Ich Problem In Quarentine

[bbauer]

I know this question has been answered in countless threads, but I would like your help in solving this problem in my exact circumstance. I Have aquired a 3" porcupine puffer that I would like to add to my 110 tall FOWLER tank. Its been about a week and a half of quarantine time and he has developed many white spots on him that I believe to be ich. Its takin me a while to find this type of fish so I would like to try to save him. My quarantine is a 10 gallon tank with 1 1/2 inches of crushed coral, a small piece of live rock, a log decoration for him to hide in, a small heater that keep the water about 78 - 79 degrees, and a small whisper filter that uses carbon bags for filtration. How should I go about bringing him back to healthy standards. Please give me any information on bringing him back to health. water is at 1.025
Thank You

 

[leebca]

The most gentle and proper way to handle a Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) infected porcupine is to perform a hyposaline treatment.

I don't understand the reason for the crushed coral and live rock in the quarantine tank. They are undesireable in the normal/average quarantine process. The hyppsaline treatment will likely kill any benthic creatures and turn the live rock into base rock.

Slowly (over a 48 hour period) lower the salinity. Use a refractometer to measure specific gravity (not any other device) and reduce the specific gravity to 1.008 to 1.010.

pH will be hard to control, but you must keep it steady. Keep watching for ammonia and nitrite and be prepared to perform up to two water changes per day to control ammonia and/or nitrites. If ammonia/nitrites aren't a problem, change 50% of the water every two or three days.

When you no longer see any spots, start counting the weeks. After 4 weeks of not seeing even a single spot, slowly raise (over a 6-day time period) the specific gravity to normal. Hold the fish for observation another 4 weeks and if all is good, the fish goes into the display.

Ask if you have any questions.

 

[bbauer]

Thanks for the reply? Can I use a standard hydrometer to measure the salinity? Also I use the crushed coral and live rock in the display to make it a little nicer looking, since the quarantine is going to be set up for awhile.

 

[leebca]

Use a refractometer. Keeping the specific gravity is the perfect range is something a hydrometer can't do. If the salinity gets too low, it may harm the fish. If the salinity gets too high, it won't kill the parasite. Tough control is needed, which only a refractometer can do.

Live rock and substrate interferes with medicine treatments. That is why they are not usually in a normal/average quarantine tank. The quarantine tank is functional, not so much for good appearance. Performing the hyposalinity treatment in such a tank runs the risk of a large life-form die off which in turn runs the risk of ammonia and nitrites spikes.

As it is, a hyposalinity treatment runs the risk of putting the nitrification bacteria into a metabolic 'freeze.' These bacteria may decide to stop metabolism (taking care of ammonia and/or nitrites) until they themselves adjust to the hyposaline solution. The live rock and substrate only makes the situation harder to control and possibly puts the quarantined specimen at risk of being poisoned. However, having written this, keep in mind that it might all work out. It depends just how much life and the kind of life that is really in the substrate and in and on the live rock. Most of the common micro fauna and flora will die during this treatment. You could consider removing the live rock and keeping it in a bucket under water for 8 weeks without fish. Without the fish and after 8 weeks, the live rock will be free of any Marine Ich parasites.