ich

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A little light reading before bed...

Marine ICK - everything you need to know
ATJ's Marine Aquarium Site - Reference - Hyposalinity Treatment

The first article is a good "everything you need to know" article that addresses many of the myths out there about ich.

The second article is my suggestion on how to deal with it. I'm currently doing the same thing with a new fish I have in quarantine. Just make sure that if you go the hyposalinity route, that you have a calibrated refractometer and do it in a separate tank.
 
This is all good info. However I have this fish in a tank full of live rock and softies. I am totally unprepared for this. I do not have another tank handy. Can I treat the whole tank with something other then copper.
 
This is all good info. However I have this fish in a tank full of live rock and softies. I am totally unprepared for this. I do not have another tank handy. Can I treat the whole tank with something other then copper.

There are many "reef safe" treatments on the market today. Unfortunately, none of them actually rid your tank of the parasite. Most of them work by temporarily boosting your fishes slime coat production to help the fish fight off infection for the time being. Once you stop the treatment, they can just get reinfected again at a later point down the road.

That's why Hyposalinity is the preferred treatment.It not only cures your fish of ich, but also gets rid of the parasite completely. You can find tanks pretty cheap on craigslist to use for a QT.
 
Anything that holds water will work. I use a cheapo 10g with a strip light, a hang-on-back filter, and a heater. You could just as easily use a rubbermaid tub.

It's preferred to use a cycled tank, but in a pinch you can set up a hang-on-back filter on your main tank for a week and transfer that filter over to your quarantine. That way, you'll have at least *some* biological filtration on the new tank. You'll probably see ammonia for a bit, but not like a totally uncycled tank. Just keep testing for ammonia and nitrites and do daily water changes as required.

Ich will survive as long as there are fish around. So if you have more than just the clown in your main tank, just treating the clown will not necessarily rid your tank of ich. Safest course of action is to put ALL fish into a hospital tank, treat ALL the fish, and then leave the main tank fishless for 6-8 weeks. Without fish, the ich will die off in that 6-8 week time period and your main tank will be rid of the little buggers.
 
I am going through the same situation. I bought a QT and was going to begin hypo. Well in the process of transfering and doing a fresh water dip (like some of the articles suggested) I lost my coral beauty and flame angel. So being the newb that I am I panicked and put the rest (a clown, striped damsel, and green chromis) back in the DT. After it all happend I started to add garlic extreme to the food figured it couldnt hurt. well my plan was to begin the whole hypo process again since i started to see some white spots on the damsel and clown (mainly on their tails) but after a day or two they were all cleared. I know the parasite is still in my DT and the only way to get rid of it is to go fishless thus breaking its cycle. but what confuses me is all this reading about how healthy fish have immunity to the parasite. how can a fish build immunity to a parasite? maybe resistant to illness due to the damage a parasite does...but to the parasite? just confuses me.

after reading this thread maybe my fish are reacting to the garlic and producing a slime coat like krypt stated thus explaining the disapearence of the white spots temporarily.

sorry for the thread jack but i figured my experience could hep you.
by the way i bought a 20 gal tall QT for 20 bucks. $1 per gallon sale at petco.
 
What makes ich terrible is the fact that it will disappear for a while, as a part of the normal life cycle of the parasite. This makes people think... "Great! I didn't have ich", or "Gee... my fish cured itself." Which then makes us delay treating it, only to have it come back exponentially worse a couple weeks later. And then it goes away again...

Gloomisboy... I think you're right - the fish won't develop an immunity to the parasite itself, it may just be strong enough to fight it off time and time again. It's really no different that a person living with cancer for years and years - eventually to die of something totally unrelated.

I won't get into the garlic/immune system debate, but from what I've read garlic won't do anything for the slime coat. I think you're just seeing the normal life cycle of the parasite coming and going.

Regarding the fresh water dip - there's really no reason to do it. If you're treating with either copper or hyposalinity, the parasite will be dead soon enough and a fresh water dip is only going to effect a *few* of the parasites on the very surface of the fish. If the fish is ill enough that killing just a few of the surface parasites would be beneficial, it's probably too ill to survive the dip - just my opinion.
 
Another point you may want to consider is that even though Hyposalinity will eradicate Cryptocaryon (Marine ich) over time, it will not cure other maladies; it is a very point specific remedy. Another negative is that Hypo. will provide a suitable environment for Amyloodinium (Marine velvet), which is why many employ freshwater baths; freshwater kills the free swimming stage of Amyloodinium, just not in one shot.
 
Ok so here is a update. Bought a 5 G tank. All in one, gave my clown a quick dip in Fresh water. It is in the tank now. After looking closer I believe it is not ich. I think he has mucos build up in his gills. He is breathing at a fast rate. He is faded and does not have the typical indication of ich. Any ideas on treatment?
 
any articles on the net relation to other marine illness's. Do any other dieases cause white spots? i need to broaden my horizon on Marine illness
 
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