wipeout

[ric]

i just had a total wipeout in my fish only 100gal. tank due to ick some of them i had for a few years.my mistake was i didnt quarinteen the last fish i was to put in.anyway i was wondring if someone could tell me how long should i wait to add new fish and if waitng a period of time with no fish will rid the tank of the ick problem also on a little diffrent subject i seen an add in one of my fish mags.for the eco aqualizer it claims to help cure and prevent fish sickness among other stuff .if anybody has any info. on this product or a product that may aid in prevention of disease please let me know ,thanks.......rick

 

[sryder]

i am not sure of the actual time needed for the die off of ick but one thing that is supposed to help with prevention other than quarintine is uv lights.

 

[loohunter]

I Heard Some Where Around 40 Days

 

[ric]

ya i,ve heard that to, i might go with a uv sterilizer thanks for the info

 

[ric]

wow thats giong to be hard to go that long with out any fish anyways thanks

 

[Krish]

Sorry to hear that ric...That sucks bigtime. Nevertheless, I'm sure you will bounce back. Best of luck!

 

[mfinn]

It can take anywhere from 30 days to six weeks to completely eliminate ich from your tank.
A couple things I have read the "might" speed that up a little is by raising the temp in the tank up to around 90. Drop the specific gravity to 1.010.
A uv sterilizer will only kill one of the three stages of the ich critter and that will happen only if it passes throught the uv.

http://www.marineaquariumadvice.com/aquarium_fish_1.html

 

[tony2005]

this what i used when i had a fish only 120 gal tank it call cuprex and it really works it treated all my fish and got all the ick out.when u see all the ick is gone invest in a uv.and plus u want to drop ur the gravity between 1018 to 1021 to prevent from ick coming back again.

hopefully this will help u out

 

[steve-s]

In order for temp to have any effect on C. irritans you would have to raise the temp well above 90° which I would seriously discourage as I would adding any meds to the main tank. There is also no need to drop the salinity to either 1.010 of 1.018 of which the latter has absolutely no effect on this parasite.

Simpley leave the tank fallow for the next 6-8 weeks and ensure you feed the tank a few time a week to maintain bacteria for the biofilter.

Sometime doing nothing has better results than doing things fast

Cheers
Steve

 

[mfinn]

In order for temp to have any effect on C. irritans you would have to raise the temp well above 90° which I would seriously discourage as I would adding any meds to the main tank. There is also no need to drop the salinity to either 1.010 of 1.018 of which the latter has absolutely no effect on this parasite.

Simpley leave the tank fallow for the next 6-8 weeks and ensure you feed the tank a few time a week to maintain bacteria for the biofilter.

Sometime doing nothing has better results than doing things fast

Cheers
Steve

Just quoting Terry D Bartelme from his 5 part article in "MarineAquarium Advice.com".

I have always used a lowered salinity in my quarantine tanks and I have had very good luck.

 

[steve-s]

Actually I wasn't debating that part. The salinity you posted will indeed work but in doing so it will kill everything else along with it. You will end up with only bacteria surviving with dead sand & rock. Considering that you just need to wait it out, this is a little extreme I would say.

The ineffective part I was refering to was this...

and plus u want to drop ur the gravity between 1018 to 1021 to prevent from ick coming back again.

A specific gravity that high would have zero impact on C. irritans. I should also add that copper based meds should not be used in conjunction with UV's. It will break the bond of more complex copper compounds to their basic ionic states making them quite toxic.

Cheers
Steve

 

[mfinn]

Guess I didn't read your post correctly. Sorry
Since rics tank was a fish only, and everything died, I thought the lowered salinity and maybe raised temp, would be a way to speed up the total waiting period he should wait before adding livestock to the tank again.
I'm not a big fan of using any copper meds in a tank, so I look for other remedies.

