white spots= ICH?

[NanoClown]

I noticed that just recently my clown has some white spots on it. i have read that a freshwater dip of 5 minutes would cure it. i am not shure what they mean by dip, but wouldnt dipping it in freshwater for 5 min kill the fish? or am i wrong? i just recently got a goby today and was wondering if its contagus? would the goby get it? i have a 2.5 quarantine for now should i put my clown in there? is there any other way to treat this?

 

Thanks

[thatfishguy]

What you want todo is get a little tank water and dilute it down to a very very low SG, below .010. I do it this way bc it helps keep the PH around where it is in your tank already. Make sure your temp is near the same. When you add the clown to it you want to watch him and when he starts to lay at the bottom and look like hes not gonna make it add him back into the regular water. It shouldnt kill the fish but it will kill ich. If you have another tank I would just set up a quarintine tank toss the clown in and dose him with copper. If thats not an option kick ich is supposedly reef safe..

[cyenna]

well, since you're not really sure it's ich, just put your clownfish in quarantine-i mean, it is for observation IMO if the clown is still eating and appears to be healthy (could battle off the ich?) then don't bother with treatment (especially treatment you're not totally comfortable with). Let us know how it goes!

[EL CHUPACABRA]

Nano clown, your fish has ich because it is stressed out because it is living in to small of a space!!! I told you long before you ever got a clown to get a false perc for your size tank, and you ignored my good advice and got a maroon, which is way to big. now it is stressed and has gotten a common disease.

 

You can do hyper-salinity treatment (read up on this and every thing before you make mistakes not after) OR your option is too treat with copper medicine, although this treatment will kill your corals, inverts and even live rock (aka you must have lone hospital tank). Live and learn nano clown, how many fish have to die for your pleasure/ignorance??? If you do treat your clown or it dies, contagious cyst of ich will be present for up-to and over 30 days after your fish is removed, pretty much any living fish will host the parasite if they are present, it takes over 30 days of a empty tank (ie, no fish) to get rid of the parasite. Listen to your fellow reefers, we are not out to spoil your fun just keep you from making common mistakes.

 

I got my false perc rid of ich by boosting his immune system by hand feeding him formula one, phytpplankton. mysis, brine shrimp, hokari, etc... Basically I fed him a variety to boost his immune system.

 

You knew this was comming when you put to big of a fish in too small of a space ( I know I warned you). Try using the search button to research hyoer-salinity, and ich, and copper medicine tratment, you got yourself here, the question is are you going to try to fix it or just let another fish die to your young/dumb reefkeeping. If you are having any problems searching for soulutions PM me and I will guide you to some threads with your available solutions. best of luck, reef smart not naive!!!!

[NanoClown]

ok so i am going to the LFs today to get some copper and a copper testkit right now at this moment i have my clown in a 2.5 quarantine without any medicines in it. so what your saying is to give both of my fish a copper bath? or should i just put all LR and LS in a 5g bucket and put all my coral in the 2.5 and make the procedure in my 5g? i was asking if anyone wanted him on craigslist last weekend but got no responses. i just want this fish to heal and give him to a good home. i should have listened to you in the first place.

[EL CHUPACABRA]

ok so i am going to the LFs today to get some copper and a copper testkit right now at this moment i have my clown in a 2.5 quarantine without any medicines in it. so what your saying is to give both of my fish a copper bath? or should i just put all LR and LS in a 5g bucket and put all my coral in the 2.5 and make the procedure in my 5g? i was asking if anyone wanted him on craigslist last weekend but got no responses. i just want this fish to heal and give him to a good home. i should have listened to you in the first place.

 

You have to put him in a seperate hispital tank with nothing else in it. Copper is super nasty stuff for the rest of your tank. Anything that has touched the copper tank water should never go back into reef tank. Ex if you put a powerhead in the hospital tank, it will now be forever tainted with copper and could not be used in any tank housing corals, invert, live rock, sand, etc. This includes the tank itself, and even nets used to catch the fish. Copper is a poison that is going to kill the ich, it's killing power is not limited to ich alone, but all living things in your tank, your fish is just hopefully strong enough to live through it.

 

You need a dedicated treatment tank, that can never be reused for anything other than more treatments!!!

 

I am thinking 5.5 and 2.5 are kinda expensive compared to 10g and WAY TO SMALL. Why don't you put your maroon in a empty 10g (they are only like $10, $8ish at walmart) and that way he will stress out less, the 2.5 is just going to freak him out and make things worse. Read the all (every word) of the instructions to the copper med at least 3 times, I bought it once but never used it because it is such nasty stuff. You might as well treat all your fishes since they all are going to have it/get it. After you do the treatment you have to wait at least 30 days for all the ich (you can't see it) floating around in your infected tank looking for host to die before you put your fish back in, or they will just get re-infected.

 

I do not think that it is a copper bath, I think as I recall he gets to live in copper water for awhile. You will need no live rock, just a bare bottom tank with a power head for flow and high water quality. Plan on these things not being reuseable for anything else since they will have copper on them forever; so basically buy walmart's cheap 10g and there cheapest hang on the back (hob) filter or powerhead for flow.

