Ick in my reef tank, please advise!!

[Catspa]

Just added a fish to my main tank and noticed that it appears to have Ich!  

 

I'd had it in a quaranteen tank and didn't notice it do to poor lighting.

 

Anyway, i need adise on how to proceed.

I've got a reef tank (fish, skunk and perpermint shrimp, assorted hermit crabs, green polyps, and pulsing exiena(sp?))

 

Currently, unless someone advises otherwise i'm going to remove the fish to the quaranteen tank, and treet with Cupramine. For the main tank i'm going to treat with Greenex, and lower the salinity to about 1.01, (not sure weather i should raise temp or not)...

 

So any suggestions? different proceedure, different medication for the main tank???

Please, (i'm going away for the weekend, and want to start treatment before i go)

 

any help would be greatly appreciated  

 

 

 

current medications for paracites that i have

 

* Greenex

* Cupramine

* Kent Marine's RxP (directions worry me... "use on inverts at users own risk"..etc...)

 

have any luck with any of these, or can recommend anything else

[Metznreef]

lower the salinity to 1.001! that will kill the fish. there is a thing called hypo-salinity which helps kill ich but you just lower it to about 1.020. even this SG may not be  may not be tolerated by the inverts.

[Christopher Marks]

Hypo-salinity will only kill the parasites that are not on the fish.  It will also open everything in the tank up to many more problems.

 

I would either move the fish to quaranteen and treat with copper or something alike, or keep it in the tank and feed it food soaked in garlic oil.

[Kapelakin]

Sounds like you're looking for a brick to kill a fly with.  I agree on the garlic.  Just feed the fish and take good care of the tank.  Keep the water extra-pristine and everything extra-stable and the fish should be able to fight off the ich unless it's got LOTS of it or also has some other disease.

 

What kind of fish is it?

[DaveESPI]

Quarintine is the best bet. Also A product called CORAL VITAL or REEF DNA has an ICH inhibitor ingreedient in it.

Its produced by Marc WEIS...... it helps with STRESS ich..... it it is a light infestation, try it. U/V is another remedy. Also RID ICH is a reef safe cure..... try any of the above if the ich DOES NOT affect the other fish in the tank, it is stress ich, and wil go away with MAIN TANK care..

[Catspa]

Hey is everyone really tired or something? Seems like everyone so far has misread my post, or perhaps i didn't explain myself correctly? i'm not sure?

 

Currently the Ich isn't really a problem, but then again i want to make sure it stays that way, hence want to be proactive in the matter.  Hence I already moved the infected fish to a quarantee tank, and am already treating with coper meds (& not hyposalinity). Ok, i think that will work with the infected fish.  

For my main tank, i was contemplating treeting with greenex, and some hyposalinity to kill off any stray Ich that may have fallen  (or whatever) off the infected fish, so that it doesn't get a chance to infect anything else... ok, so what do you think?

 

 

**Chris, in regards to hypersolinity killing the Ich thats not on the fish, thats exactly what i want to do! Since i've removed the only infected fish from my main tank, and since he was ONLY in my main tank for about an hour, no other fish in my main tank actually has Ick, but there remains the possibility that some Ich did escape into the system from the infected fish, during the hour that he was in the tank, hence wouldn't hypersolinity in my MAIN tank be a good thing... ie the 1.01

 

 

Ok, i said 1.01 not 1.001 and i've been reading stuff all over the net that have said 1.01 for hypersoality for Ich.  isn't that correct? if not then what is a safe, and will still help kill any stray Ick in the system?

 

some of the cites that said 1.01:

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-j...posalinity.html

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/martrthyposalfaqs.htm

 

Plus a bunch of forums postings here and there.

 

ps i'd like to try garlic to, but i'm going away for the weekend, so i'll have to start that on monday.

 

 

 

 

(Edited by Catspa at 12:32 am on July 5, 2002)

[Christopher Marks]

Is there no LR, LS, crabs, snails or corals in the system?  Hyposalinity won't be good for any of them either.  Really, as long as a system is maintained well, there is no risk of ich.  Fish can naturally fight off parasites when they are not stressed out or sick.  Kind of like we get sick easily when we're really tired or sick.  I wouldn't worry about the main tank.

[Catspa]

Ok, thanks Christopher, I guess i'll leave the main tank alone and see how it goes.

 

Interesting note, In regards to the infected fish, after completeing a dip in RxP, and then a quick Formaline dip, and was no visual signs of the paracite, BUT after a night in the quaranteen tank (treated with cupermine) some of the spots are back... so what gives?

[Christopher Marks]

A lot of parasites drop off of the fish at night and reattach in the morning.

[vanillabox]

here is what I would do:

1. QT the fish with ich.

2. use the regular food that I make that has garlic in it.

3. if is a bad infestation then treat with hyposalinity.

4. I would never use chemicals in my tank (other than synthetic salt).  they are in my view more dangerous to the fish then the parasite.  give your fish the best conditions you can (clean water, heat, light), a balanced diet, enough room to stay active, and good tank mates (cleaner shrimp/fish) and it should do great.

[jdiver]

I have a question related to this topic about ich. I have kept fw tanks for over 15 years, and a common "cure" for ich with fw fish is a salt dip (dipping the infected fish in saltwater for 2-5 minutes). The addition of the salt frequently gets rid of the ich. Now I'm reading with sw fish that if you do the opposite, significantly lower the salinity, that will get rid of the ich. I'm just curious if the ich fw and sw fish get is different, or is it just that the two parasites live in different environments and changing that environment drastically will kill it?