Ich Treatment

Ryan · #1 05-31-2009, 04:35 PM

So some of my fish have come down with Ich. I dont have a spare tank to treat them but I have a few buckets. The effected fish are my new Lyretail Anthias (I assume he brought it in) and my 3 clownfish. So I was planning on treating with Cuppremin (sp?) but was wondering could I do it in these buckets? They are 5 gallons each. The other thought was maybe a rubbermaid container. The Anthias is 3-4 inches, the big clown is 2 inches, medium clown is 1.5inches and the little guy is 1 inch.

My plan was to run my current Internal Filter in the bucket or tote for biological and treat in there. Then just replace the internal filter with a new one and keep the current one for future treatments. The thought is to buy the same size unit so I can take the cartridge from the tank filter and put it into the sick tank filter.

Anyway what is everyones thought on the 5gal pail or should I pick up a 10 gal rubbermaid?

PS. its still fairly early but the Medium Black Clown (Tank bred) is covered, the Athias has it all over but nowhere as near as dense as the clown and the other 2 clowns seem to just be starting it. The Bangaii Cardinal and Firefish dont seem to be effected.

Oh last thing. I was planning on picking up a small CBB on monday but am not now. After there is no more sign of the Ich how long do you recommend I wait before adding the CBB?

ILIKECOUGARS · #2 05-31-2009, 05:03 PM

I would really, try to find a use 10-20 gal. tank to use as a hospital tank. This way you would be able to see how the teatments are going. Your fish can be in there for up to 6 weeks.

sitandwatch · #3 05-31-2009, 05:15 PM

I also recommend the hospital tank I just went through an Ich issue and they were in there for about 50 days I can’t see keeping them in Rubbermaid container. I did the hyposalinity method and have not seen it come back

Ryan · #4 05-31-2009, 05:17 PM

I dont want to use an aquarium because aquariums break and there is a move coming up. I have kept them in sterilite for 3 weeks before I moved and 2 weeks before I got them moved into their current tank.

sharuq1 · #5 05-31-2009, 05:35 PM

You could try keeping them in one of the large rectangular rubbermaid containers (to make it easier to catch them) with a seeded sponge filter and airator. I had to go through ich recently with my tang, but did not want copper in my qt tank, so I put him in a 5 gal. bucket for dips with an airator, heater and premixed/heated/airated water with 20 drops of copper treatment (I forget if it was aquarisol or cupramine) for 20 min x about 4 days (sometimes on the second day). Then he went back into the qt tank with melafix and antibiotics (he was injured so that's why) and a 50% water change every 2nd day. This got rid of the ich spots for me within a week, but the tang still had to be kept in a separate qt due to his injuries and the fact that ich takes a while to die off. Don't know if this is "right" but it worked for me anyway...

Ryan · #6 05-31-2009, 07:12 PM

How long does it take for the ich parasite and its eggs to finally die off?