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Treating Ich


Trever

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Unfortunately ime my ammonia levels rapidly rose when I tried my hand at quarantine. In 4 hours' date=' in a 29 gal tank with one blue hippo tang(3in), the ammonia went from 0 to .75ppm. In a 10 gal with one seahorse in 8 hours ammonia was at 1ppm, which was enough to kill the seahorse.[/quote']

 

Yeah - my attempt at this failed miserably as well. It is normally a moot point for me, however, as I can never get the affected fish out of the tank without destroying it and everything else! Talk about stress for everyone DOH!

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My experience has been the same as Sean and Matt. When I worked at a well known fish store, every single fish we ever qt'd died. I feel it is a waste of time and resourses, but that is my experience. You should pick your LFS carefully, they ultimately are your QT tank and should practice responsible husbandy of their fish. You should be able to watch your perspective fish swim and eat before you buy it. I always make sure a fish's fins are healthy looking, their eyes are clear and that there are no spots, or fungus or swimming or hiding issues with the fish. I feel the stress of moving the fish from QT to your system is just as stressful as bring it home from the fish store and putting it into your system. You still have to acclimate it.

 

These are just my observations and I'm sure there are hunderds of folks out there who would call me a fool for doing it this way.

 

Fish can and do recover from ich outbreaks. It's the unhealthy ones who don't. Adding some medications reduces the fish's ability to fight off other parasites and/or infections. So even if it recovers, it still stands a chance of dying from something else.

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I agree with Matt. The stress you create trapping or catching a fish then QT'ing it could put it over the edge. I just bought a blue tang two weeks ago and put it STRAIGHT into my tank...this is the same tank that had ich...I may be crazy, but even if my QT'd my tang for 6 weeks and added it to the tank...it would have probably gotten infected (see below).

 

Ich is a parasite. It hosts on unhealthy fish (stressed fish are often not to healthy). They have a hosting cycle, form cysts (the white dots we all see...mostly on the thin membranes like fins and eyes) then fall off. They then take up residence in rock, sand, plants...etc and wait until a new host comes along!

 

Now back to the tang...he was a bit stressed, but after 6 hours, he was picking off algea off the rocks...two days later, he had a FEW white spots....in went the metrodiazonale for 5 days (soaked over night in mysis and cyclopeeze and added to the main tank). Now, spot free and happy as a clam.

 

There will be people who QT there fish and hats off to them! If it works for them, fantastic...this "alternative" to QT worked for me. (BTW I did trap one of the dominos when it first happened and QT'd him...it was a waste of time cuz I couldn't catch/trap any other of my fish in my display! Treating one, doesn't treat all!)

 

BTW...I had both of my dominos COVERED with ich cysts...the treatment above helped them fight off the infestation and they are healthy and ich free now, some 3-4 weeks later.

 

My two cents.

 

Kris

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Today is the third day of my purple tang in the QT. My wife called me at work and said the fish was laying on it's side and not swimming right. It looked fine this morning when I came to work and I fed it a little food. It looked like the cysts were slowly receding but now I'm worried the fish may not be doing as well as I originally thought.

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here is what i posted in the other forum, i know it has probably been discussed here. but i will post anyways for future reference for those in need.

 

 

as far as my recommendations for treatment. a QT tank is a must.

 

in QT tank remove any carbon from filtration (it will remove medicine). copper safe is a great product, that can be double dosed without harm to fish, so is a safe brand of copper treatment. i start out running 1.5ppm, as suggested. if that doesnt seem like enough i up it to 2.5, and have repeated increase as high as 3.5ppm. in addition to copper treatment i used a slight hyposalinity. i run my QT tank at 1.015 for two reasons: fish are less stressed at these levels, and it makes it more difficult for parasites to survive. a true hyposalinity treatment is around 1.008-1.009. maintain water quality by doing water changes according to copper treatment directions. my QT doesnt even have a filter, just powerheads, heater and light. water changes are all i do to keep things healthy.

 

when moving between tanks, try to match pH and temperature as much as possible. on fish with major infestations, i do a freshwater dip in a 5 gallon bucket. assess the fish's activity and energy levels before doing this. if they are very lethargic, don't freshwater dip, it will cause them too much stress and may kill them. for other fish, do the dip. in the bucket make sure pH and temp are the same as the tank. methylene blue is great to add to the bucket, in a stronger than recommended concentration. they recommend something like 4 drops per gallon, i do like 20. methylene blue kills a lot of the ich, as well as helps keep the fish calm.

 

when in QT copper treatment will kill the ich in a matter of a few days. the fish will look better, but if you put them back in the display tank, they will be sick in days. in order to rid the tank of ich, you need to run it fallow (without fish) for 6 weeks, and i run 8 weeks to be sure, since you have already dealt with the hassle of the treatment.

 

be cautious with fish, some, such as mandarins will not respond well in copper. i may have forgotten some things, but this is the general idea behind my treatment.

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I have also treated Ich with using garlic. It's fast, safe and will help boost the the fishes immune system. For the tang the best way to get garlic into them is with Nori seaweed. Just place a few drops onto the seaweed let is soak in and then clip it to a veggie clip and place in tank.

 

Also have you thought of adding a Cleaner shrimp to the tank?

 

One thing to keep in mind with Ich it will reoccur if you have not found what caused it in the first place.

 

So you should ask yourself a few questions...

 

Temp stable?

Water parameters in check?

Feeding the right foods? Tangs need plenty of veggie matter and seaweed to stay healthy.

Any aggression in the tank causing the fish stress?

 

Purple tangs are notorious for getting Ick but with the proper diet he should do just fine.

 

I have never QTed a fish with Ich or have ever recommended moving one that has already been placed in the main tank...the stress of the move only makes matters worse. I have always recommended treatment of garlic and treating the fish in the main tank.

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