole HYPO in the QT
3. all those meds they get u too buy dont work half the time ,ICK WILL ALWAYS COME BACK
HYPO is a safe and easy process, that allows all the ick to DIE in ur QTank,
while the 6 weeks the ick is dieing because there are NO fish in ur DT to reproduce on
Trust me HYPO in QT and leaving the main tank empty for 6 weeks min
will GREATLY reduce the chances of the ick returning out of the BLUE
I would say it is a slow process looking at ur main tank empty for 6 weeks MIN
but in the end it is worth it trust me less money spent and the ick doesnt just hind and wait to pop up
QT everything in ur tank Fish and drip ur new corals too
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
I only saw the 3 weeks referenced in the 2nd link, maybe I missed it in the other two, the third one was very long and talked alot about shock treatment
 
hawkfish203

hawkfish203

Member
ill def see if I can find some of that amquel. This might be a stupid question but is there a certain length of time you can leave new saltwater on hand for and should you keep it aerated? Thanks again for all the help I'm going to attempt to put all the fish in the 75 this weekend ill keep ya up dated.
 
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