Ick - Raise or Lower Salinity?

[emilypres]

Thanks for all the replies and yes I am working on setting up quarantines for each fish. I also just found out from the original owner that these fish have always had ick. His exact quote, "saltwater fish always have it, when they get stressed they just show signs of it" So obviously he never cared to cure it, only keep it at bay at times. I have to say this really sucks because this is a fairly new tank and all of a sudden I have to completely empty these fish out into different containers and begin some 6 - 12 week treatment. Not exactly circumstances that would make someone want to stay in such a hobby. People have hobbies for many reasons but they usually involve being something they are enjoying. Oh well i guess we will see how much in truly enjoy this hobby over the next few weeks.

Palting, thank you so much for being honest and pointing out what i am doing wrong and not attacking me for it. That is what i was looking for when i posted this.

One can see how easy it is to go the wrong way when there are two different types of ick. The fish seem fine and they are all eating healthy. Most of the ick is not showing any longer but I know that is temporary. With Xmas here, I can't simply take 4 fish out of a 90 gallon and put them in quarantine buckets and leave them there to do all this. Also, do you know how hard it is to catch fish in a 90 gallon? I guess i need a fish trap but it has to be big enough to catch a tang. If anyone has a link to one I can go ahead and order it.

Geez what a nightmare.

[spieszak]

Google search for a bottle trap, they tend to work just as well as the ones you purchase. A clean dry cleaning bag has worked for me in the past also. Works like a rather large net.. Although to prevent frustration, its usually easier to just move rock and corals into a rubber maid tub, drain a decent amount of water, and return the rock and corals once the fish are caught.
I was a bit ****y when I posted my reply, and I apologize for that. What I "read" you saying was that you didn't want to go through the work of fixing the problem, even though that isn't what you were saying. It eventually gets really hard to not read that because of the amount of people who really are saying that, while "fighting" against the people who continue to pass bad information on as fact.

[DownwardDawg]

Originally Posted by emilypres

Thanks for all the replies and yes I am working on setting up quarantines for each fish. I also just found out from the original owner that these fish have always had ick. His exact quote, "saltwater fish always have it, when they get stressed they just show signs of it" So obviously he never cared to cure it, only keep it at bay at times. I have to say this really sucks because this is a fairly new tank and all of a sudden I have to completely empty these fish out into different containers and begin some 6 - 12 week treatment. Not exactly circumstances that would make someone want to stay in such a hobby. People have hobbies for many reasons but they usually involve being something they are enjoying. Oh well i guess we will see how much in truly enjoy this hobby over the next few weeks.

Palting, thank you so much for being honest and pointing out what i am doing wrong and not attacking me for it. That is what i was looking for when i posted this.

One can see how easy it is to go the wrong way when there are two different types of ick. The fish seem fine and they are all eating healthy. Most of the ick is not showing any longer but I know that is temporary. With Xmas here, I can't simply take 4 fish out of a 90 gallon and put them in quarantine buckets and leave them there to do all this. Also, do you know how hard it is to catch fish in a 90 gallon? I guess i need a fish trap but it has to be big enough to catch a tang. If anyone has a link to one I can go ahead and order it.

Geez what a nightmare.

It sounds like you are placing each fish in it's own seperate container? That's not necessary. They can all go into the same aquarium together to be treated. It just has to be seperate from your display tank. Unfortunately I'm dealing with Marine Velvet in my brand new 125 gal tank. We chose not to QT one single fish and I lost 4 fish in 24 hours. The remaining fish are all in a hospital tank together with copper right now. It was a hard lesson but now I have a 20 gal long as a HT/QT and another 20 gal tank as a coral QT. NOTHING will go into my display tank from this point forward without spending a couple of months in QT 1st.

[ACBlinky]

In the disease stickies there's a thread titled "how to catch an uncatchable fish" that's really helpful. Some fish, like clowns, are stupidly easy to catch. Captive bred clowns (mine, anyway) will often swim INTO the net, they're fearless and curious.

Wild fish, especially wrasses and tangs, can be a nightmare to try and catch. Gobies too -- anything small and fast that likes to hide is going to be tough to get out.

My solution is to drain the tank. Make a hole in the sand, set up some large bins, and just drain the water. Corals don't care, they think it's low tide. when the water level hits the sand, the fish have nowhere else to go - they'll congregate in the low spot you made, and you can net them out easily. Then just use a pump/powerhead to refill the tank.

Or, there's the old tried and true method (one I can't use, since my rockwork is all epoxied together): take out all the rocks and use two nets -- one to herd, one to scoop.

Remember, you're talking about a period of 1.5-3 months in a hobby that will hopefully last a decade or more. Disease treatment and quarantine are important, and in the overall scheme of things, it's not a long process.