Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board - Help on treating ich

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- - Help on treating ich (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=81768)

ive used a product called rid ich that is reef safe ..did wonders for me (as long as you follow the instructions) i under dosed the first time. havent had it since

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coralgurl (Post 668373)

I would research how each of your fish will respond to copper if you decide to use this method. Some fish can not handle it and it will kill them. I had an outbreak a few months ago, set up a hospital tank and stressed the fish moving them over, lost my 2 clowns within hours. Out of 7 fish that went into the hospital, 2 made it back in the DT, 1 ended up with a fungus and died within a week. I made the decision not to qt anymore fish and slowly restocked my tank. One of the last fish I added came with ich. I have been adding selcon and garlic to their food and they are all fine. I panicked when I realized the fish had it again, there's one fish that still has visible signs of a couple of spots, otherwise the others are fine, no flashing.

Good luck, I hope they all pull through regardless of what you decide.

Thanks Coralgurl, I hope they pull through as well. I read on some puffer forums cupramine works pretty well. However, I dont want to treat this in my DT. I will try the Herbtana and UV for now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by globaldesigns (Post 668395)

Just feed properly and make sure the environment is in good shape with proper parameters. Fish can survive ICH, as long as they are healthy.

Daniella knows her stuff when it comes to quaranting, so if you choose this method, listen to her advise.

I myself am a believer that you don't need to quarantine, but just my choice, and I haven't seen ICH in my tank for over 3 years. I think, the purchasing of the fish, stresses them, quarantining stresses them... Catching them from the DT stresses them, so if they have ICH and may be weak, why make it worse by stressing them more?

I agree, thats why I am trying to treat the DT with Herbtana, and I just picked up a submersible 13W UV sterilizer from Golds. I wanted to grab something quick, and I saw a video on youtube with someone using a 9W on his 120 with good results.

As for my tank, the skimmer is off at the moment while i treat the tank, I also took out a bag of carbon and turned off the pump feeding the phosban reactor (carbon and GFO)

The first night, the puffers was excited to eat, the second night (last night) they didnt pay attention to the food I put in (I used garlic guard yesterday). I will see what happens today.

I will keep everybody updated on the progress. I hope they pull through as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lockrookie (Post 668397)

ive used a product called rid ich that is reef safe ..did wonders for me (as long as you follow the instructions) i under dosed the first time. havent had it since

Hey lockrookie, where did you get this product? I will stick with Herbtana for now. If by the end of the treatment doesnt work, I will do a big waterchange and try another reefsafe approach

just got it at my local fish store

To answer the question you originally asked.

YES, a DT left fallow (without any fish) for 8 weeks will be generally considered ich free.

Ich is a fish parasite, having fish present is essential for ich to survive and reproduce. If there are no fish in the tank the Ich will die off.

Treat the fish (with whatever method you decide) in another tank and return them to the DT after the 8 week fallow period.
or
Don't treat and use food environmental factors to make them strong enough to fight off the infection that will remain.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shootingstar (Post 668407)

Treat the fish (with whatever method you decide) in another tank and return them to the DT after the 8 week fallow period.
or
Don't treat and use food environmental factors to make them strong enough to fight off the infection that will remain.

That pretty much sums it up, but I think a fallow period of 5 weeks should be long enough. You'd have to be pretty unlucky to get a strain of Cryptocaryon that has a Tomont stage of longer than even 3 weeks at 26C.

Remember, once you go down the QT path, EVERYTHING that goes in your tank has to be QTed. That includes the frags you get from your buddy's, macro algae, etc. I only used to QT corals for 2 weeks, but even that was stressful... for me and the corals.

Thanks for the suggestions all, I think moving the fish right now will stress them out too much. I will try my best to treat them in the DT with Herbtana, better food, and a UV sterilizer. My last resort will be fishing them all out of the DT and QT them.

I will no more when I get home and see the state of the tank :(

None of the reef safe treatments work in my opinion. I've tried them all and nothing worked. The only thing that works 100% is to set up a quarantine tank and dose with copper.

I did eventually rid my tank of ich but it was from installing a UV sterilizer. As soon as I installed it I saw the ich breakouts decline. Doesn't cure ich on your fish. Decreases or eliminates future breakouts. Currently ich free.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gripenfelter (Post 668421)

Well.. I hope the UV sterilizer does its job.

Heres a small update.

I cam home yesterday to find the ich gone from most of the fish, puffers looked better, the dogface puffer still had ich on him.All fish ate except the puffers (Again)

I added the UV, and dosed the tank again for Day 2 of treatment.

This morning, I woke up and went to check on the tank, fish looked good, all of them ate (havent fed the puffers yet). I added day herbtana for day 3 of treatment. Most of the ich is gone, I still see some on the foxface. both puffers are out more swimming around. The pocupine doesnt have that much ich on him anymore. I will be defrosting some krill and brine and will be soaking it with garlic guard.

I dont know if its the ich running its course, but it seems like herbtana is working. A promising sign is that most of the fish I have that sleep on the sand is showing improvement and the ich has fallen off their body. Even the guys in the sump are looking better.

Yes it will die off without a fish host (any fish) so leaving it without any fish for 6 weeks at least, better 8 weeks will assure that the ick is gone from your tank. The ick will not be able to live out of your cleaning crew, only on fish.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sumfingwong (Post 668358)

Thanks Daniella, my original question was if it was ok to leave the DT with the CuC and corals alone (not treating the DT) Will the ich eventually die off in a tank with no hosts?