Very Tired of dealing with parasites...

GreenSpottedPuffer · #1 09-17-2008, 03:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brighteyes_13

is it possible the ich could be flaring up due to being transfered in and out of quarantine? id feel pretty stressed if i kept getting booted out of my home to live in a plastic box. and now that theyre home again and settling in the ich is dropping off.

as for why its not dying off... im clueless...

Right, this is exactly what I felt after two rounds of hypo for about three and a half months. So thats why for the past 4 months or so I have NOT QT'd but tried to let them fight it off themselves. Its worked ok and they are fighting it off to a point but it just will not go away. It had been quite a while since the last time I saw spots until last night. They are mostly gone already tonight, so a little less than 24 hrs. Thats kind of encouraging but man this is getting ridiculous!

Now I don't know...QT again! Risk some of them not making it and stress them again. Or keep letting them fight it on their own? Risking them getting really sick I guess. Its hard to figure out for me right now which is why I am still considering finding them good homes. Problem there is that how can I find people who want to take fish with ich???

Blah!

fkshiu · #2 09-17-2008, 04:04 AM

One solution is to turn your display into a QT - yank all the live rock and let it cook in a rubbermaid for a few months, then nuke the display with cupramine.

If my memory is correct, you've got an acrylic tank so there's no risk getting copper embedded into the silicone. You'll sacrifice your corals but since they're softies, I believe, they should be easily replaceable.

Cupramine was the thing that finally destroyed the ich cycle when I first got my hippo tang after going through all that other crap like hypo, garlic, cleaner shrimp, UV, witchcraft etc. etc. Going hypo may make you feel all warm and fuzzy, but darn it, do what human beings have always done when faced with an annoyance: stomp the living daylights out of it with harsh chemicals!!!

GreenSpottedPuffer · #3 09-17-2008, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fkshiu

One solution is to turn your display into a QT - yank all the live rock and let it cook in a rubbermaid for a few months, then nuke the display with cupramine.

If my memory is correct, you've got an acrylic tank so there's no risk getting copper embedded into the silicone. You'll sacrifice your corals but since they're softies, I believe, they should be easily replaceable.

Cupramine was the thing that finally destroyed the ich cycle when I first got my hippo tang after going through all that other crap like hypo, garlic, cleaner shrimp, UV, witchcraft etc. etc. Going hypo may make you feel all warm and fuzzy, but darn it, do what human beings have always done when faced with an annoyance: stomp the living daylights out of it with harsh chemicals!!!

LOL...your post made me laugh!

I can't use copper with my puffers. They are scaleless and cannot handle copper. My tank is actually glass too, so I prefer not to use copper in it!

I also don't want to loose my corals...I have a decent amount now and they are just starting to grow. I could move them to a holding tank, thats easy enough.

The thing is that the fish that can tolerate copper are not the ones really showing ich at all. Its mostly the puffers.

Thanks for the ideas though!

Chad · #4 09-17-2008, 04:21 AM

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

Treatment #5..

more good reading

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-1...ture/index.php

GreenSpottedPuffer · #5 09-17-2008, 06:31 AM

Yeah I have read both is those many, many times LOL. Thanks though!

I am still going to look into finding homes. If I can find good homes for my Niger, Burrfish and Dogface then I will tear down the rest of the tank. If not in the next week or so, I will try the QT thing again.

For whatever reason I really would rather find them homes and go back to freshwater. Im just tired of all the parasites in saltwater. But it's very important to me that I know where they are going and will be taken care of. If not, I will keep them and deal with this.

fishytime · #6 09-17-2008, 01:13 PM

Two puffers, 1 tank=stress? Ich is not carried in to the tank. It is a parasite that is constantly present in the aquarium. It is only when a fish becomes week or stressed that their immune systems cant fight it off. I would try and figure out the reason for the stress.

wickedfrags · #7 09-17-2008, 02:08 PM

A good read on ick. Dispells some of the myths.

http://www.txinstall.com/ich/ich.htm

GreenSpottedPuffer · #8 09-17-2008, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishytime

Two puffers, 1 tank=stress? Ich is not carried in to the tank. It is a parasite that is constantly present in the aquarium. It is only when a fish becomes week or stressed that their immune systems cant fight it off. I would try and figure out the reason for the stress.

Why would two puffers in one tank equal stress?

If you have any idea what would be stressing them, let me know! There is zero aggression. Not even the odd chase. They are fed 3 times a day. Nitrates are kept to 5 and below at all times. Temperature has not swung more than 1 degree in 4 months (this has been a lot of work). Stress is exactly what I have worked my butt off to make sure is NOT in the tank. I think the reason this is such a mild break out each time (about 5-6 spots on the two puffers) is because the tank is so stress free. Sorry if it sounds like Im attacking your comment but I made it very clear in the beginning that I have worked extra hard to make sure stress in not a factor. And I strongly believe it has not been. Or I think they would all be dead months ago.

Maybe I need to clear this up...This is not a big outbreak by any means. Its only 2 of the 15 or so fish that even get the ich and its about 5-6 spots each usually. This last time the dogface did have it a bit worse than that but by this morning almost all the spots are gone. So its not a terrible outbreak and the fish don't even seem to notice its there but it still really bugs me and I am worried that if something does go wrong (power outtage, temperature swing, etc.) that they will get attacked hard by the ich.

BTW, as written in the Reefkeeping articles, I do NOT believe ich is present in every tank. And you can rid your tank of ich. Its just been hard this time.

Chad · #9 09-17-2008, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishytime

Two puffers, 1 tank=stress? Ich is not carried in to the tank. It is a parasite that is constantly present in the aquarium. It is only when a fish becomes week or stressed that their immune systems cant fight it off. I would try and figure out the reason for the stress.

This is a huge myth that keeps getting tossed around. Ich is not always present. It needs a host or it does not live. Given then right precautions when acquiring (new) fish or anything you add to your tank, you will never have ich in your tank.

Chad · #10 09-17-2008, 04:09 AM

The trick with ich is you need to keep ALL fish out of the display for a tleast a month and a half. 6 to 8 weeks usually.

There is another method which requires you to remove the fish and transfer them to a new clean sterilized tank every week for a certain amount of time, this will eliminate the ich as well. But is a bit more stressful to the fish.

Either way, you need to leave the display empty of all fish or you will have ich present forever unless all the fish develop a immunity to ich.