My plan for ich treatment, anything missing?

[ccampo]

I posted this same thread in the "Disease Treatment" forum but I haven't received any feedback, so posting it here as well :


I lost one of my clown fish today, it was covered by very small white spots and everything leads to ich, so here's my plan according to some reading about that, the remaining fishes seem to be doing good so far, so to prevent any problem I'll quarantine all fishes (1 clown, 1 yellow tang, 1 blue damsel and 1 "3 stripes"/domino damsel) and start the ich treatment.
All water parameter are good, only a little bit of Nitrates (10) but that has been like that for a long time now, also the only addition to the DT was an anemone on Jan. 29th so I think this was the culprit here?

Here's my plan:

a. I'll give all my fishes a fresh RODI water bath for 3-4 minutes
b. Put all of them in a 10g QT tank after the bath

and here are my questions

1. What medication should I dose to the QT tank and how much? here are the options I found:
Copper sulfate
Marex from Aquatronics
what else? or is there a better product based on my fishes, I've read that copper is not good for tangs?

2. My QT will be just a 10g tank with no LS or LR, just a few pieces of PVC for hiding places, I'll also install an air pump and perform frequent water changes to avoid ammonia, so how frequent should I perform the water changes and how much water ? anything else needed for this QT tank? a pump, HOB skimmer, filter, what?

3. My DT will be fish-less for at least 6 weeks, but all my CUC (blue legs Hermit Crabs, Snails and Peppermint shrimps) and one anemone will remain in the tank as it looks like ich doesn't affect them, is it true or should I also quarantine them ?

4. Is there anything I can dose my DT with while the fishes are in the QT? or just let it rest and wait for the ich to starve with no hosts to propagate after 6 weeks?

5. I'm I forgetting something or more suggestions?

[Burbs]

1. Use Hypo with a refractometer not copper less stressfull
2.HOB filter since you wont have LR you need some sort of filter.
3. 8 weeks is better and true
4.just fishless for 8weeks.

[papagimp]

3 striped damsels are not domino damsels. Dominoe's are solid black with 3 white spots (one on each side and one/near the dorsal) (hence the common name, 3 spot damsel) fwiw, if you have a dominoe damsel, find another home for it. They get large...and their aggressivness get's larger weather they do or not. My last baby dominoe killed three fish before i finally banashed him to a "whatever" tank. Couldn't kill that fish for nothing....and I tried, over and over again. Tough evil fish!

1. for ich, definatly use Hyposalinity treatment, plenty of info available here on RC about that.

2. Water changes daily on the QT tank since you'll have no filter running. Hypo is less stressful but still stressful. Add ammonia on top of that and might as well leave em in the display to die.

3. 6-8 weeks is fine for QT and treatment. Longer won't hurt but at the minimum 4 weeks.

4. Don't treat the DT...with no fish to host in the parasite will die off. QT new fish in the future to avoid this problem from happening again. Many/most of us learn this one the hard way, so congrats on being just like most other hobbyist.

5. suggestions, get a bottle of PRIME for the QT tank. Water changes will help keep ammonia down but PRIME can add that little extra margin for error just in case.

[ccampo]

Thanks papagimp,
you're right, mine is a normal 3 stripes damsel, there are 2 of them, and the one I have is a "Humbug: White-tailed Damsel-fish", the other one is a "Black-Tailed Humbug".

Sounds like a good plan then.
I'll do that tonight and hopefully in 2 months they'll be home again.

[stingythingy45]

Originally posted by Burbs
1. Use Hypo with a refractometer not copper less stressfull
2.HOB filter since you wont have LR you need some sort of filter.
3. 8 weeks is better and true
4.just fishless for 8weeks.

I agree with this 100%.
I just did a 8 week hypo treatment on all my fish and left the display fallow.
I was successful.
Just make sure if you do a freshwater dip.(I'm not a fan of this).
The PH is little higher or equal to what they're in now.(little baking soda).Also the temp. is very important.

[ccampo]

Yes giving a FW bath sounds really strange and scary, especially for marine fishes, but as I was reading doing that will "explote" that ich killing them immediately, it will be very stressful for the fish, yes, but I'll match the PH and temp of the water, plus I'll be there with then and in case I notice something is not going right I'll take them out and put them in the QT immediately which will be waiting for them anyway at 1.020, same PH and temp of the DT, then once a day I'll be lowering the salinity of the water during a week until it reaches 1.012 or a lower to treat them with Osmotic Shock Therapy (O.S.T. or hyposalinity) for at least 3 weeks, I'm not going to use any chemicals unless someone gives me a good reason to do it, after that I'll start increasing the salinity again to reach 1.024 and wait for the remaining weeks before put them back in their home(DT).
Hopefully after that no more ich ever, and I'll keep the QT for new fishes in the future.

