BrendanH
Aquarium Advice Activist
Hi All,
I thought it might be useful to some to post my experience battling Ich. Just so you know up-front I (think) I was successful
About 3 and a half months ago I picked up a Kole Tang at my LFS. I knew upfront thanks to this site that I may be in for a fight and despite my best hopes that turned out to be true. Thankfully I immediately place the Tang in QT and observed. Within 24 hours he came down with Ich. After much research I decided on treating with hypo due to the Tang's sensitivity to copper. Within a week the Ich had cleared and I maintained 1.009 SG on my QT after that. We were closing in on 4 weeks clear of Ich when I went on vacation for 4 days. That was enough to let the SG rise to 1.010. Unfortunately that was enough to let the Ich break out again and within 24hours I again spotted some telltale signs such as spots etc. Completely deflated I again re-embarked on Hypo treatment which again cleared the problem.
Following another 6 weeks in hypo I figured it was time to slowly exit the hypo stage and bring the QT back up to normal specs. Again 24 hours after raising the SG the Tang began to exhibit some spots and some scratching/darting. Obviously I was distressed but I was no longer willing to continue to subject the poor guy to hypo ( primarily because I was concerned about kidney failure) so I resorted to Copper treatment. Normallly I would not resort to copper for a Tang due to its sensitive digestive system but I felt I had no choice at this stage.
Fortunately about a week of copper treatment along with bringing the SG back up to normal levels cleared the Ich visibly. About 3 days after that I migrated the Tang to the display tank with much trepidation. We are now 5 days into the migration and he is doing great ! I believe that this is a good sign that we are in the clear. I really hope I've beaten the bug after such a long battle and I will let you know if there is any change in his condition.
Thanks to all who have contributed to this forum as all your advice has helped me get this far
Brendan.
I thought it might be useful to some to post my experience battling Ich. Just so you know up-front I (think) I was successful
About 3 and a half months ago I picked up a Kole Tang at my LFS. I knew upfront thanks to this site that I may be in for a fight and despite my best hopes that turned out to be true. Thankfully I immediately place the Tang in QT and observed. Within 24 hours he came down with Ich. After much research I decided on treating with hypo due to the Tang's sensitivity to copper. Within a week the Ich had cleared and I maintained 1.009 SG on my QT after that. We were closing in on 4 weeks clear of Ich when I went on vacation for 4 days. That was enough to let the SG rise to 1.010. Unfortunately that was enough to let the Ich break out again and within 24hours I again spotted some telltale signs such as spots etc. Completely deflated I again re-embarked on Hypo treatment which again cleared the problem.Following another 6 weeks in hypo I figured it was time to slowly exit the hypo stage and bring the QT back up to normal specs. Again 24 hours after raising the SG the Tang began to exhibit some spots and some scratching/darting. Obviously I was distressed but I was no longer willing to continue to subject the poor guy to hypo ( primarily because I was concerned about kidney failure) so I resorted to Copper treatment. Normallly I would not resort to copper for a Tang due to its sensitive digestive system but I felt I had no choice at this stage.
Fortunately about a week of copper treatment along with bringing the SG back up to normal levels cleared the Ich visibly. About 3 days after that I migrated the Tang to the display tank with much trepidation. We are now 5 days into the migration and he is doing great ! I believe that this is a good sign that we are in the clear. I really hope I've beaten the bug after such a long battle and I will let you know if there is any change in his condition.
Thanks to all who have contributed to this forum as all your advice has helped me get this far
Brendan.