 

[The Apprentice]

A uv sterilizer will only kill one of the three stages of the ich critter

Thank you for posting this Finn It helped me understand more about Ich. Which seems pretty hard to get rid of kind of like aptasia

It can take anywhere from 30 days to six weeks to completely eliminate ich from your tank.
A couple things I have read the "might" speed that up a little is by raising the temp in the tank up to around 90. Drop the specific gravity to 1.010.
A uv sterilizer will only kill one of the three stages of the ich critter and that will happen only if it passes throught the uv.

http://www.marineaquariumadvice.com/aquarium_fish_1.html

 

[steve-s]

True it is a good read but one paragraph does need some further investigation.

http://www.marineaquariumadvice.com/aquarium_fish_3.html

Treatment should continue for a minimum of three weeks after a therapeutic salinity level has been reached. Unlike most other forms of treatment for cryptocaryonosis, hyposalinity does not target the "free-swimming" or theront stage. Hyposalinity therapy works by interrupting the life cycle at the tomont stage. Tomonts are destroyed by hyposaline conditions, thus preventing re-infection.

I was recently able to correspond with Dr. Colorni and it was his experience that the tomont (and trophont) would be unaffected by lowered salinities of this nature. Only rapid drops in the salinity (within ½ hr) would have an affect the tomonts ability to cell divide. He did however say that it would affect the protomont and theront quite well, especially taking into account the length of time the treatment generaly ran for. As long as the parasite is on the fish or encysted during cell division, it was virtually impenetrable.

Cheers
Steve

 

[mfinn]

True it is a good read but one paragraph does need some further investigation.

http://www.marineaquariumadvice.com/aquarium_fish_3.html


Only rapid drops in the salinity (within ½ hr) would have an affect the tomonts ability to cell divide. He did however say that it would affect the protomont and theront quite well, especially taking into account the length of time the treatment generaly ran for. As long as the parasite is on the fish or encysted during cell division, it was virtually impenetrable.

Cheers
Steve

Such as a freshwater dip?

 

[steve-s]

Yes but the tomont isn't on the fish unfortunately. The trophont stage (on the fish) is usually to a large degree unaffected as well due to it's ability to dig deeper into the epithelium. A dip can dislodge some of the trophonts on the outer layer but cannot affect a proper cure, it will not rupture the trophonts either. The parasite can withstand FW dips for upto 18 hrs, the fish obviously cannot.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Electrokate]

Far as "miracle meds" go, if it won't tell you the ingredients and/or promises to treat more than one totally unrelated condition then I would stay FAR away from it. There are so many bogus products out there claiming to treat ich, many of which contain no active ingredients. People whose outbreaks have subsided swear by them but actually are experiencing coincidental improvments. Usually a month later they are back in outbreak stage.
I agree with everyone here, don't medicate, leave fallow (at least 6 if not 8 weeks) and get a quarantine tank set up. Grab "Conscientious Marine Aquarist" or other reliable sources to learn about freshwater dips and take your time with stocking.
I hope this never happens to you again, and am sorry about your loss. Losing animals sucks more than a lot of people realize, especially when we are blaming ourselves. Best way to honor the dead is learn from the experience and make sure it doesn't happen again.
Kate

 

[Terry B]

Steve,

I think you may have misunderstood what was said about the effect that low salinity has on tomonts. If you check the long list of references that I used in my series you will find reports from the scientific journals on how it does work.

Terry B

 

[steve-s]

Terry,

I understood just fine. What I have not found is anything specific that supports it. If you could tell me which references specifically outline the tests done that show the tomont is damaged and prevented from releasing the protomonts, I would appreciate it greatly. I'm not trying to be stubborn, simpley trying to understand. I have tracked down many of the abstracts/aricles mentioned in the references used and none as yet have made this definitive conclusion.

When I asked Dr. Colorni this specific question... (after a few e-mails back and forth)

With the 30-45 day hyposaline treatment that I outlined, you expect the trophont and tomont would not be sufficiently affected, only the protomont and theront would be damaged?

His reply was...

That's correct: as long as the trophonts (parasitic, feeding stage) do not emerge from the fish epithelium as protomonts (aciliated, crawling stage that precedes encystment) and the tomites (immature daughter cells inside the tomont) do not emerge from the tomonts (reproductive encysted stage) as theronts (ciliated, infective stage), the parasite is virtually invulnerable

I understand that to mean the trophont and tomont are unaffected directly by this treatment.



I have no reason to doubt your research but as I've seen and said many times myself, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. That said, I would much prefer the evidence.

Cheers
Steve