Volitan Lionfish Is Sick With Ich

[Jasonanatal]

My poor Volitan Lion Fish is sick with what looks like Ich. That could have been explaining his odd behavior for the past couple of days. I went to the fish store and since I don't have a Quarintine Tank (Yes, very dumb I know) I have purchased some Quick Cure to treat some water in a plastic plasticware container that will be my temporary quarintine tank (Yes, very ghetto I know). Is this a sufficient method of treatment? Any home-made ideas will be taken into consideration. This is my little boy and I don't want him to die.

 

[demodiki]

I think that this fish is doomed. I am sorry I don't have anything better to say. There is a ton of information on treating ich out there...on this site and many others.

I do not think your treatment will help. Even if it did...the fish would just stress once it's placed back into the main display.

 

[Jasonanatal]

Well for his sake I hope that you are wrong. I will keep you posted on the progress I make.

 

[Fluff]

Would it be possible to post a picture of your lion? Are you absolutely positive that it's ich? Lionfish have the ability to shed to remove parasites from themselves and are also more prone to fin rot due to poor handling. I would certainly not considered him doomed. If it is ich, I would suggest reading up on hypo treatment. Also, since he is sharing a tank with a puffer, the puffer will need to be treated as well. While your fish are in QT being treated, the tank will need be fishless for 6-8wks. This time is necessary for the parasite to die off in the tank. Do some research on this site about hypo treatments as well as copperbased treatments. I have no personal experience and would rather someone more knowledgable on it to give you advice on treating the fish. Hopefully Kurt or Steve will stop by. HTH

 

[Fluff]

Also, I'm moving this to the sick fish forum so hopefully you'll get more responses.

 

[Jasonanatal]

Thank you Fluff. You are without a doubt the best.

 

[Jasonanatal]

I will take a digital photograph once I return home tonight. I'm actually going to stop by Petco and purchase a 10 Gallon Quarintine Tank and setup some water with an airstone to treat the little guys. This morning before I left I gave him a Freshwater Bath for about 10 minutes and the majority of spots fell off. Could this be the skin just shedding? I have read on the site that Freshwater Baths are useless. Is this true? I feel lost please help. I don't want to lose my pride and joy after I searched far and wide through 20 Pet Stores to find him. Thank you in advance Fluff and everyone else.

 

[Fluff]

The freshwater bath may help and it's suggested to do that with lions in Bob Fenner's book but it's not a cure all. I can't tell you if it's a shed or not, especially without seeing the fish. Also, I've never seen one do this, only read about it. Buying the QT tank is a great idea. If you do the hypo treatment, you'll want to lower the salinity slow over a few days. I know there are several posts here somewhere on hypo treatment, I'll see what I can find. If you use copper, just use the directions on the bottle. Honestly, unless you have a refractometer, I would just do the copper treatment. Be sure to have plenty of sw on hand for water changes. Placing the fish in a bare uncycled tank, you have to really watch the ammonia and nitrite levels. You'll need to do more water changes til the condition clears up as well. You may also want to buy a few pvc elbows to place in the tank. This gives bacteria a place to grow as well as giving the fish some security.

 

[Fluff]

Here is an article on hyposalinity treatment for ich. I feel it warrants saying again though that when doing hypo treatment, a refractometer best to measure your salinity. HTH

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

 

[Jasonanatal]

Fluff I can't seem to downscale the image to an appropriate file size. Is their an E-mail address I can send the digital photograph to so that you can review it?

 

[Fluff]

I'm sent you a pm.

 

[tecwzrd]

You can use this site to reduce the image: http://www.horseweb-uk.com/imagereducer.htm

and this site to upload and store it:
http://imageshack.us/

I'd keep it as large as possible in order to detect what’s wrong more easily.

Good luck.

 

[Fluff]

I've resized your photo. I would treat it as ich and treat with a copper med like cupramine. Definately want to QT, you don't want to add copper to your main tank.

http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Cupramine.html

 

[Phyl]

I don't see anything on the fish that looks like ich. What exactly are you seeing? Would you describe it as grains of sugar on the fish? Faded patches? Dusty looking appearance? If you could give us a colorful explaination of the markings on the fish that may help identify what it has.

 

[dianeww]

Do we all see a photo of the fish? (I don't).

 

[Fluff]

If you look on the stripes, you can see white spots.
Dianeww, I don't know why you can't see the photo.

 

[dianeww]

Guess what, I can see it now. (???????)

 

[specialk]

You would be better off with doing the Hypo treatment on the lion, Lions & copper do not mix.
When they shed they will go in the higher flow areas to shed, it looks like a milky slim, you may see it on your rocks when it comes off.

The lion may be stressed because of the puffer, they are just not compatible being housed together.

 

[Jasonanatal]

Well it looks like the Ich treatment has removed all of the white spots but now it seems that he has fungas. I went to Petco and purchased a Hosptial Tank and I have bought mediciation for the Fungas. It says he should be treated for 5 days. Is this type of outbreak normal?

 

[Fluff]

What did you use to treat the ich? I afraid you may be reacting to soon. It would take longer than a day to treat ich. Did you treat your main tank?

Also, in my defense specialk, I read to treat lions with copper out of Fenner's book so I'm under the impression that it is safe to use on lions.