Need Help A.S.A.P. with ich

[robertx859]

Hi all, I just purchased a false percula clown three days ago and today I've noticed that he has ich. The fish is in my ten gallon quarenteen tank. Here's the question. Since I haven't yet treated him with anything, should I use Cupramine or Ich Attack? I really want to use Ich Attack because I've read on the internet that it was a much more gentle product that's copper-free. I've heard about hypo treatment, but I don't want to subject the poor little percula to such a large salinity change and worry about having to slowly raise it back up to 1.023. I would love to know whether or not anyone has used Ich Attack and has had success with it and how they used it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Hypo would be my choice. I just got done doing on my tiny yellow clown goby. It's really not that big of a deal to the fish... in fact, the lower salinity decreases the stress on it from regulating its internal salinity to the external salinity, and allows it to devote more energy to getting better. In addition, the lower salinity kills off the ich parasite. Except for a lack of coloration for a couple days, the goby couldn't seem happier in SG 1.009 for 5 weeks!

The "kinder gentler" copper-free medications, in my opinion, are just snake oil... they don't do anything to rid yourself of the ich. At best, they just interfere with the life cycle of the parasite, but they don't rid you of it. The copper-free/reef-safe products are around because they play on people's need for a quick fix that doesn't require taking the fish out of the main tank, and the fact that ich "comes and goes" as part of it's natural life cycle. People will use the stuff, see the ich go away, and say "Oh... it worked! Hurray!" And then the ich will come back. Folks will then say "Oh... I guess I didn't use it long enough", and start down the same road again. But the fact is that even if they used nothing, ich will appear to go away after a few days, only to reappear after 7-10 days, but this time even worse.

Obviously I don't have any experience with the copper-free ich medications, but figured I'd chime in with my nickel's worth of advice. Perhaps someone else here has had first hand experience with the stuff.

[Edit: Here's a good article on hypo... http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html ]

 

[cmor1701d]

I agree with Kurt. There are new medications out claiming to be gentler but I have not heard of any great success using them. I too beleive they are just snake oil. I have used hypo in the past. It takes work but it is effective.

 

[melosu58]

I agree Hypo would be best but here are some good reading on ick.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php


http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php

 

[robertx859]

Now I know better!

Thanks, for the great advice concerning those "fake" copper-free ich medications. I just won't use them and put my fishes lives in danger! BTW, I treated my percula with cupramine just because he really had ich and I didn't want to stress him any further with changing the salinity to hypo conditions. Again, thanks for your advice and input.

 

[ryshark]

You mentioned in the original post if anybody had tried Ick Attack. I have tried it and put it this way. I now have a hospital tank set up doing hyposalinity treatment. Looking for the quick fix was a waste of time and money. I would probably be done with hypo by now if I would have started it first and skipped Ick Attack.

 

[melosu58]

Thanks RYshark for sharing that. So many folks waste time on these so called miracle cures when they could go straight to something that actually works.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Thanks, for the great advice concerning those "fake" copper-free ich medications. I just won't use them and put my fishes lives in danger! BTW, I treated my percula with cupramine just because he really had ich and I didn't want to stress him any further with changing the salinity to hypo conditions. Again, thanks for your advice and input.

Glad to hear you stayed away from the herbal methods. Just FYI though, don't think that copper-based meds are not stressful on fish. They are basically poison... it's just that it kills parasites quicker than it kills fish.

 

[cmor1701d]

Did you do the treatment in your tank or in a QT tank?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

The original poster mentions that the fish was in a 10g QT. Hopefully it still is.

 

[robertx859]

I switched to hypo

Thanks for all the advice!! I think I'm a hypo user from now on when it comes to treating ich. Well, my clown is still hanging in there. I did a water change on my main tank (55 gallon FOWLR) early yesterday and I saved ten gallons of the water and I switched out the copper treated water that was in my QT tank and I started lowering the salinity and will continue to do so until until I reach 1.0085-1.009 SG. The SG of the water in the main is 1.022 and now the SG in the QT is 1.015 and I'm still in the process of lowering the SG. Right after I switched out the coppered water that used to be in my QT tank and replaced it with the copper-free main tank water, I gave my clown a 3-4 minute freshwater bath and that helped him in a great way as it got rid of alot of the ich parasites. I have a heater in the QT that is set at 83 degrees and he seems to not be having any problems with it. Well, so far that is the update and I'll keep you posted on how things go in a few days or so.

 

[melosu58]

Just be careful on the FW bath. Out of all the things you have done so far that was the most stressful. I`ve rarely seen a FW do any good. It usually stresses the fish out that it ends up dying. And as Kurt mentioned the copper will be more stressful than the hypo.

 

[robertx859]

My clown is better

Hi all, my clown is fully recovered. He's still in QT with hypo and he no longer has ich and he eats like a pig. The temp is set at 85 degrees and I heard that temps from 85 to 90 degrees is very hard on ich especially if combined with hypo. He's been in QT for ten days now. How much longer should he stay in there? Again, my main FOWLR is 55 gallons and it is ich-free and I certainly don't want to introduce ich under any circumstance! In it, I have a foxface, a reef butterflyfish, a pajama cardinal, a turbo grazer snail and a pair of cleaner shrimp along with thirty pounds of live rock and live sand. Thanks again!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

4 weeks MINIMUM after you see the last white spot disappear. Minimum. Six weeks is probably better.

There is stuff out there that says the life cycle of ich speeds up with higher temps, but in my opinion higher temps are needed with hyposalinity. The hypo will kill off the ich on its own... no need to speed the life cycle up. I'd just keep the temp at the same temp the fish has been used to, should be less stress on the fish.

Glad to hear things are working out with the hypo!

As an aside, you've got some big fish there in a 55g. Keep an eye on things when you add the clownfish - seems like you're getting pretty close to overloading your tank with only 30 lbs of live rock in there for filtration.

 

[melosu58]

Sounds like a happy ending but I would wait a few more weeks as Kurt said.