fvlewg65 Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 I just bought a couple of Percula clownfish on the weekend and by Monday night they appeared to have ich. I have now quarantined them (yes a newbie mistake, should have quarantined the fish first, live and learn) and am putting them through a hyposalinity treatment. After a day most of the white spots have disappeared, but from what I have been reading, I should continue with the treatment for 4 weeks. My main question is what about the main display tank? There are no other fish in it, only 7 snails, 1 blue legged crab, a scarlet cleaner shrimp and 52 lbs of live rock. It is a 48g display with a 20g sump. Can the ich survive in the main tank? What can I do about it? I don’t want the fish to get it when I put them back into the main tank. Help please! Link to comment
Stanley Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 ICH has a life cycle... those cysts that appear on the fish will later fall off onto the sand bed... grow into swimmers and again en-cyst the fish. It is possable that you are fine... that there is no contamination of the tank. Even if not, seeing as ich needs a fishy host to complete it's life cycle... if you now prolong quarentine (~1-2 weeks) you can ensure that the parasites will have perished. Fish stress contributes to these sorts of infestations. I've seen fish spot up with ich when there is a perameters spike due to a death... so make sure everything is going well in the main tank... I stand by what i posted above, that being said... there is a tonne of info out there about ich. Often it is conflicting, so try out the search button and do some reading. Also, I like fresh water dips to treat ich. Link to comment
fvlewg65 Posted June 22, 2005 Author Share Posted June 22, 2005 Thanks, I have done quite a bit of reading on the net about ich, however, I couldn't find much or any info about my main tank with no fish. The water parameters have been very stable for the last 4 weeks. So I guess by not having any fish in the main tank the ich will just die in 2 weeks, dispite all of the live rock and invertebrates habitating in the main. Is this correct? Link to comment
Christopher Pearson Posted July 4, 2005 Share Posted July 4, 2005 i'd quar. for 90day, some recommend more. 90days is good. ich cycle is longer, 1st (of 3) part of cycle is only 2 weeks long. inverts dont get ich. after no host's have been in there for 3 months, parasites will die off. keep in mind, temp swings will cause stress--ich outbreak. with main tank; watch the temp levels @ different times. also, may seem strange, but w/larger tanks like yours, you may want to test w/a volt meter. salt tanks are over sized batteries!! this will also cause stress. my 90 gallon had 2 outbreaks of ich, found it was running over 7 volts, since have grounded the tank. LFS will help w/this. get grounding plug. in quar., i would also use a small amount of copper, dont use on inverts/corals. ive found straight copper works better than other ich treatments. Link to comment
fvlewg65 Posted July 5, 2005 Author Share Posted July 5, 2005 Thanks for the input, I tested the the aquarium and it has 125mV, not much but I will ground the tank. I found a link on how to make a cheap and simple gounding probe. http://www.netpets.org/fish/reference/reef.../grounding.html Link to comment
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