Fire fish with ich!

[lehaneya]

Hello,

 

I went on a 2 week vacation and had a friend come over and feed my fish for me. when i got back the tank was full of this thick dark purple algae. i cleaned up as much as i could and did a water change. then i noticed 2 of my hermits were dead and my fire fish had white spots on it. for the past 2 days i have been soaking frozen mysys shrimp in garlic and today i got a skunk shrimp that the fire fish seems to be staying away from. The spots have not gotten any better in the past 2 days any ideas if t6he garlic works? or any suggestions on other treatment? I have a bottle of Ick Guard for my freshwater tank but on the bottle it says safe for freshwater fish and plants, nothing about salt water.

[Dani3d]

Garlic does not do a thing for ich. The only way to rid a system of ich is to leave the display tank fishless for 8 weeks and treat all the fish in a quarantine tank in hyposalinity for 4 weeks after the last white spot is gone. This treatment must be done with a precise refractometer, not an hydrometer as it is no where precise enough. Salinity must be droped to 1.009 during the course of a few days, then it must be raised over the course of at least 5 days, no more than 0.003 points per day.

 

if you don't want to do the hyposalinity, then Cupramine in quarantine tank is fine too but it's copper and copper is toxic. Cupramine is a form of copper that is less toxic yet you can't use any copper in your display tank as it will kill every invertabrate, pods, clean up crew, shrimp etc...

 

Your stuff is probably a toxic form of copper, what ever it is you cannot use it in your display tank and I would not use that for saltwater.

 

If you decide to use cupramine, you cannot use any dechlorinator with that as it would bind with the amine in cupramine and release the copper in a toxic form, killing your fish.

 

with Seachem Cupramine you don't have to lower the salinity and so you don't have to do the acclimatation to lower salinity and higher salinity but your display tank must still be empty of fish for 8 weeks or you will reinfect your fish. Cupramine treatment is 2 weeks if I remember right but your fish would have to remain in quarantine tank for 8 weeks as to not be reinfected.

 

with hyposalinity, you can put a few piece of liverock in there to maintain filtration, but all invert will die, bristle worms, bristle star etc..will all die but the good nitrifying bacterias will work still. With copper, everything will die so no point putting liverock in there.

 

Hello,

 

I went on a 2 week vacation and had a friend come over and feed my fish for me. when i got back the tank was full of this thick dark purple algae. i cleaned up as much as i could and did a water change. then i noticed 2 of my hermits were dead and my fire fish had white spots on it. for the past 2 days i have been soaking frozen mysys shrimp in garlic and today i got a skunk shrimp that the fire fish seems to be staying away from. The spots have not gotten any better in the past 2 days any ideas if t6he garlic works? or any suggestions on other treatment? I have a bottle of Ick Guard for my freshwater tank but on the bottle it says safe for freshwater fish and plants, nothing about salt water.

[imsobored152]

I used Ich Attack, it worked great. I have no hospital tank/quar

but its probably hit and miss with it. But it worked for me. No negative side effects except some cyano, which went away after treatment

[lehaneya]

I do not have a quar tank or a refractometer, do you know if ich attack is safe for inverts(shrimp)?

[imsobored152]

all mine we're fine blue legs, nass snails, turbos, peppermints, scarlet cleaner, CBS, emerald. All were fine

[lehaneya]

I think im going to go with the cupramine but i have a question. sorry if its stupid but im new to s/w. Will when setting up the quar tank will i have to let it cycle or any thing? i was thinking to use maybe 20% of the water from my existing tank as it is only a 10g tank and the q tank is 5g. so in the q tank i was thinking 2g tank water 3g new water. Will that be ok?

 

Garlic does not do a thing for ich. The only way to rid a system of ich is to leave the display tank fishless for 8 weeks and treat all the fish in a quarantine tank in hyposalinity for 4 weeks after the last white spot is gone. This treatment must be done with a precise refractometer, not an hydrometer as it is no where precise enough. Salinity must be droped to 1.009 during the course of a few days, then it must be raised over the course of at least 5 days, no more than 0.003 points per day.

 

if you don't want to do the hyposalinity, then Cupramine in quarantine tank is fine too but it's copper and copper is toxic. Cupramine is a form of copper that is less toxic yet you can't use any copper in your display tank as it will kill every invertabrate, pods, clean up crew, shrimp etc...

 

Your stuff is probably a toxic form of copper, what ever it is you cannot use it in your display tank and I would not use that for saltwater.

 

If you decide to use cupramine, you cannot use any dechlorinator with that as it would bind with the amine in cupramine and release the copper in a toxic form, killing your fish.

 

with Seachem Cupramine you don't have to lower the salinity and so you don't have to do the acclimatation to lower salinity and higher salinity but your display tank must still be empty of fish for 8 weeks or you will reinfect your fish. Cupramine treatment is 2 weeks if I remember right but your fish would have to remain in quarantine tank for 8 weeks as to not be reinfected.

 

with hyposalinity, you can put a few piece of liverock in there to maintain filtration, but all invert will die, bristle worms, bristle star etc..will all die but the good nitrifying bacterias will work still. With copper, everything will die so no point putting liverock in there.

[Dani3d]

Yes put a lot of water from the main tank at first but not after you begin the treatment because then you will juste keep reinfecting the quarantine tank. At first it is ok to do this because you already have the fish in that water anyway. You can put a few piece of liverock in there but you won't be able to put it back in the tank as it will absorb copper and be toxic. It will probably help to prevent ammonia.

 

Remember that when you use Cupramine you cannot use any dechlorinator to neutralize ammonia as that product will bind with the amine in cupramine and it will release toxic copper and kill your fish probably, so your only way to control ammonia is to have enough water prepare in advance and do water change and monitor the ammonia level morning and evening.

 

This is why I do hyposalinity treatment instead because I can then use liverock like Totoka liverock fully cured that is porous and when I am done I can put it back in the main tank and it is not contaminated with copper.

 

there are some resine that will absorb copper and a copper test must be use to make sure the liverock does not leach copper any longer.

 

 

I think im going to go with the cupramine but i have a question. sorry if its stupid but im new to s/w. Will when setting up the quar tank will i have to let it cycle or any thing? i was thinking to use maybe 20% of the water from my existing tank as it is only a 10g tank and the q tank is 5g. so in the q tank i was thinking 2g tank water 3g new water. Will that be ok?

[lehaneya]

so i set up the tank ant put him in there, he passed out i guess from shock when i was catching him and now hes just lying at the bottom of the hospital tank i hope he makes it.

 

Yes put a lot of water from the main tank at first but not after you begin the treatment because then you will juste keep reinfecting the quarantine tank. At first it is ok to do this because you already have the fish in that water anyway. You can put a few piece of liverock in there but you won't be able to put it back in the tank as it will absorb copper and be toxic. It will probably help to prevent ammonia.

 

Remember that when you use Cupramine you cannot use any dechlorinator to neutralize ammonia as that product will bind with the amine in cupramine and it will release toxic copper and kill your fish probably, so your only way to control ammonia is to have enough water prepare in advance and do water change and monitor the ammonia level morning and evening.

 

This is why I do hyposalinity treatment instead because I can then use liverock like Totoka liverock fully cured that is porous and when I am done I can put it back in the main tank and it is not contaminated with copper.

 

there are some resine that will absorb copper and a copper test must be use to make sure the liverock does not leach copper any longer.