Have ICH looky here!!!!!

[pclausen]

The clowns are doing very well this morning. No spots at all and very active/hungry. I'll do the tank swap regimen over the next 12 days.

So the good news I suppose is that the eel is likely not infected since I setup his QT tank 2 days before introducing the clowns to the display.

Waterkeeper, that makes a lot of sense about the LFS tanks having ich cysts and new arrivals showing no outwards signs. Goes to underscore the importance of using QT tanks for sure.

I increased the temp in the main system to 82 degrees. The only thing in there right now other than the LR and base rock are 12 peppermints that are doing a good job on the aiptasia. Drs Foster and Smith had those on sale for $4.99 last week, so I went ahead and picked up a dozen. They should be ok at this temp for 6-8 weeks, right?

Thanks everyone.

p.s. I wasn't really planning on dropping the clowns directly in the main system, but the wife was with me at the LFS and she absolutely wanted us to pick up both the eel and clowns and of course putting all of them in the one QT that was up and running at the time would have not have turned out well (the clowns are tiny).

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by pclausen
The clowns are doing very well this morning. No spots at all and very active/hungry. I'll do the tank swap regimen over the next 12 days.

So the good news I suppose is that the eel is likely not infected since I setup his QT tank 2 days before introducing the clowns to the display.

Waterkeeper, that makes a lot of sense about the LFS tanks having ich cysts and new arrivals showing no outwards signs. Goes to underscore the importance of using QT tanks for sure.

I increased the temp in the main system to 82 degrees. The only thing in there right now other than the LR and base rock are 12 peppermints that are doing a good job on the aiptasia. Drs Foster and Smith had those on sale for $4.99 last week, so I went ahead and picked up a dozen. They should be ok at this temp for 6-8 weeks, right?

Thanks everyone.

p.s. I wasn't really planning on dropping the clowns directly in the main system, but the wife was with me at the LFS and she absolutely wanted us to pick up both the eel and clowns and of course putting all of them in the one QT that was up and running at the time would have not have turned out well (the clowns are tiny).

glad things are doing better

In the above senerio---a piece of plexglass with holes in it for flow would have worked well in the qt as a divider or separator

[Aquarist007]

WK--is quarantining live rock for ich really necessary. These guys do and they have been add it alot longer then me

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1631060

[JoelNB]

Hmm, I guess fish hitchhike (gobies?), but at least we can narrow down the stage that any potential crypto is at.

I'd like to add to your question with the thought that we might be able to use aggressive QT techniques with rock and ask whether there's a way to kill crypto instantly that won't hurt the rock.

[WaterKeeper]

Good questions; to be perfectly safe the answer is yes, QT anything added to the tank from another location. As was pointed out in that link, LR from the LFS may have been exposed to fish and can therefore be carrying the parasite. Wild harvested LR is usually somewhat safer as it was not near fish during transport. If cured in the display, the curing period will serve as a quarantine period as it usually takes almost a month before the rock is fully cured. However, adding a few pieces of cured rock to a tank could possibly harbor ich if it was exposed to fish recently.

Sorry to say Joel there is no treatment that will specifically kill ich without also harming the rock. The only sure way to avoid problems is to give things at least a month of isolation before adding them to the tank.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
Good questions; to be perfectly safe the answer is yes, QT anything added to the tank from another location. As was pointed out in that link, LR from the LFS may have been exposed to fish and can therefore be carrying the parasite. Wild harvested LR is usually somewhat safer as it was not near fish during transport. If cured in the display, the curing period will serve as a quarantine period as it usually takes almost a month before the rock is fully cured. However, adding a few pieces of cured rock to a tank could possibly harbor ich if it was exposed to fish recently.

Sorry to say Joel there is no treatment that will specifically kill ich without also harming the rock. The only sure way to avoid problems is to give things at least a month of isolation before adding them to the tank.

Thanks WK
I guess in light of your answer the most suitable way to deal with live rock is cure it individually ourselves in a separate vat or container, then add it to the display tank.

[WaterKeeper]

That's by far the best method. Cure water is really nasty stuff and contains all sorts of nutrients that your display could do well without. Curing it in vats lets one throw all that crummy water down the drain when the cure is complete. It also pretty much eliminates many pathogens that could be harbored on the LR.

