Help with Ich treatment plan

Donny41 · May 17, 2020

Just noticed signs of ich on my yellow tang that I've had for about a month. Other tank inhabitants are 2 clowns, 2 orange spotted gobies, royal gramma, six line wrasse. I do not have an extra tank large enough to treat all of the fish. What i do have is a 10 gallon tank and a 40ish gallon black storage tote that I've used to cycle rock. I have extra heaters and a large HOB filter. I have a 4x6 sponge in between one of my sump baffles that i can put in the HOB to aid in biological filtration. I'm concerned that there will not be sufficient biological filtration if i attempt to treat all of my fish immediately in the tote, even if i put in some sort of bacteria product. Does it make sense to start medicating the tang in the 10 gallon immediately while the tote cycles a bit, and then transfer the rest of the fish in the tote? I know this would end up making the entire process longer and potentially more stressful on the fish, but at the same time i do not want to lose fish by putting them in a tank that may not be capable of processing ammonia/nitrite. I plan on using cupramine, which i am going to pick up from my LFS tomorrow along with some bacteria in a bottle.

Zionas · May 17, 2020

Did you introduce anything new recently?

Ich can’t possibly just show up randomly.

Donny41 · May 17, 2020

The tang was just under a month and some snails from reef cleaners about 2 weeks ago

Zionas · May 17, 2020

Might be the snails. I have heard of cases where inverts introduces ich.

Big G · May 17, 2020

Donny41 said:
Just noticed signs of ich on my yellow tang that I've had for about a month. Other tank inhabitants are 2 clowns, 2 orange spotted gobies, royal gramma, six line wrasse. I do not have an extra tank large enough to treat all of the fish. What i do have is a 10 gallon tank and a 40ish gallon black storage tote that I've used to cycle rock. I have extra heaters and a large HOB filter. I have a 4x6 sponge in between one of my sump baffles that i can put in the HOB to aid in biological filtration. I'm concerned that there will not be sufficient biological filtration if i attempt to treat all of my fish immediately in the tote, even if i put in some sort of bacteria product. Does it make sense to start medicating the tang in the 10 gallon immediately while the tote cycles a bit, and then transfer the rest of the fish in the tote? I know this would end up making the entire process longer and potentially more stressful on the fish, but at the same time i do not want to lose fish by putting them in a tank that may not be capable of processing ammonia/nitrite. I plan on using cupramine, which i am going to pick up from my LFS tomorrow along with some bacteria in a bottle.

With Ich you usually don't have the same urgency as Velvet unless the number of spots is excessive. So you have some time to get a good setup going. Low stress is a very good thing. What I don't like about using tubs is it's hard to observe the fish condition. A 20 long or 40 breeder is preferred. Don't know if Petco has that 1.00 per gallon thing going right now. Or Craig's List.

Using Cupramine can be a bit tricky. Prefer Copper Power. But Cupramine is OK as long as you ignore the directions where they suggest two big doses to get to therapeutic level. Much, much easier on the fish if you calculate the total gallons of your container/tank. Actually measure it with a known pitcher or jug. Then calculate out the number of drops of Cupramine to reach therapeutic. Spread out the dosing of the drops over 4-5 days. Even breaking it down to AM, lunch, PM if possible. This allows you to carefully watch for a copper sensitive fish before damage is done. I've never had a problem when dosing this way with Cupramine.

That being said the therapeutic level of 0.50 can be eased up to with the drop method. A Hanna HL Copper Checker will give the absolute best method of tracking the copper level. The color matching test kits can be very frustrating and difficult to read. I usually have my wife read the colors as women tend to be much, much better at reading colors. The Seachem Copper Test kit or Salifert are the recommended kits. Avoid API.

When doing water changes during the treatment, always pre dose the copper before adding back in to the container/tank. Cupramine's therapeutic level is narrow. Got to stay exactly at therapeutic. Never let it dip below therapeutic.

Ironically you cannot use Seachem's Prime or other similar products to help with ammonia. It increase the toxicity of the Cupramine's copper to dangerous levels.

Donny41 · May 17, 2020

Thank you for thorough response! I was thinking about picking up a 40 breeder for that reason. None of my other fish are showing signs (yet) thankfully. Here is what the fish looks like now (best pic I could get)