how common is ick in SW

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mr funktastic

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just what the title says. how common is ick in saltwater. i recently picked up a royal gramma and he is showing signs of ick. appears to have some small white spots starting near his head. is brushing up againts items in the tank. still seem to be eating fine and exhibiting normal behaviour.

what are the treatments for saltwater. i have only ever had the issue with freshwater and just bought the standard ick medicine. suggestions are welcome.
 
There are several threads on here about treating Ich. Use Search and read up to get a good understanding of what you are up against. You basically have two options....hyposallinity or copper treatment. Done right you want to treat in a QT tank. Do not follow freshwater rules, as they are different and do not work.

As for how common it is...I'd say fairly common. It's best to put new fish in QT for a few weeks, make sure they are clear of anything and then put them in your DT. Do that starting with fish #1 and your DT should never get Ich.
 
If you are keeping invertebrates or corals in your tank don't use any copper based treatments. Not only will it kill them you won't be able to keep any more of them in that setup. They are intolerant of copper. Best bet is to make sure he's feeding properly and regularly and keep your hands out of the tank as much as possible to reduce stress on the fish.
The other alternative is to treat all fish in another tank without corals or inverts with a copper based treatment making sure that no fish are placed in the main tank for at least 6 weeks. The life cycle of the ICH parasite is 5 to 6 weeks and with no fish to host it will die out .
Hope this helps.
 
well i would like some opinions. i am about 90% sure it is ick. here are some pics. looking for some opinions

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my clown does not seem to be affected at all by it. the royal gramma has been in the tank about a week.

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these were some quick shots. im sorry the glass is dirty. there are also tiny bubbles in the water.
 
Looks like it to me on the Gramma. Remove all fish to QT tank and treat. Leave display fallow for 2 months so ich can die off that fell into sandbed/rocks after hatching.
 
2 months? that seems like a long *** time. i have read about the hyposalinity method of killing the ick in a QT tank. then there are products like ich-x and stuff that claim to be reef safe. but i just dont trust. i have a 15 gal tank i can put the 2 fish in for now. from what i have read the snails/crabs/shrimp will not be affected by the ich. and raising the temp a bit will speed up the life cycle of the ich. but i dont want to leave the fish in a empty quarantine tank for 2 month unless i really really have too.
 
and to ezy33 the gramma just started flashing (i assume u mean when the quickly brush up against something) yesterday.
 
i dont get it. this is today. same fish. normal behavior. no signs of ich. nemo is still fine. i am confused.....

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opinions?
 
You only see ich during one of its phases of life, as it is reproducing and about to spore. That's what you noticed. Now they spores and are now in your sandbed waiting to do it again. Ich is still in your tank. You will need to go fallow for 2 months to get rid of it. Put your fish into a qt tank and treat them.

It should be also asked what is stressing out your fish hat it got ich to begin with. Is the gramma being bullied? Maybe parameter issues?
 
parameters are all zero. nitrite nitrate and ammonia are all zero. 1.024sg. nemo and him get along great and he has his own side of the tank to himself. colour is great with no signs of stress. and i have never seem ich completly dissapear overnight. after only showing up the day before. change out 5 gal of water per week with RO water. using instant ocean salt.

here is the current set up:
30 gal long tank
penguine 350 HOB filled with live rock and a foam carbon pad (also changed weekly)
prism HOB skimmer
have about 500gph of curculation in the tank plus what the filters put out
1.5" crushed coral substrate
about 40 pounds of live rock in the tank
gsp, zoos, mushrooms and a few other corals.

nemo has been happy for 6 years. i am almost wondering if it was an illusion and was simply bubbles attached to him.
 
This is why people continue to have problems down the road. You see Ich during the phase of its life cycle where it is visible. It drops off, as the next stage and people think the fish is cured. It is still in the tank and it will come back.

Garlic helps immunity, but cures nothing. Anything purchased at a LFS other than copper "treats" the problem, but does not cure. Hypo works too. It's no fun to QT fish. It's no fun to leave your tank fallow for a few weeks while the Ich that IS in there dies off due to lack of a host. It really stinks to have a recurring problem and eventually lose fish after not curing the problem. Trust me...been there done that years ago when we didn't know about the cures. We'd throw in the LFS Ich Cure treatments, watch the fish "get better" and then see it pop back up a few months later.
 
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