[KDDG]

Maybe this has been covered- I tried reading the whole thread. About tangs & treatment- How bad is it to treat a tang with copper and what are the possible side effects of doing so? I don't know if I feel comfortable with lowering the salinity. If you think this is the only way, then help me feel more confident some how "Tangs don't do well" is not really discriptive enough. What's the real deal? Has anyone successfully treated tangs with copper?

[ramirifi]

hi , sorry if my question is answered before , but i can't find any thing !!
so my question is ( hope someone will make it clear for me!):
my thank is 150 g
water parameter are near ferfect !
2 tomato c.
dottyback
goby
copperband
cleaner shrimp
yellow tail blue damsel
powder black tang

the tang is the only fish having ich
in the morning he is clean and afternoon to evening he is covered with ich
i have him since more than one month
why he is clean morning and .... ?
why other fish are parasite free ?
if the parasite is having his cycle, why it attaks just the tang and not all the fish in the tank ?
i had the same issue before with domino damsel , but in other tank , and it was the stronger fish in the tank and again other fish never been infected !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[WaterKeeper]

That does sound strange. How long has the tang shown the spots? Since you first got him?

Ich spots do go away when the parasite leaves the fish but not in a 12 hour period. It is possible they are bubbles but I tend to doubt that as the other fish would also have them. Another thing is I'm not sure of what fish a powder black clown is. Could it be you meant the powder brown, Acanthurus japonicus? It may be just a coloration change as he wakes up in the morning.

[ramirifi]

http://www.peteducation.com/article....+2208&aid=2049
about one week
these are not bubbles , sure !!!

[WaterKeeper]

Here is another article on Powder Browns and has pictures of the two species that are called that as a common name. Note: in that article it also talks about the color change that may be confused with ich spots. If the spots come and go they could be the "molting" effect mentioned in the article.

[fishwonder]

I have ick on my flame angle fish. I need medication for the whole tank. It 's a new tank I don 't worry about coral, Thanks all of you.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by fishwonder
I have ick on my flame angle fish. I need medication for the whole tank. It 's a new tank I don 't worry about coral, Thanks all of you.

if you use copper based medications in that tank then you will have to boil all the live rock, clean out the sand bed and also clean the tank down too.
if you hyposalinate then you loose any inverts that are in and on the live rock and inhabit the sand bed

you are still best to remove the infected fish---if it is the sole fish in there and qt it--treat it by hyposalination and after 4 weeks of treating and the tank being fishless you should be good to go

IMO alot esier then treating the tank

[fishwonder]

I QT the angel and put medication: formalin. Just 1 night and all white spots dissappeared. With the direction, I need 48 hours to with medication. And the main tank I put IRK ATTACK, it 's organic and can put in reef tank with LR. I checked the skimmer, it SKIMMED out the medicaiton. I have to unplug the skimmer and go without skimmer for 2 or 3 days. Everything 's under control now.

[JoelNB]

fishwonder, the spots will fall off the fish as a part of their journey through the system and will still be in the tank. As far as I can tell, everything is not OK just yet. You might need to wait a few more weeks (4-6). While there is a chance you could pull your fish from QT and it won't take the spots from the QT tank with it, what about the spots still in your display tank? They may not become vulnerable to meds for a few weeks yet (and longer if you keep your temps low). You would be best keeping the fish out of your display for the time being until those spots die. The fact that your fish cleared up in just a day says to me that it had probably been dropping spots for a while before you got it into QT.

[Meyeronfire!]

I have set up a 10 gal QT. Moved all of my three fish there. 1 clown 2 yellow tangs. I want to do the copper treatment but i have already moved the fish there. What should I do? My LFS sold me some copper med that is made my seachem. I will post the details about it but will this work?

[JoelNB]

If the cysts attach, is using DT water (and when) for QT water changes possible?

[JoelNB]

(to clarify that last question, I was referring to the cysts living on the substrate and rocks but not in the water)

Another question.....

