ICK in my new tank all the fish have it.

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douggiestyle

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I dont need any "you should have" or "next time".

My fish got ick. all three. the tank is new (1mth old) with lots of live rock and sand. and crabs. what should i do????

Ive already read the article about ick.

please help
 
Remove them to a quarantine tank and treat with either hyposalinity or Copper. If that is not possible you can try adding garlic to their foods or one othe the other "reefsafe" ick treatments. I have had luck with STOP Parasites, but know many more that haven't, same can be said for rid ick by ruby reef.
 
is there a treatment that i can use with out harming the other guys [inverts]` in the main(read as only) tank?
how long do i have till the fish start to die????

thanks kevin
 
ReefRunner,
I read your post about ich. I was wondering if you are considering revising the portion about hyposalinity. A specific gravity of 1.015 is way to high to kill ich. A salinity of 16ppt (not SG) or lower is required to interrupt the life cycle. I would be happy to help if you send me an email.
TerryB10@centurytel.net
Terry B
 
After attempting the afore mentioned, buy an odd amount of cleaner shrimp 3,5,etc. If any ich reoccurs, these guys are FANATICS. :D
 
Cleaner shrimp will look busy but they probably won't cure the ich.

Agreed, and email sent..thankyou.

is there a treatment that i can use with out harming the other guys [inverts]` in the main(read as only) tank?
how long do i have till the fish start to die????

There are many products that claim to be reefsafe, but they are hit or miss at best. The problem with "reefsafe" cures, is that the ick your trying to kill is an invert so effective treatments are harmfull to your wanted inverts. As for how long...that really depends. Many years ago I had a pair of skunkclowns that got ick after being moved from my 90g reef to my 150g reef, these fish had ick for about a year before I used the Stop Parasites, the ick finally went away. This is a not to uncommon condition in a reef tank, but it is hardly something you can count on, typically once you see it on the fish it isn't but a few days maybe a week before the fish start to die. I am not aware of any good ick meds for a tank with inverts. Many profess the use of garlic and as noted I know some that have had success with some of the "reefsafe" meds, but most don't, IME.
 
my lfs told me to use organi-cure? any opinions?
also he told me that ick lays eggs and that the eggs can live in the sand for years and that the only way to get rid of it is to remove all the inverts from the tank and treat the tank with copper.
my fear is that this would kill all the other good things living on the live rock.

i just want to do the right thing!!!! :cry:
 
[url=http://www.wetwebmedia.com/copperprodfaqs.htm said:
WetWebMedia.com[/url]]Organicure
Hello Bob,
<<Hi, JasonC here... Bob is off diving in some tropical place...>>
As happens too often I have stayed up way too late reading through faqs on your site. In looking through your faqs I noticed that you do not seem to like Organicure (Copper 1.25% and formaldehyde 17%) as a treatment. My question is why?... since both copper and formalin are recommended in other faqs. Okay, I'll admit the name is misleading and the "safe for shrimps and crabs" thing is BS. <<I'd rather not speak for Bob, but my guess for his apparent dislike of Organicure would be your aforementioned claim on the label about being safe for inverts, which it obviously is not based on the ingredients. I think perhaps also because as a combined cocktail, the average hobbyist can do a lot of damage with this brew. These are only guesses though... personally, I've also used Organicure to good success in my quarantine tanks so...>>
However, I have been using Organicure quite successfully (although not according to directions) since I can remember for both crypto, velvet, and pretty much any thing that looks like white spots. My treatment routine is 1 drop organicure per 2 gallons (half the recommended dosage) repeated daily for four days. If this fish are tolerating this very well I sometimes increase the dosage up to 1 drop per 1.5 gallons, depends on the species. <<Hmm, we differ here... I strictly stick with the directions, and have will no ill effects.>> I have "burned" fish using the recommended 1 drop per gallon. <<Ah well... we all have different experiences I suppose. No worries, though.>> In most cases the fish are free of visible parasites by the third day, if not I do a freshwater dip and complete the treatment. I have successfully treated a wide variety of animals including sensitive species such as butterflies this way with no ill effects. Although, in case you post this, <<Oh... it will be posted, of that we can be sure.>> I should note that occasionally I have had a reoccurrence of the parasite after a week or two so I keep a close watch on the animals for 2 - 3 weeks following treatment.
Just thought I would share this with you.
<<And indeed, thank you for sharing.>>
Thanks for the helpful site, Richard
<<Cheers, J -- >>
 
douggiestyle said:
also he told me that ick lays eggs and that the eggs can live in the sand for years and that the only way to get rid of it is to remove all the inverts from the tank and treat the tank with copper.
I only have one word for that... BULL. If the fish are removed, the food source is removed and the parasite cannot survive. They also do not lay eggs. Once the trophont leaves the fish host it attaches to a hard surface where it will form a cyst called a tomont in which it divides itself until there are upwards of a few hundred theronts that can potentially be released to re-infect the fish population still present, although very few theronts actually make it to a host.

I would suggest reading this article. It covers some of the basics as well as dispelling some of the more common myths...

Cheers
Steve
 
wow steve that was one heck of an article. i feel like imo in college again. it was definitely enlightening.
ive placed apx 400g of carbon in tank to try and remove the organi-cure.
i will set up tank tomorrow to work on hypo salinity. will keep posted. i hope i havent killed my shrimp :cry: the fish are not heavily infected. in fact you can hardly see the ick in normal light. but the actinic light seems to flores the ick?
hopefully they will survive while i get everything ready
 
all inverts seem fine. am going to run another 400g of carbon to be safe. have 40gal breeder set up for hyposalinity( check out bargains in a coulple days and find out what i payed for this tank as well as other stuff!!!!!) now i need to catch the little buggers and move them. will keep posted.
 
Hey, i have been watching fish whilst getting set up for hyposalinity and have noticed over the past few days that the spots on my tang have disappeared????
only a few and very small on my damsel?????
what do you think? go with hyposalinity anyways or hope that fish may build up immunity and ick cysts die???

im contemplating on just keeping an eye on things to see if there is any progression rather stress fish with move.

im all ears

PS. CHECK OUT MY BARGAIN
 
The disappearance of the trophont on the fish will unfortunately lead some to believe the fish is "getting past" the problem but unfortunately that is not the case. Once the parasite leaves the fish it forms the tomont cyst were it multiplies and then is released into the water column in much greater number. Up to several hundred theronts are released per cyst.

The stress of moving the fish is unfortunate but once the new theronts are released to find a new fish host, there will be much more than the few it had to start with...

Cheers
steve
 
havent moved fish yet. in addition fish have shown no signs of white spots since last posting. i understand that the theronts are released after a 6-8 day period. here we are at almost three weeks and no recurrence.

could i have misdiagnosed??
 
If you haven't seen any spots on the fish in three weeks and you didn't treat them then there are a couple of possibilities. Yes, you may have misdiagnosed the problem. However, you may have a correct diagnosis but the fish have developed some level of acquired immunity. Fish that have been exposed to ich and survive can develop some acquired immunity. This immunity is usually only partial and of a limited duration. With partial immunity the fish may not exhibit any obvious white spots when still having a light infection. If that is the case the disease can come back. If the fish do have a subclinical infection then stress can turn it into a full-blown infection. Introducing a new (naive) fish that does not share acquired immunity into such a tank can easily lead to an outbreak.
Terry B
 
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