Help!!! Ick Problem

[Shawn C]

What is the best and fastest way to cure ick?

 

[Shawn C]

whats the best way to cure ick??

 

[mmkeeper]

Hyposalinity is what I used and it worked well. It is not a quick fix!!! Check the Marine fish board or search for hyposalinity. Look for threads with Steve-S authoring.

 

[Brenden]

Hypo is def the easiest on the fish of any method. Make sure it is ick prior to treatment. Is this fish in a tank by itself. Any fish in the tank needs to be treated also. Do not treat your main!

 

[ronj]

yes, be sure to treat in a qt tank..hypo is normally the best route..here is a start...
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/marineich.html
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

 

[steve-s]

What is the best and fastest way to cure ick?

Those two phrases don't belong in the same sentence really.

The fastest is copper, preferabley Seachem's Cupramine. Although Cupramine is safe, it is not the safest. The safest for the fish is hyposalinity. All things being equal though, nothing is safe if not performed correctly.

Cheers
Steve

 

[ronj]

do you have a qt tank setup???? if not, all you need is an empty tank, filter w/biowheel (preferably), heater, and hiding spots(large pvc elbows or tee's work nicely)...go ahead and get it cycled if you don't already have one. also, welcome to Reeffrontiers!!!

 

[Shawn C]

no i dont hve a tank set up dont you have to kill what is in the tank as well

 

[Shawn C]

all i have in the tank is liverock 3 fish a star fish and a shrimp can they get infected as well?

 

[Shawn C]

here is my situation I have a 135gal tank with liverock'a sailfin tang ,royal gramma,a pseudocromis,bumbelbee snails.chocolate chip star fish,and a coral shrimp.can i do the hyposalinity treatment in the tank?? if not then how long does it take to cycle a q-tank?

 

[mmkeeper]

Only the fish. You remove the fish to a qt. The ich will die in the main tank becasue they have no host, it takes 4 plus weekd for this to happen.

 

[NaH2O]

here is my situation I have a 135gal tank with liverock'a sailfin tang ,royal gramma,a pseudocromis,bumbelbee snails.chocolate chip star fish,and a coral shrimp.can i do the hyposalinity treatment in the tank?? if not then how long does it take to cycle a q-tank?

Shawn - please start a thread in the Marine Fish Discussion Forum. This thread is in the Feedback and Suggestions (for the website) Forum. Also, you will have your own thread dedicated to your issue.

Thanks!

 

[leebca]

Can't these last few posts just be used to start the thread for Shawn?

Hyposalinity treatment in a reef tank will kill the invertebrates and pretty much turn your live rock into base rock. Not a thing to do.

You don't have to have a cycled quarantine tank, especially if you will be performing a hyposalinity treatment. More than likely the hyposalinity will stall the metabolism of any nitrifying bacteria working at the normal salinity until they become used to the new salinity.

In hyposalinity treatments, it is a good idea to watch water quality closely and make water changes to control ammonia and nitrites. pH must be watched closely during this treatment, since the buffering ability of the salt water is compromised at a low salinity.

I believe the best way to treat advanced stages of Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) is to perform a copper treatment using Cupramine. You may want to read this: http://www.reefland.com/forum/marin...ment/18915-copper-treatment-use-problems.html

If the Marine Ich (MI) is caught early enough, a hyposalinity treatment is less stressful to the fish. Either treatment requires diligence and vigilance at controlling the treatment.

The fastest treatment for MI is a copper treatment. It is faster than the 'change method' faster than the hyposalinity method and most reliable of the other few ways of treatment. You may wish to read these articles on treatment options (most of which don't perform well):
Steven Pro’s article on Marine Ich treatments (Part 1):
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.htm
(Part 2):
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.htm

However, I wouldn't be too concerned about speed. To get rid of the MI in your display tank takes at least 6 weeks and I prefer 8 weeks of that tank going fishless. So, you have plenty of time to complete a good hyposalinity treatment.

Use a sponge filter in the quarantine tank and it will eventually start to work. In the future, you may want to keep a sponge filter in your display tank sump or somewhere in that system for emergency use and for future use to quarantine new livestock. That info can be found here:
Steven Pro’s article on quarantine
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.htm

Good luck!

 

[NaH2O]

Can't these last few posts just be used to start the thread for Shawn?

Lee, I was trying to keep this thread on its own topic, and at the same time allow a new thread that will be easy to find when searching. If someone is looking for advice using the search function, then they might not click on the link titled "New Fish Disease Care Forum?", as opposed to one titled more specifically to the problem. Also, if there is follow up information, and more information than the few posts already, then the new thread can take on a life of its own.

I can certainly try and split the thread when I have more time.

 

[ronj]

yes, mmkeeper is right...you need to leave the tank with no fish in it for about 4 weeks...i would go 6-8 to be safe....only your fish will be infected....you could buy a 20g long for your qt tank....there is not a whole lot that you can do until you have it set up and cycled

 

[returnofsid]

I recently went through a similar problem and instead of using a QT tank, I moved all my corals and inverts to another saltwater tank and did the hypo treatment in the main tank. I decided to do this for a couple reasons. One, instead of catching a single fish out of the tank and treating it (only one was showing signs of ich at first), I decided to treat all the fish at once. The other reason was that the QT tank I had set up was only a 10 gal and had just been set up. I was a bit worried about having 4 fish in there for the month or so that it takes to complete the hyposalinity treatment. I'm currently in the process of returning the salinity to normal and things are going great....except for an algae bloom I've recently had. That won't be hard to correct though and then everything will be fine. Hypo is what I would definately recommend. Just don't panic and try and do too many things at once. I ended up killing a couple fish with that process early on. I panicked and decided that I needed to do a freshwater/formalin bath and then a bare QT tank. Unfortunately, I ended up with dead fish a couple days later. It was just too much stress too quickly.

 

[leebca]

Sorry Nikki. I'm use to moderator controls including moving a group of posts into a new thread, a different Forum, and being able to re-title the thread in about 30 seconds. I guess they're not all the same controls everywhere.

 

[shallowreef]

Ronj or steve s are the ones to talk to about ich. They are like ich pros!

 

[ronj]

what kind of fish are they?????? do you have a biowheel running by any chance???? if so, you can pretty much start immediately if you go buy a small qt tank....

Ronj or steve s are the ones to talk to about ich. They are like ich pros!

...............i would ask steve s...he has helped me through this and is currently helping w/ a bacterial infection...the knowledge of ich that i have learned is from him ..i have treated w/ hypo before, so i can still be of assistance

 

[steve-s]

Sorry Nikki. I'm use to moderator controls including moving a group of posts into a new thread, a different Forum, and being able to re-title the thread in about 30 seconds. I guess they're not all the same controls everywhere.

Problem solved!