Banner image

Possible Ich outbreak (1 Viewer)

Bambam507

Bambam507

I contributed!
Lifetime Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2012
Messages
595
Location
Mankato, MN
Looking for some help/advice

from what I have read is best to pull all fish out of DT and quarantine. To let the parasites basically starve n die off to not have a host. BUT do I use water from my DT for QT? seems that I should be using non DT water or I will be just transferring the ich to QT.

Problem I only have an extra 30 gallon tank and access to a 29 gal at the moment will this be large enuff for all my fish? Thinking I should try to find a larger tank to do fish only.

1 Kole tang 6"
1 sail fin tang 2.5"
1. lawnmower blenny
1 strawberry dottyback
1 harptail blenny
2 maroon clowns 2.5
1 fair wrass
 
Thinking of using a hob filter rated at 350. (wich is currently on Jays tank that he has his corals in b/c he is setting up new tank) crappy timing.

brock has offered me a canister filter that he has run copper in.

do I jump to dosing QT with copper ?

the kole tang has lots of spots (covered)and few other fish have a few spots. so like threads I have read say if one has it they all have it.
 
thats alot..... alot of fish for a 30 gal tank. and 2 tangs!!!!!!.. off my soapbox

edit: getting back on...

2 tangs in a 30... cmon there shouldn't even be 1 tang
dottybacks while i love them... can be aggressive
2 maroon clowns... considered to be one of the most aggressive clowns you can have....

all this in the confines of a 30 gallon.. you'll end up with more than ick real soon... death.. get rid of both tangs... give them away to someone who can qt them until better...
 
Last edited:
If you do indeed have ich, pull all of your fish out of the DT and put them into either tank (which ever one has the largest footprint) for a HT (hospital tank). I'd suggest mixing up new water matched to the water of the DT. Leave the fish in the HT for at least 8 weeks (10 weeks being optimal). While they are there treat with copper or hyposalinity (I'd suggest tank transfer if you are up for the salt cost you will have...). Leave the fish in the tank for at least another 4 weeks after treatment to observe and make sure the treatment was successful (treatment is 4 weeks for copper and hypo, but only 2 weeks for tank transfer in which case you should keep them there for another 6 weeks so the DT is fallow for 8 weeks). After your tank has been fishless for 8 weeks you are likely safe to add the treated fish to the tank.

While display was fishless the remaining ich parasites should have gone through their life cycle and died due to starvation because they lacked a host to feed off of. There are various factors which will vary the amount of time this takes (ie, cooler water means the life cycle lasts longer), which is why 10 weeks is optimal.
 
yea im debating on setting up the 29 and the 30 or trying to find a 55 or larger for dirt cheap . prob is if i treat copper tank will basically be worthless
 
Bambam507 said:
Thinking of using a hob filter rated at 350. (wich is currently on Jays tank that he has his corals in b/c he is setting up new tank) crappy timing.

brock has offered me a canister filter that he has run copper in.

do I jump to dosing QT with copper ?

the kole tang has lots of spots (covered)and few other fish have a few spots. so like threads I have read say if one has it they all have it.
Click to expand...

Be careful with dosing copper. You need to slowly raise the dosage otherwise you'll likely stress the fish out more and those already severely infected may go out... I don't have a bottle near me, but Cupramine directs you to add two drops per gallon (I think), but you should only do a half or fourth dose (1 drop per gallon or 1 drop for every two gallons) to start off with and work your way up to the .5 ppm of Cu you want to sustain in the water.
 
Bambam507 said:
what you mean? as in bunch of water changes on DT?
Click to expand...

Tank transfer is a method that involves two QT tanks (your 29 and 30 for example). You set one up and place the fish in it and keep them there for 3 nights. On the morning of the 4th day you move all the fish to the other tank that should be set up a day or two ahead of time. Clean the first tank out thoroughly and set up again so the fish can be placed back in this tank three nights after they went to the other tank. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1996525 good thread to read up on this method.

cubetankguy said:
youll need atleast a 120 for thoes tangs!
Click to expand...

IMO, you don't need that large of a tank for them to be housed in temporarily. People QT tangs in 20 longs and 40B for 6-8 weeks, no need for a bigger tank to be used as a HT. This is the one time I'll say it is okay to have a tang in a tank this small.
 
Kyle is correct in his description of possible proper treatments.

I only will say this, it is still my opinion that freshly set up hospital tanks are very difficult to maintain properly. You are battling a cycle, nutrients and medication levels every day right out of the gate. And you have to catch the fish to move them there. That being said, I prefer to regard and treat ich like 'the common cold'. One must 'feed a cold'. You can 'get away with' doing nothing but feeding more, if they are still eating. If they aren't eating, you really don't have much choice..and you probably need some luck.

Anyway, good luck, whatever you decide. If it were me, I'd feed 3 times a day, keep nori in a clip at all times and change water at least twice a week. It doesn't make it 'go away' it just allows your fish to deal with it. It can continue to show up when/if your fish are stressed again. At that point, repeat. Even if you do what kyle says, it can come back, it can come back into your tank on a coral frag...

Good luck, sir.
 
Last edited:
LowersMyBP said:
Kyle is correct in his description of possible proper treatments.

