HELP! ICK on my tang

[DaveK]

Personally, I never found cleaner shrimp, or other cleaners to be effective in control of SW ich, but they are not going to hurt anything.

Ditto for most other treatment methods, except the ones I previously mentioned hyposalinity and copper.

You only need to tret the fish, all of your inverts should remain in the reef system. Ich doesn't host on them and with no fish the parasite will die in a few weeks.

 

[malulu]

Olivier,

like DaveK said, only remove the FISHES to the QT (everything else stay in the display tank).

sometime it is tough to get all fishes out, it may not be neccessary to remove all yet in the beginning...

so, you *may* want to try to get only the fishes with itch out first to the QT, and closely monitor your display tank, if you see other fishes start to have more ich on them, then you can remove them also...

[note:]
my previously red-bug incident just got updated here... thx
http://www.njreefers.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=26&topic=8910.msg95663#msg95663

 

[Olivier]

how do i aging SW in my QT if i set it up right now?

This is what I plan to do.
1) setup quarantine tank - some how age the water so it have any nitrite and Ammonia spike
2) add some PVC short section pipe for hidding place
3) lower Salinity to 1.02
4) setup 2 contain with fresh water to do dipping
5) catch fish and start the treatment.

does anyone know where can I get the copper sulfate locally?

Please let me know your procedure of treat ich.

 

[DaveK]

When you use hyposalinity you want to take the SG from a typical 1.025 down to about 1.011. If possible use a refractometer to measure this since you don't want to go too far. A SG of 1.02 would not be an effective dose.

QT tanks have almost 0 biological filtration when you medicate. Feed very little use a powerful canister or hang on tank filter, and clean it every couple of days. Test for ammonia and nitrite. Make water changes to keep the levels down.

For a normal QT when you are not going to medicate, some people run several sponge filters in the sump of their main system. This lets them become biologically active. Then they place them in the qt tank when they get new livestock. Sort of an instant biological filtration.

You can usually find some inexpensive PVC fitting for a lot less than cutting up pipe, but either will work.

I don't think it's necessary to do FW dips, but they can't hurt.

Check the meds at your LFS. If they carry SW fish and such, you can usually find a copper sulfate medication. BTW, copper should be used with a test kit. Take the water up to treatment level. Then test it every day. You usually will see a drop in copper, so you will need to add additional copper to bring the level back up.

Catching the fish can be a real task. You may need to remove most everything to get to them.

 

[Olivier]

davek,
if i use canister ilter, what can i have in the ilter?

 

[jonathan.]

Check out the National Fish Pharmacy.

Get their product called "Crypt-Pro". It's Quinine Sulphate. I would never, ever copper tangs, angels and anthias -- and it sounds like you're going to remove them from the display.

IMO, Hypo is pretty much bunk. You're stressing the fish out even more by doing so and unless you have a solid refractometer, you're likely either going to be going too far or not enough.

Quinine Sulphate has worked for me every time in QT and it's also shrimp and hermit crab safe (though I wouldn't dose a full blown reef tank with it simply because I'm sure it'd wreck havoc after a little while). It's powerful stuff but safe for sensitive fish -- and even rays and sharks! It doesn't destroy your biological filter. It's not going to kill your fish. But it'll eradicate ich in as little as a few days (but please continue the treatment for the full 14).

In short, I think that the Quinine route is the way to go for any ich outbreak -- especially one involving your tangs and angels. Just say no to copper!

I'll never use anything except the Crypt-Pro product now. It's just too damn effective and it'll let you have a cleaner shrimp in the tank as well as hermits to eat detritus, etc.