My QT has become a mess and I transferred the fish to another tank with zero meds hoping to give them a break (ammonia, meds and something else going on in the old QT). What's the chance I transferred crypto to the new tank? The only way is if there were any that were encycted but not yet vulnerable, and either floating in the water (came on the net) or were living on the fish in some harmless way attached to them. These fish have been medicated now for 22 days at 28 (82.5) degrees, and no symptoms for that same amount of time. Could I just leave them in the new tank unmedicated for the remaining three weeks?

[WaterKeeper]

Joel,

It is easy to confuse the old WK but I think I see what you are asking. Yes, it is fine to use display tank water in a medicated QT tank as the medication will kill any free swimming, tomites, carried over to the QT. In a non-medicated tank there is a very slim chance that they could reinfect a fish but is very small. You would need to have them emerging from the cyst, trophont stage, at the time of the water's collection and they would then need to find the fish, which is not always that easy for the slow swimming tomite, to carry on the life cycle. In your case, after 22 days of medication I would be comfortable to leave them unmedicated for another two weeks and then returning them to the display.

[JoelNB]

Aha. If I had that post over I'd do it a little differently

That is good to know. I medicated the new QT just to cover that small chance that my display water had a free swimmer in it, but will remove the meds over the next couple of days.

I look forward to the days when all this carry on will only be as a precaution with newcomers. Phew.

[WaterKeeper]

Disease is the bane of numerous reefkeepers. Only adding a disease free fish to the display is the proven method to avoid it. Hopefully this will be your last challenge.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by H.Veras [/i]
hey i got my tank running for about two months already.. last weekend i bought two chromis and last night i saw that one of them got ich.... what should i do.. i do not have a QT tank, what should i do.. another question is my water contaminated already or not? [/QUOTE

yes your water has been contaminated--one of the reasons why some of us quarantine everything before adding it to the display tank.
The easist fix for you would be to qt those two chromies for 4 weeks and use the hyposalination treatment
Your display tank needs to remain fishless for 4 weeks which will be right about the time when you can place the chromies back into it.

[norgemorir]

I'm at a loss here and need some advice. I have had 2 fish in my QT, a clown and a yellow tang, for 5wks now. The yellow tang still has a 2 white spots on 1 fin. They've been there since the start but to be honest, I don't remember if they were there at the LFS -- I thought i did a thorough inspection but I discovered the spots w/in the first day for sure.

Anyway, I've treated with formalin for 14 days and copper at .3 for 14 days with a week in between. I've changed the water at least 6 or 7 times and it's been running at 1.020-1.022 for the last 3 weeks at least. Still, the spots persist. There are no other symptoms, no other spots, the clown is fine and while the tang is still a bit sketchy when i stare at him , he's fine.

What's left to do? Freshwater dip? Or is do I need to somehow rub the spots off? I have 2 pieces of PVC (including a valve) in the QT with nothing else, but he's never tried rubbing up against them so I'm very puzzled.

Any suggestions?

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by norgemorir
I'm at a loss here and need some advice. I have had 2 fish in my QT, a clown and a yellow tang, for 5wks now. The yellow tang still has a 2 white spots on 1 fin. They've been there since the start but to be honest, I don't remember if they were there at the LFS -- I thought i did a thorough inspection but I discovered the spots w/in the first day for sure.

Anyway, I've treated with formalin for 14 days and copper at .3 for 14 days with a week in between. I've changed the water at least 6 or 7 times and it's been running at 1.020-1.022 for the last 3 weeks at least. Still, the spots persist. There are no other symptoms, no other spots, the clown is fine and while the tang is still a bit sketchy when i stare at him , he's fine.

What's left to do? Freshwater dip? Or is do I need to somehow rub the spots off? I have 2 pieces of PVC (including a valve) in the QT with nothing else, but he's never tried rubbing up against them so I'm very puzzled.

Any suggestions?

Formalin is not an effective way of treating for ich--so those 14 days don't count.
nor does running the water at 1.020=1.022.
alot of reefers combine copper treatments with hyposalinity---which is a 4 week treatment with the salinity at 1.009 exactly.
My suggestion would be to do the hyposalinity for the 4 weeks now disregarding the other time the fish has been in the qt