getting some free live rock...

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proverbs

Aquarium Advice Activist
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Oct 30, 2005
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my friends fish all died of ich recently so he is changing back to freshwater and he said he will give me all of his live rock. the thing that i'm worried about is if the disease can be transmitted through the lr? is this possible?

and sorry for the stupid question, but what is ich? how do you know if your fish have it? my friend said that they get the disease when the water is too cold.

and i've been feeding my MYS clownfish the brown pebble food and i guess they don't like it because they just spit it out. but a bunch of them are stuck between the filter. should i manually take them out of the filter or should i just leave them?

thanks.
 
Ich is a parasite. It is identified by little white specs attached to the fish. I am not sure if it can be transfered by the live rock or not but I would QT the rock for 6 weeks, with no fish, to be on the safe side.

Yes you should remove the un-eaten food as it will only break down and cause access nutrients in your tank which can lead to alge problems or undesirable water conditions.

-E
 
do the little white specs look like small bubbles? because one of my clownfish seems to have a little bubbles on him.
 
yes, it can be transported in the rock. The ways I've found that work best to kill them in the LR is to raise the temp to about 85-90degrees, and drop the salinity to .08. That will kill the parasites in about 2-3 weeks.

Good luck
 
You could QT the rock for 6-8 wks. The parasite will die off if no host fish is present. You could QT the rock in a rubbermaid tub with a couple powerheads and a heater.
 
well, i don't have an extra tank or anything, so i guess i will have to pass on the lr. that really really sucks.
 
Leave the rock fallow like Fluff suggested is the best way to be sure you are safe. You do not want to hypo the rock because you will kill all the hitch hikers. Just be sure the tank was not treated with copper like was suggested earlier. If you do not have a tank just buy a tote from walmart or lowes a power head and a heater and let it sit for 8 weeks.
 
proverbs said:
do the little white specs look like small bubbles? because one of my clownfish seems to have a little bubbles on him.

I always kinda thought that ich looked like little individual grains of sand stuck to the fish. I suppose it looks like a little bubble too.
Goodluck.

-E
 
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