How long ich lasts

[pinda]

I have one clarkii clown, one yellow tail damsel and one coral beauty. The coral beauty came down with ich and then the clarkii had it. The clarkii no longer has it however the coral beauty still has the ich. It has been 12 days now and I am treating with Kent Rxp. My gravity is 1.016. Is this normal for the ich to last this long? All of the fish are active and eating well.

 

[melosu58]

I`ve never seen that stuff work. The only way I`ve seen this parasite destroyed is QT the fish and treat with copper or hypo. In this article by Steven he gives several options on treatment of ick.

 

[roka64]

If you don't have any inverts in your tank you will need to lower your salinity to 1.009. Are these guys in a QT? You can also soak their food in garlic guard, this can help to boost their immune systems, BUT, will not cure the ich. If they are already in your QT, you will have to leave your main fishless for 8 weeks.

 

[lando]

The life-cycle of ick is 6-8 weeks. However, it can reproduce can continue indefinantly in a tank with fish. The best recourse it to let your main tank go "fallow" for 8 weeks. That means removing all fish to a QT (inverts are okay to stay) and letting the main proceed without fish so the parasite will die off. After that, treat all infected fish and QT ALL new arrivals before adding to the main.

 

[flip_lx]

This may not work for saltwater, but in FW tanks i read on the board here that you can kill it off with subtle temp raises into the 90s, granted this will probably cook any inverts so warm up a QT perhaps?

 

[melosu58]

I dont know about 90 degrees but I`ve heard that if you raise the temp to 85 or 86 you can speed the parasite cycle up. I`ll have to investigate that further.

 

[roka64]

I thought it was more like 82, let us know what you find, Mike.

 

[melosu58]

In the article that I gave you Steven Pro said he raises the temp to 80-82 to speed the parasite process up.

 

[produceb]

when you guys say speeds up the parasite process, what does that mean? and what does that do? Thanks

 

[flip_lx]

it makes the disease grow faster and thus get into the water off the fish to be killed by your treatment faster is how i was explained it

 

[cmor1701d]

Raising the temperature reduces the time spent in the cyst stage. It does NOT cure or kill Ich. I've never heard of the ingredients in Kent Rxp as a cure for Ich. Copper or Hypo are the only cures I know of that work. I used hypo with great success. Just be sure to use a refractometer and be prepared for 10-20% daily water changes in the QT tank to help keep the parameters in line.

 

[ezy33]

IMO Garlic: feed it to them and put in the water. I know they say it wont cure Ich, I've had success with Garlic Extreme.

 

[lando]

MO Garlic: feed it to them and put in the water. I know they say it wont cure Ich, I've had success with Garlic Extreme.

Correct, it will not cure ick. However, it widely considered to be a good suppliment to boost the immune system of livestock. It can help them fight the parasite or be less prone to falling to it.

Raising the temperature reduces the time spent in the cyst stage. It does NOT cure or kill Ich.

Also very good advice. Stay away form things like Rid Ick or Kick Ick. Set up a QT for effected animals and initiate a hypo treatment.

 

[newfound77951]

Raising the temp into the high 80s or low 90s will cure freshwater ick....which is not at all the same thing as saltwater ick.....which is why the temp method doesn't work for SW.

and don't forget even if you raise the temp a little in your QT tank to speed up the parasite's life cycle, that doesn't change the 8 weeks that the main tank has to remain fishless!

 

[OceanMist]

If you have some money to spend you could get a UV sterilizer, It's not a guaranteed way of getting rid of Ich but about 3-4 weeks ago I added a copper banded butterfly to my tank and didn't realize it had ich until too late, I bought an 18w UV and I haven't seen any of my fish with ich since.

 

[tmkx3]

I had to treat my fish for ick about a year ago. I went fallow for 8 weeks and treated in a qt with copper. The copper can be very hard on your fish. It blinded my 3 green chromis and I eventually lost them. Hypo is proably less harmfully but you have to have special device to read the salinity. For some reason when your salinity is low it can cause your ph to crash and kill your fish. Good luck

 

[roka64]

It is recommended to use a Portable Refractometer http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=9957&N=2004+113761 for more accurate readings of salinity.

 

[ellisz]

Speeding up the life cycle is fine as long as there is no host. If you have fish in the system, the ich will not die. A healthy fish could have it and not show signs if its immune system is up to the task. Stress the fish out or make conditions worse and eventually it will be back.

Hypo and Copper and ways to kill it.