Help on treating ich

Sumfingwong · #1 01-06-2012, 03:41 PM

My new DT has broken out into ich, probably from the kole and tomini tang I recently purchased.

I have a 55g I recently shutdown (not completely shut down, it has a heater and powerhead for the LR I am trying to sell)

I am thinking about setting up a 20g tank for all the small fish I have and treat them with cupramine. Then move the bigger puffers, foxface, kole and tomini tang to the 55 (move the LR out) and treat them with cupramine.

If I leave my 145 with the current LR, CuC, SPS and zoas with no fish. Can the ich die off? Or do I need to remove everything?

Thanks all

daniella3d · #2 01-06-2012, 03:54 PM

Never treat copper in your main tank and never with liverock as it will be contaminated after that and you won't be able to put any invertabrate in that tank.

If you don't have any coral and invertabrate, you can lower your salinity and treat them with hyposalinity, it is much safer than copper.

If you have coral and invertabrate, clam, anemone etc...then you must buy a larger tank or borrow one from someone to treat all your fish and leave the display tank without any fish for 8 weeks.

This is why a quarantine on all fish is the way to go..it avoid such mess.

Nano · #3 01-06-2012, 04:01 PM

I always listen to what she says hahaha. Also once i qt my fish a few weeks down the road i dump a capfull of herbtana in the dt once in a while just to play it safe. Usually a day or two before a water change so there isnt excess stuff in the water. I don't kniw if I'm right or wrong in doing so but i only had the one outbreak, and it was in my dt so that's why I do that. Cause I'm sure there is still ich in my tank and i like to try to keep it at bay.

MarkoD · #4 01-06-2012, 04:08 PM

Feed your fish and make sure they're not stressed (due to poor water conditions). And they'll fight it off themselves

Sumfingwong · #5 01-06-2012, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Never treat copper in your main tank and never with liverock as it will be contaminated after that and you won't be able to put any invertabrate in that tank.

If you don't have any coral and invertabrate, you can lower your salinity and treat them with hyposalinity, it is much safer than copper.

If you have coral and invertabrate, clam, anemone etc...then you must buy a larger tank or borrow one from someone to treat all your fish and leave the display tank without any fish for 8 weeks.

This is why a quarantine on all fish is the way to go..it avoid such mess.

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?

Sumfingwong · #6 01-06-2012, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nanomano

I always listen to what she says hahaha. Also once i qt my fish a few weeks down the road i dump a capfull of herbtana in the dt once in a while just to play it safe. Usually a day or two before a water change so there isnt excess stuff in the water. I don't kniw if I'm right or wrong in doing so but i only had the one outbreak, and it was in my dt so that's why I do that. Cause I'm sure there is still ich in my tank and i like to try to keep it at bay.

As of yesterday, I turned off my skimmer, and treating the tank with Herbtana

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkoD

Feed your fish and make sure they're not stressed (due to poor water conditions). And they'll fight it off themselves

I dipped the krill and brine with Seachem garlic guard, every other fish except the puffers ate. Right now, it looks like its affecting the puffers the most.

MarkoD · #7 01-06-2012, 04:18 PM

Maybe test your water and try and figure out what's stressing the fish. Do a water change as well maybe.

Sumfingwong · #8 01-06-2012, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkoD

Maybe test your water and try and figure out what's stressing the fish. Do a water change as well maybe.

I'll run tests tonight. Last I checked over the long weekend:

ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0

pH: 8.2 to 8.4 (last night)

I recently dosed the tank, would like to not do a WC unless I have to. I want to see if Herbtana works or not.

Coralgurl · #9 01-06-2012, 05:02 PM

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.

globaldesigns · #10 01-06-2012, 06:43 PM

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?