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ICH- Bad day at the office

Hawkeye

Hawkeye

If it's velvet - ouch...

Treatment

Initiate treatment immediately because the disease has such a high mortality level if not treated quickly. Treatment for this disease is almost exclusively with copper. There has been some success reported with the use of the antimalarial drug chloroquine diphosphate but the drug is expensive, difficult to obtain, and therefore not a common treatment option. Copper comes in several forms including ionic and chelated forms. The chelated forms are supposed to be safer but the total amount used is higher, possibly offsetting the safety benefits.

Copper is very effective but can be ineffective or toxic if not used at very specific levels. Choose a high quality product, follow the directions closely, monitor the copper levels in the water, and adjust accordingly. When copper is used, the water should be tested twice a day for copper levels for the first few days, and then daily for the rest of the treatment period. Most sources recommend an ionic copper level of between 0.15 and 0.2 parts per million for a minimum of 14 days. Alkalinity and the presence of carbonate-containing substrates can impact the absorption and release of free copper in the water.

Copper is extremely toxic to invertebrates and should not be used in tanks where invertebrates are, or will ever be, housed. It is always best to use copper or any treatments in a quarantine tank and to only treat the infected fish. If Amyloodinium does develop in a reef tank with invertebrates, it will be very difficult to rid the tank of the Amyloodinium as long as fish are present. Removing the fish to a separate tank and allowing the tank to run fish-free for a month is probably necessary. This will allow the organism to run through its life cycle and die out due to the lack of a host.

If Amyloodinium does strike your tank, you will want to make sure that the water quality and nutrition are at the highest possible levels. Do everything possible to reduce the stress level of your fish to allow their immune systems to fight off this disease. There is evidence that fish that contract Amyloodinium and recover develop some lasting immunity to the disease.

There are several very important things to remember when treating this disease:


Stressed fish are much more likely to develop the disease.


This disease is highly contagious.


The key to treating this disease is early detection and prompt treatment.


Most fish that show the severe skin form are probably too sick to respond to treatment.


Only the free-swimming dinoflagellate form of the organism (the dinospore) is susceptible to treatment.


Properly sized UV sterilizers will also kill the dinospores.


The encysted form is not susceptible to any treatment.
Full link here http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=83
 
R

RFD4

I only have one fish now showing signs for illness- it looks more like ICH then velvet and being that I had a temp spike last week is leading me to believe that this is ICH- either way I'm screwed- lots of dead fish- can't use copper- Someone told me about a product No Sic Fish- ICH anyone have an idea?
 
dnov99

dnov99

FRAG SWAP VENDOR
Unfortunately we have all been down this road, I really doubt it is Ich, as it takes a severe infestation and weeks for Ich to kill a fish. Unless you can get them out and put them in a hospital tank you really dont have any options, but to wait it out and keep your fingers crossed. All those "reef-safe" meds for fish diseases are useless IMO so stop wasting your money on them.

How big is your system? I am guessing it is a reef tank since you cant treat the whole tank with real medicine. How old is your system??
 
R

RFD4

120 FOWLR and some small coral - it is about 6 months old- I am going to but a 20 gallon tomorrow and run a UV on the tank- what medication should I use and how do I rid the display tank of the parasite
 
dnov99

dnov99

FRAG SWAP VENDOR
RFD4 said:
120 FOWLR and some small coral - it is about 6 months old- I am going to but a 20 gallon tomorrow and run a UV on the tank- what medication should I use and how do I rid the display tank of the parasite
Click to expand...

Well the above link says copper works best, so i would follow the info in the above link, as that will take care of Ich also. The only way to get rid of the parasites in the display is to let it go fallow for a couple of months.

It seems like you had alot of fish in there for the tank being only 6 months old. You might be at the beginning of a "crash", as your system was not able to handle the bioload of this many fish, thus the resulting disease. Sorry, and good luck, but it doesn't sound good, i have dealt with velvet before unfortunately.
 
J

jmckdvm

Guest
I may have found this thread a little too late to be of help, but for amyloodinium, I would highly recommend chloroquine diphosphate. It is much less toxic than copper, inexpensive and easy to obtain (from me, or other veterinarians interested in marine fish). I wrote about it's use several times on my forum, "Dr. Jim's Reef Corner" at the Amwell Bird Hospital.

Contact me if you would like further information.

Dr. Jim
 
The_Codfather

The_Codfather

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
ynotme4886 said:
Ich is a pain and is tough to get rid of. Once it is in the tank it gets into everything....rocks sand you name it. You will need to treat all the fish if you decide to do so. Treating only the visibly infected one will not solve the problem.

A pic of the infected fish would go a long way to help see what you have.

If you decide to go they hypo salinity route make sure you have a refractometer and calibrate it before you begin the process.

Precision is the key. If your salinity goes to low then you could end up with this.

p1850144.gif
what about a uv sterilizer for the free floaters?

This had happened to me and my refractometer was calibrated. I went slowly with the drop from 1.024 to 1.010 over the course of 9 days from the high number to the low number.

Some people have luck with hypo but I am not one of them. Fought with ich for about 8 months till I finally got rid of it.
All my fish had died from it and I ended up leaving the tank fallow for 12 weeks and the ich was finally gone.
Then I got a powder blue tang and he occasionally gets a spot or two. Usually I do a water change and up his garlic intake and it tends to go away. For me its not worth ripping the tank apart to try to get him out to treat him.
Click to expand...
 
R

Rbu1

jmckdvm said:
I may have found this thread a little too late to be of help, but for amyloodinium, I would highly recommend chloroquine diphosphate. It is much less toxic than copper, inexpensive and easy to obtain (from me, or other veterinarians interested in marine fish). I wrote about it's use several times on my forum, "Dr. Jim's Reef Corner" at the Amwell Bird Hospital.

Contact me if you would like further information.

Dr. Jim
Click to expand...

Hi Dr. Jim,

I have a question for you about the use of Chloriqunie. How do you know what amount is the proper tratment range for this drug? Is there a way to test the amount in your water to make sure you are in the proper treatment range?

THanks
 
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