I only will say this, it is still my opinion that freshly set up hospital tanks are very difficult to maintain properly. You are battling a cycle, nutrients and medication levels every day right out of the gate. And you have to catch the fish to move them there. That being said, I prefer to regard and treat ich like 'the common cold'. One must 'feed a cold'. You can 'get away with' doing nothing but feeding more, if they are still eating. If they aren't eating, you really don't have much choice..and you probably need some luck.

Anyway, good luck, whatever you decide. If it were me, I'd feed 3 times a day, keep nori in a clip at all times and change water at least twice a week. It doesn't make it 'go away' it just allows your fish to deal with it. It can continue to show up when/if your fish are stressed again. At that point, repeat. Even if you do what kyle says, it can come back, it can come back into your tank on a coral frag...

Good luck, sir.
Click to expand...

I'd go this route.

Keep temp stable.
I think Kyle might be confusing freshwater Ich with saltwater in regards to temperature speeding up life cycle, not the same beast.
You may kill the fish from ammonia setting up tanks, the Ich may be gone before you could properly set up the hospital tanks.
 
Possible Ich outbreak- first figure out what your dealing with. More fish are killed from improper treatment/over treatment/reactive treatment when their fish weren't even sick with in the first place. People often jump to action when the best thing to do is nothing. Challenge is knowing when to take action and when not to.

Many people think they have ich and it's really- scraps, one off injuries, bacterial/blotches etc.
 
just my opinion but trying to catch the fish is only going to stress them out even more. like stated above, feed 3 times a day and try soaking your food in selcon.
 
Ich, whether freshwater or not, will have a life cycle slightly dependent on temperature (I've read scientific articles). Warmer temps decrease the time of the life cycle, cooler temps do the opposite. Turning the heat up however is not advised as it won't cure ich like it does in FW.

Using the tank transfer there is no harmful ammonia levels because to are not using other meds, this you are able to use ammonia detoxifiers. Wih copper however you can't be used you'll get a super copper which is more toxic to the fish and will likely kill them.

IMO, feeding your fish more and soaking foods in things is just a band aide to the problem. Just like cutting down your photoperiod for algae problems. Solve the root of the problem, cure the ich in this case, and if something goes wrong with the tank (broken heater, too much top off, etc) and the fish get stressed you don't have to worry about ich. I can't tell anyone how many stories I have read about people losing there fish to ich after beig able to "live" with it for a certain period of time.
 
Kyle what's if the Ich is the sympton of a problem, and not the root of the problem? treating the ich, while there's another issue that's stressing the fish, then reintroducing seems to be a big circle. That's why some people will say tdriehorst to figure out what's stressing the fish, fix, and feed in the tank vs. stressing more by trying to tearing down a tank to get the fish out, and into a whole new enviroment.

Either way a HT is a great idea. If it's in the tank. its in the tank. At this point we're seriously telling BamBam he needs to set up all seperate hospital tanks for all his fish (some of which would take 40-75 gallons), wait 6 weeks for the tank to go fallow, and treat all his fish...
 
Last edited:
I had an ich outbreak a couple of weeks ago. I lost my scopes tang, and my ocellaris clown was about to join him. I don't have a QT, and didn't want to start one because of reasons mentioned above. I did a lot of reading, wow there are a ton of opinions out there. I came across a product called Fish Keeper by Tropical Science. I don't usually try these things, but I didn't want to lose anymore fish. When it arrived my clown had very noticeable white all over, clouded eyes, and was sitting on the bottom. I added the 30ml a day and within two days he was looking better. It has been two weeks and now he is as happy as can be. Hope this helps

Here is the link to it on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Tropical-Scie...F8&qid=1362587164&sr=8-1&keywords=Fish+keeper.
 
Myclang said:
Kyle what's if the Ich is the sympton of a problem, and not the root of the problem? treating the ich, while there's another issue that's stressing the fish, then reintroducing seems to be a big circle. That's why some people will say tdriehorst to figure out what's stressing the fish, fix, and feed in the tank vs. stressing more by trying to tearing down a tank to get the fish out, and into a whole new enviroment.

Either way a HT is a great idea. If it's in the tank. its in the tank.
Click to expand...

I can see where you are coming from, but there will almost always be something later that stresses the fish. The infection stresses the fish as well. The population of crypto is building up daily, and eventually your fish won't be able to fight all of the parasites off. When you don't see the white spots, the parasite is usually encysted on the rocks by where the fish sleeps, or feeding off the full tissue.

This is why I suggest treating for ich, and during the minimum of 8 weeks that the fish aren't in the DT, correct any issues that may have made the fish suseptible to the point where the classic white spots have shown.
 
LowersMyBP said:
Kyle is correct in his description of possible proper treatments.

I only will say this, it is still my opinion that freshly set up hospital tanks are very difficult to maintain properly. You are battling a cycle, nutrients and medication levels every day right out of the gate. And you have to catch the fish to move them there. That being said, I prefer to regard and treat ich like 'the common cold'. One must 'feed a cold'. You can 'get away with' doing nothing but feeding more, if they are still eating. If they aren't eating, you really don't have much choice..and you probably need some luck.

Anyway, good luck, whatever you decide. If it were me, I'd feed 3 times a day, keep nori in a clip at all times and change water at least twice a week. It doesn't make it 'go away' it just allows your fish to deal with it. It can continue to show up when/if your fish are stressed again. At that point, repeat. Even if you do what kyle says, it can come back, it can come back into your tank on a coral frag...

Good luck, sir.
Click to expand...

I've never lost a fish to ich, and this is the method I use.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top