Help on treating ich

[Sumfingwong]

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

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.

Originally Posted by globaldesigns

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.

Originally Posted by lockrookie

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

[lockrookie]

just got it at my local fish store

[shootingstar]

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.

[Reefer Rob]

Originally Posted by shootingstar

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.

[Sumfingwong]

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

[Gripenfelter]

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.

[Sumfingwong]

Originally Posted by Gripenfelter

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.

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

[daniella3d]

It has been proven that ick can survive up to 70 days so why go to all the trouble to do this treatment only to put them back in the tank and recontaminate them if it is not gone? 8 week might be a little extreme but I would wait at least 6 weeks if the fish can live in quarantine without being too stressed and if they eat well.

If anyone is not going to quarantine their fish, at least they should always do a one hour dip in Seachem Paraguard. This one hour dip would probably get most of the parasites off. This is really important with clownfish as Paraguard will kill brooklynella so the dip might catch all the parasites before they even enter the tank.

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

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.

[Reefer Rob]

Most Ick cycles seem to be between 4 to 10 days from what I've seen in my tanks. It's about managing risk, as I say, you would be unlucky indeed to get a strain that has a 70 day cycle. You need to keep reef keeping fun Quarantining everything that goes into your tank including corals for 8 weeks would be a PTA, as well as a strain in the animals.

[daniella3d]

I don't see how doing a quarantine on fish can be any more strain to the animals than being taken out of the ocean and put in a small box. An aquarium is an aquarium no matter what and if the water quality in the quarantine tank is top notch and the quarantine is set up right than there is no stress at all. I currently have 3 fish in my 21 gallons, one cleaner wrasse and 2 black ice clownfish. There is liverock in there and hiding places and everybody is doing great.

They are receiving a Paraguard treatment to eliminate the possibility of ick and brook and everybody is eating like little pigs 3 to 5 times per day. They have been there for 10 days now and will be there another 3 weeks in treatment, then in the display.

I did quarantine on sensitive fish like the copperband butterfly for a month in that 21 gallons and the fish was not in very good health when I got it. Now it's doing great one year later. If I can do it, anyone can, it's just a matter of setting this properly and the fish are not stressed at all. Why would they be more stressed in the quarantine tank alone and in peace rather then being dumped in the DT with other possible territorial fish chasing them around and making their life a nightmare? Quarantine is a time for a fish to recover, get fat and healthy, alone and in peace, not being harrassed by any other fish.

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

Most Ick cycles seem to be between 4 to 10 days from what I've seen in my tanks. It's about managing risk, as I say, you would be unlucky indeed to get a strain that has a 70 day cycle. You need to keep reef keeping fun Quarantining everything that goes into your tank including corals for 8 weeks would be a PTA, as well as a strain in the animals.