HELP Sick Cowfish ICH and Clowdy Eyes

[Seaboy_HPT]

Ok guys, I am in a panic, my poor cowfish I have had for about a year has ICH and now I came home and it has coludy eyes! No new fish but proably stressed caused moving to bigger tank.

This is my first time with this stuff LFS told me to use Rid Ich Plus by Kordon. The fish is a Cowfish and because it is scaleless I cannot use common meds with copper so I am kind of limited.

Treated for about seven days and as looking better, then it seemed to get worse. Doing a 25% water change daily then realized I still had a protien skimmer on which was probably taking out the meds. I turned it off and continued for another 7 days started to get better and then all of a sudden when I came home today, the poor little cowfish had coudy eyes! Carlos is scared and cant see his food.

I just bought a UV steralizer but I know that will not cure the problem, I dont know what to do, is this a possable secondary infection, should I change meds? Will a quarantee tank be too stressfull at this point? Are freash water dips dangerous? Can anyone suggest any other sites that might have more info on Marine fish emergency?

Please help save Carlos

 

[steve-s]

Rid ich = formalin and malachite green. Both very poor choices for treating marine ich (C. irritans) and not that nice to the inhabitants either. Cloudy eye is often associated with parasites but secondary infection is definately something to be concerned with.

If you take note of the time frame (7 days) of the problem worsening, it coincides just nicely with the average time it takes for a full cycle of the parasite. The med recommended to you is not working.

<<Hyposalinity>> would be the best choice here considering the sensitivity of the fish in question. All fish in that system will need treating though. How many fish/what species?

Cheers
Steve

 

[NaH2O]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

Do you have a QT tank available?

 

[Seaboy_HPT]

No I dont have a QT ready would have to start one from scratch is there time?

As for the other question, other tank mates include:

second cowfish
Yellow Tang
3 Blue Green Chromis
Six Line Wrasse
Banded Coral Shrimp
2 cleaner shrimp
basic clean up crew

None of these seem to have any problems and they were all the same from the old tank, I did not ad any new fish when I upgraded their tank.

 

[steve-s]

Carlos,

Unless I'm missing something, you have not made any reference to C. irritans (ich) except in the main title. You have mentioned cloudy eye a few times. Please don't take this the wrong way but are you assuming the fish has a parasite because of the cloudy eye(s) or you've actually seen the spots come and go from the fish more than a few times?

Other than the 2 week treatment time noted in the first post, how long has it been since the problem started? Was anything wet at all added in the last 6-8 weeks?

Cheers
Steve

 

[Seaboy_HPT]

yes I have seen white spots come and go, that is why I think it is ICH, the cloudy eyes are a new thing. I didnt ad any new fish, prbably came in as a hitchhiker on the liver rock or was there but dormant, really moot at this point.

The good news is his eyes seemed to have cleared up somewhat since this last post, onther possable option is the medication is too strong but I looked at his eyes with a magnyfi glass, looks like a cloudy white film some spots similar to ich.

Maybe the UV and meds are working, thinking about a freash water dip, how dangerous is that to a fish, I here great results, and have heard of deaths several days later. What do you guys think?

 

[steve-s]

thinking about a freash water dip, how dangerous is that to a fish, I here great results, and have heard of deaths several days later. What do you guys think?

In general they don't work for C. irritans. That may dislodge some from the surface of the fish but the ones buried deep in the skin (epithelium) will remain unaffected. More often than not it does not eliminate the problem and can greatly reduce the health of the fish if not done correctly.

Cheers
Steve