What to do AFTER and ich attach

[toughguy1]

It all started after I came back from a weekend vacation. Ich had taken a strong foothold while I was gone. I have a 55 with 2 large HOB's and a protein skimmer. The fish were a smaller V. Lion, a volintine Puffer, a damsel, and a tomato clown. In addition I have a spiny star fish, an atlantic anemonie, and a number of snails and crabs. It had been at least a week before my last water change. I think the problem was a faulty thermostat on my heater. I had noticed the temperature swinging, and had made a mental note to get a new heater.

Well, I went into emergency mode, reading and planning as soon as I saw the spots. I had read that scaleless fish like the lion and the puffer don't take well to copper, but could take a half a dose of quick cure. Before quarantine, I gave all the fish a fresh water dip, and it appeared to improve the very visual signs of the ich. Then I put them in the QT and started with a half dose of quick cure. I had planned to reduce the salinity over the next few days at the same time. Well, long story short, they all died within 2 days, and I had had these fish for over a year.

My question is what happens after ich? Please verify that my plan is OK and add advice where necessary. I plan to leave the tank fallow for 6 weeks at a higher temperature (82-83). Note that I still have all my inverts, and I undertand that they cannot be hosts or get the disease. I just did another water change, and plan to add fish at the end of 6 weeks. Also, I have noticed that the green algae is growing since the incident happened 2 weeks ago. I am continuing to feed my starfish and crabs a small amount so the bacteria won't die. What are my concerns about staying cycled, getting totally rid of ich, my inverts, the temperature, the algae? Please advise.

[ccCapt]

What exactly is quick cure? If you are treating for a parasite, use either copper or hypo...not both.

I had read that scaleless fish like the lion and the puffer don't take well to copper, but could take a half a dose of quick cure.

When I saw Kevin Kohen's (Director of LA Diver's Den) presentation, he told us any and all fish that need parasite treatments are treated with copper. They do not do hypo there. I've heard many say that tangs don't do well with copper, so I asked Kevin about it. He said that is not true and they treat all fish with copper as needed.

I plan to leave the tank fallow for 6 weeks at a higher temperature (82-83).

That's a good plan. The higher temp will help speed up the life cycle of the parasite. It won't kill it off tho.

I am continuing to feed my starfish and crabs a small amount so the bacteria won't die.

The bacteria won't die off, but you should be OK throwing in some food once/week. There should be all kinds of food (algae) for them to scavange off the rocks.

[melosu58]

I would like to suggest that the FW dip had alot to do with the quick demise of the fish. I have never seen a FW dip do anything but stress a fish out even more and lead to a quicker death IME. I have alway heard that 8 weeks is a better time frame for letting the tank go fallow.

[ccCapt]

Originally Posted by melosu58

I would like to suggest that the FW dip had alot to do with the quick demise of the fish.

I mostly agree with Mike here. The problem with doing a fw drip is the pH. Typically fw doesn't not have the high, 8.0 or so, pH that we keep in our sw tanks. The fw must be heavily aerated and/or buffered to get the pH up BEFORE dipping the fish. Fish do not take well to big jumps in pH.
Again, I'll reference Kevin Kohen's presentation. Diver's Den does fw drips on virtually everything, including coral, they get in. The difference being the fw they use matches the temp and pH of their sw tanks. Kevin said fish can easily take a 4-5 min fw dip.

[toughguy1]

Quick Cure is a widely used Ich Cure. Information can be found here:

Aquarium Products | Aquatic Medications | AP Pro | Quick-Cure

Also, I did adjust the temperature AND PH before the FW dips. I observed that a number of the parasites died and fell off the fish after the 5 minute dip.

Thanks for all your advice so far, and I hope others will pitch in on any details they want to share.

[toughguy1]

Regarding the copper treatment, I see now that that would have been better, but I was reading a lot of stuff and trying to come up with the best answer for all my fish. There are a number of sites that say:

Puffers respond well to almost every available medication, though caution should be taken with copper-based meds.
The Puffer Forum • View topic - Marine Puffer Care and Information

This is just an example, and you never know what is true and what is not. Let's just say I have learned to rely on copper.

[ccCapt]

Quick Cure is malachite green.
Here is some good reading on it's use.

"So... is the use of Malachite Green "worth it"... That is, worth the risk of poisoning your livestock... A qualified "yes", particularly for freshwater and pond use... for fungused eggs for production facilities of these fishes, common ich and velvet problems... But not warranted IMO in marine applications... Just too dangerous IMO, easy to make mistakes with with seawater use. Better to stick with tried and true copper formulations that can be tested for, and have a bit wider efficacy."

[melosu58]

I agree that I would use hypo OR copper and nothing else. I have yet to see any of those other cures work.