Ich Treatment (inverts)

[Mikeyss]

I woke up today to find my gramma hiding in his cave, while the lights were on, which seemed a little odd. Later on, I noticed he was swimming in a spot he rarely sits in, and when I got a close look I see lots of white specs on him. I've read up on Ich for a while now and I'm not sure what I should do... I have no hospital tank for the fish, and I have inverts. I'll probably goto the LFS tomarrow and ask them what they think, but coming here seems like it would give me faster responses.

 

I know medications have copper in them, which would kill my inverts, and I've been reading that hyposalinity is probably going to kill my inverts as well? What should I do? I'll probably start with a waterchange right now.

 

Tank specs:

 

10 gallon tank

18 lbs LR

4 Scarlet Hermits

2 Red Leg Hermits

1 Emerald Crab

1 Peppermint Shrimp

1 Royal Gramma

 

1.025

0 Ammonia

0 Nitrite

8.0 pH

 

Everything else in the tank is fine.

[Reefmaniac]

If you can, get him out, quarantine and treat with copper.

[Tempest]

I disagree. IMO you should remove the fish from the tank and do a HYPOSALINITY treatment in a hospital tank. Specific instructions can be found at www.reefcentral.com. Copper will work, but could stress out the fish even more and do more harm than good. Hyposalinity will kill the Ich without stressing the fish if done appropriately. Also, even if the copper works, there will still be Ich in the main tank. Ich has a 30 day life cycle. The only way to get rid of Ick in the main tank is to leave that tank "fishless" for 30 days or so. Ich will not harm inverts. Whatever you do, do NOT do the treatment in the main tank. You need a hospital tank set-up (10 gallon tank, filter, heater, no sand or rock - do daily 20% water changes and add pH buffer and ammonia detox as necessary.)

 

Good luck.

[Jim J]

I had to relearn a lesson the hard way.

After 2 weeks of being the first (and only) fish in my cycled tank, I noticed white spot (ich) developing on my gramma. A day before I noticed it, I put in my first coral (GSP), and my clean up crew had been in for a month. With all the LR in the tank. there was no way to catch the poor guy to treat him. I added a couple of skunk cleaners ($$), but I was too late. Within 2 days, he died

 

I always have done a fresh water dip on any new fish I get before putting them in the tank. I did not think to do it since he was the first fish to go in this tank.

 

IMO you should ALWAYS pretreat any fish, or at least have a quaranteen strategy to watch a new fish for a couple of weeks, before putting them in the display tank.

 

Ich can not spontainiously develope in a tank, but can be introduced with any new fish, or even with the water that a new coral or invert is packed in.

 

Anybody have any ideas about quaranteening corals or inverts?

[JotaDe]

Originally posted by Tempest

I disagree.  IMO you should remove the fish from the tank and do a HYPOSALINITY treatment in a hospital tank.  Specific instructions can be found at www.reefcentral.com.  Copper will work, but could stress out the fish even more and do more harm than good.  Hyposalinity will kill the Ich without stressing the fish if done appropriately.  Also, even if the copper works, there will still be Ich in the main tank.  Ich has a 30 day life cycle.  The only way to get rid of Ick in the main tank is to leave that tank "fishless" for 30 days or so.  Ich will not harm inverts.  Whatever you do, do NOT do the treatment in the main tank.  You need a hospital tank set-up (10 gallon tank, filter, heater, no sand or rock - do daily 20% water changes and add pH buffer and ammonia detox as necessary.)

 

Good luck.

 

I'm going through a simliar ich dilema, however I'm QT'ing with copper.

 

Hyposalinity treatment has many pros but I've read that the major critical salinity swings require you to have a highly accurate hydrometer instead of a common swing arm hydrometer which I don't.

Just something to beware of if you decide hyposalinity treatment.