Ich

[Upright Joe]

Well, I think one of my juvenile false percs has a case of Ich. I noticed two little white spots on her side. I think it probably hitched a ride with a cleaner shrimp that I added a while back though I can't say for sure.

 

Luckily, I've caught it early. She still eats like a little piggy and is very active. Unfortunately, I've got to figure out what to do about it. I don't have a hospital or quarantine tank set up with an established biological filter. The way I took at it, I have three options:

 

1) Hope the fish fight off Ich and the problem just goes away. (From what I've been reading, this is probably not the right way to go.)

 

2) Set up a hospital tank and treat with hyposalinity

 

3) Set up a hospital tank and treat with copper

 

Any advice? I think I might have one thing going for me. I never took the sponge out of my nano cube (although I've cleaned it every week with my water change) so there's a chance I could use that to help get the biological filter going.

 

What's the safer treatment? Hyposalinity or copper? Also, what's the minimum setup I need for a hospital tank and how do I get the biological filter running?

[pyrrhus]

how long have you had the cleaner shrimp? if hes been in there long enough you may have a chance of not needing QT. that being said the cleaner was not the cause of the ich i would look elsewhere for the problem.

 

i think copper is the safest treatment for ich, all you need is a copper test kit, a 10g tank, heater, a small powerfilter and some pvc for the fish to hide in.