[sufunk]

Are the remaining fish still eating well? You said that they "seem to be doing good so far" so i assume they are still eating. If they are, if you dose everything that they eat with garlic and make sure water conditions are perfect, the remaining fish should be fine.

I have had about 5 ourbreaks of ich in the last about 4 years. Everytime though, my fish kept eating. I just dosed their food with garlic and got the water parameters back in check(each time it was from a small ammonia buildup) and within 1-2 weeks, they were fine and ich free. I know ich is still in the water but as long as they are fed well and my water is good, they dont have outbreaks.

I'm not trying to discourage you from following the other's advice but just wanted to give you a different option and viewpoint. Their advice is great and will rid your fish of ich but it is a MAJOR pain. Between catching all your fish and making sure the qt tank has the salinity perfect and the parameters perfect, it's alot of work and alot of stress for you and the fish. Sometimes i think people get too crazy over an ich outbreak. Ich isnt a guaranteed death sentence by any means

[ccampo]

Originally posted by sufunk
Are the remaining fish still eating well? You said that they "seem to be doing good so far" so i assume they are still eating. If they are, if you dose everything that they eat with garlic and make sure water conditions are perfect, the remaining fish should be fine.

Well, I just feed them about one hour ago and they're eating and swimming well and I do not see any signs of ich anywhere in them.

From reading more and more about this problem this was probably caused by stress, not that the stress itself is producing the ich, but the fishes are more vulnerable to it when stressed, so yes it could be that the ich has been there since the beginning, but the stress caused by a peek of ammonia (mini cycle) about 3 weeks ago which made me relocate all of them to another tank and then relocated back to this same tank after the tank was completely cycled again make my little clown very weak and vulnerable and was attacked by ich easily, yes that's also my theory.
I'm going to wait for this O.S.T. treatment until weekend, but If I do not see any other sign of ich in them I'll probably don't do it, of course the ich will still be there so I should be more careful with the water testing and looking for any sign of ich to start the treatment immediately, I do not want to see another fish dying in my tank.

Right now I'm feeding them with frozen brine shrimp one day, next day with a mix of small pellets, slow sinking Morsels and flakes, so how do you add garlic to it? probably soaking the food in garlic before trowing it in the tank?

[ccampo]

Also what garlic ? any special brand?
Some day I'll "cook" a special DIY menu for them with garlic in it, I already have the recipe I just need to buy the ingredients.

[sufunk]

Originally posted by ccampo
Also what garlic ? any special brand?
Some day I'll "cook" a special DIY menu for them with garlic in it, I already have the recipe I just need to buy the ingredients.

I just use Kent Garlic Xtreme. It's kind of expensive but i use it every other day and am too lazy to make my own.

I just put a few drops in with the food, stir it up and let it soak for an hour or two.

[ccampo]

Thanks I'll do that starting tomorrow, garlic is good for their immune system so that will help them combat ich for themselves.

[sml41]

I lost about 4 fish to the disease ; did the freshwater dip , I think that it stressed them out and with everything they died; I have one clown left; I put him in a 10 gallon tank and used quick cure for ick which is good for both fresh and saltwater fish ; one day later no spots, he is swimming and eating ; it is suppose to cure the ick within 48 hours; I have QT no carbon in the filter , just the bare bones, glass mug for him to hide in; he loves it since I didn't have PVC pipe at home ; good luck

P.S. I think mine hitched a ride in on the snails that was the only addition not quarantine

My fish had been eating garlic food so much for that

in comparison doing the Freshwater dip didn't save my fish; quick cure is (purchased at Walmart) a couple of dollars; I wished that I did this for the other fish , perhaps I could have saved them instead of just FW dip ; they took a fast downward spiral

[ccampo]

Yes, that's why I decided to wait and see how the remaining fishes react, FW bath should be very stressful.
Is "quick cure" reef safe?

[sgazda]

what about black ich or "black spot disease", my yellow tang has been enduring my frewshwater dips for about a month now, and it just keeps coming back...does anyone have any experience in this odd strain?