 

Since you have no filtration you will need to monitor your feeding, Amonia, NO2, and NO3, as well as specific gravity and ph. I am not sure if you can run carbon in the tank since it may just soak up the medicine. 2.5 gallons will crash with that fishes bioload (ie food and poop). Spend the $ on the 10g, 2.5 or 5g is just going to cause you more problems, with no filtration water changes are your only option to clean up water quality. Also buy a dedicated copper only net that never goes in your main tank. If your levels test bad a water change is your solution. I hope you like those because you are going to be doing lots of them.

 

After you treat your fishes, remove them and don't put them directly into your display, but instead put them in a disposable jug/container of new clean saltwater with the same salinity, ph, temp, let them swim around awhile (5+hours) and get the copper off of them, you don't want it in your real tank (like the rinse cycle on your washing machine, you may want to repeat this, I figure 1 gallon wasted of water is better safe then sorry. Remember this is after 30 days of no fish (host for ich cyt) in your display.

 

Good luck nano clown, let me know if you have any questions, PM me if i don't respond here.

 

OH and test test test that copper, don't ever dose something without testing for it!!!!!!

[NanoClown]

Thanks once again. so today i get paid for mowing my neihbors lawn ($80) so i plan to get a cheap Rio 90, a 10 gallon AGA, copper and test kits for copper i think $60- 80 altogether. keep it setup in my room for now and keep the clown in there along with the goby for a month maybe more, with copper

[EL CHUPACABRA]

Thanks once again. so today i get paid for mowing my neihbors lawn ($80) so i plan to get a cheap Rio 90, a 10 gallon AGA, copper and test kits for copper i think $60- 80 altogether. keep it setup in my room for now and keep the clown in there along with the goby for a month maybe more, with copper

copper should be <$10

copper test <$15

10g tank <$12

Cheap walmart HOB <$20

 

I am not sure if you have to does the copper for a full month. I am saying that you have to keep them out of the tank where it occurred for that long. As far as the copper meds go, follow their instructions very carefully. Open a few boxes in the store and read the instructions. Find which one you think sounds like it will work the best, I ushually pick the most scientifically based product.

 

Buy as much as you can at walmart then buy what you can't find at the more expensive LFS. Also you may be able to print online prices from petco/petsmart and get them to match their much cheaper online prices, just talk to a manager and say the did it before, also talk about how much word of mouth you have by conversing on he internet forums, thay will ushually do it. Save some money by shopping around, then you can mow less lawns and buy more salty crap.

[NanoClown]

ok thanks chupa! i am going to walmart in a lil while

[cyenna]

ok, apparently, el chupacabra has more info on your tank. If you could state info here too, that would be nice. Also, are you POSITIVE it is ich? a picture would help in this case. I would first search for images of ich and compare it to what your fish has. It is not a good idea to medicate before making sure you indeed have a disease. I mean, duh!!!!

[EL CHUPACABRA]

ok, apparently, el chupacabra has more info on your tank. If you could state info here too, that would be nice. Also, are you POSITIVE it is ich? a picture would help in this case. I would first search for images of ich and compare it to what your fish has. It is not a good idea to medicate before making sure you indeed have a disease. I mean, duh!!!!

Oh yeah I agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

I have found that ich looks like little grains of salt almost on the side of the fish (size-wise not density). It seems to go away in the morning/early hours of the day, and really makes itself apparent in the eveaning and at night.

 

If you are not sure what it looks like just go to petco beofre they close and stare at all the fish until you see one with the dots, then you will know, they will have one its their specialty.

 

Here is some pictures:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/showphoto...9356&si=ich.

 

http://www.northcoastmarines.com/pics/pics..._on%20_fish.jpg

 

http://www.bilherron.com/cryforhelp/p/ich.jpg

 

 

I have heard ich also taste like elmer white glue, so if you pull him out and lick him a few times and taste the glue, you know you have ich.

 

I would look into HyperSalinity over medications, they are nasty stuff, If you don't belive me throw $1 worth of pennies in your tank and let me know how it works out.

 

Killing the host is always a good option of removal.

 

I think I said ich's life cycle is like 30 days, But I would probally go 5-8 weeks fishless to make sure. Also the cyst life cycle can be sped up by raising the tempature of the tank. (perhaps endothermic??? I can hardly remember highschool biology). So if you raise the tempature in the tank you could shorten the life cycle and cleanse your tank sooner but then your corals will die, so 5-8 weeks of fish in hospital tank, killing the host is starting to sound better huh? Just bare with the process, remeber I said I got rid of mine by boosting his immune system by feeding frozen food, hikari sinking pelets, phyto pankton, and religiously keeping all my levels NO3 included at 0. This was no small feet in the 4g, cheato helped along with lots of water changes, and always staying on top of it. Then when the pink zoos crashed my tank and yoshimatsu (f. perc) died. I still do not have a fish just in case there is any cyst left. but I have a electric flame scallop and he is f-in cool. Can we say lightning!!!!!