Help! My clowns are infected w/ ICH!

[mimie]

Hie all,

 

I have 2 juvenile clowns (a maroon and a true percula) that are infected with ICH. The infection on the true percula appears to be blemish like, occupying the entire body.

 

The marron has4-5 white spots. I am guessing the got the infection from the bicolor pseudochromis. I was impossible to catch the sucker because of all the LR in the tank.

 

I started noticing the infection worsening on the chromis just a day after I introduced the LR to the tank.

 

Please advice.

 

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Setup:

20G tank (24" X 13" X 12")

25 lbs. FIJI LR

2" LS

3 turbo's

1 astrea

1 open green brain

1 button polyp

1 marron clown(juve)

1 true percula(juve)

1 bicolor pseduochromis

1 spotte hawk

15W, 18" Marine Glo lighting

Penguin Powerhead 55gph

Penguin hang-over-the-back filter w/bio-wheel

5" heater

[tinyreef]

the good thing is that your livestock are all hardy animals. the brain i would transplant if possible though for the following options.

 

temperature increase to 85F (watch your tank for the inevitable stress from oxygen and temp. shock) this is a very touchy option because it could end up stressing the fish more and REALLY opening the floodgates.

 

another option is to lower/raise your salinity levels. lowering the salinity is basically the osmotic shock therapy (saltaquarium.about.com has some good sources and instructions than i could think of posting here). raising the salinity is something more anecdotal among reefers. i run my tanks consistently at a higher salinity (b-ionic using lazy butt that i am ) and it seems to keep issues at bay. (true i also have a hospital but it's only for inverts)

 

i don't mention medicines but that is a last resort. i consider the tank 'polluted' afterwards though (not is a bad way if you can understand that). whichever you use i'd do it slowly. i would reserve the whole day or a weekend to address this issue.

 

or just catch the little sob's and dipped their butts in a glass of water! good luck!

[MKramer]

I really have to disagree with some of these methods.....

 

Raising the temperature may force the tomites off the fish, and may even kill them. However, it will not kill off other stages of the Ich parasite's life cycle. You'd have to keep the tank at a high temperature for 30 days to kill all of them, but then your fish will be so stressed that a sneeze would give them an infection.

 

It's obvious that they are already considerably stressed now. Making them MORE stressed is not the solution.

 

Fish fight off Ich naturally when they're happy and healthy. The key to treating Ich is to ensure that your fish ARE happy and healthy. Comfortable tank paremeters, consistent parameters, reliable source of food, etc..

 

Hyposalinity does work, but again, it msut be maintained for 30 days to kill the parasites completely. Otherwise, your fish, which are even more stressed out from the omsotic imbalance, are just going to get infected again.

 

Dipping them in freshwater for a few minutes will most likely force all the parasites off, but there are plenty more lieing in wait in the sand and rocks once the unhappy fish are placed back in the main aquarium.

 

You really just need to bolster the natural immune system so that the fish can fight this themselves. Garlic and HUFA additives are the most important thing, and increased feedings should be used to make sure they get as much garlic as possible.

 

If the fish are healthy, not only will the parasites fall off, but no more will attach. The life cycle interrupted, they will not reproduce. If you can keep the fish Ich-free like this for 30 days you'll have virtually stopped Ich in your tank. Even if the fish get stressed again in the future, the parasite will be virtually wiped out, and very unlikely to be able to cause new infections.

 

The other improtant thing, of course, is to eliminate whatever was stressing the fish out in the first place.

 

I know, mimi, I've already said all this to you personally, but I wanted it out here for others to see (and critique).

 

Matthew

[lizbeth]

I agree with Matthew completely.

 

I got my clowns last Sat. The first night the clarkii showed a few spots. I did a water change and fed them my homebrew seafood mix. The next night there were fewer spots and by the next night there were none. I think the stress of moving allowed the ich to get a hold, but then with good feeding and settling in his immune system has kicked back in and taken care of the problem(at least I hope so).

[Crakeur]

Cleaner shrimp, some garlic elixer and cross your fingers.

 

I hate dipping the fish in fresh water, the trapping and removal alone is stress enough to make things worse.

 

The only real way to handle an outbreak is to ride it out.

[BustytheSnowMaam]

If anyone has a copy of Clownfishes by Wilkerson (I got mine thru inter-library loan and have since returned it) she has some suggestions in there for dealing with ich- a lot of it is others mentioned but there might be some ideas.

Tasha

[MKramer]

She does?

 

Most conventional cures are 80% luck, since they only work in the tromite stage. But most of her information in that book is dead-on, so I'll have to check that out when I get home.

 

Thanks,

Matthew