Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans)

Humblefish · Dec 12, 2015

ncfishguy said:
I catch all the fish but one a small fish it has been missing for a few days pretty sure it is dead should I pull the rocks to get it out or let the cleanup crew take care of it ? I do have a lot of rock in the tank though

If you have hermits or nassarius snails, they will eat the remains. But if the fish shows back up you will need to get him out (and treat) before the fallow period can begin.

Jimbo662 · Dec 15, 2015

Has anyone ever tried doing hyposalinity in the DT? I've read different articles that say hypo will kill beneficial bacteria and others that say it wont. If it will I've got to find at least a 75g tank to set up as a HT then try to catch all the fish. It would be sooo much easier to just remove corals / inverts instead.

melypr1985 · Dec 15, 2015

It could put a small dent in bacteria populations, but it wont wipe them all out. The real problem is if you happen to have one of the hypo resistant strains of ich in there. Then doing hypo wont help at all. Also you have to make sure you have a perfectly calibrated refractometer and keep the salinity perfectly stable at 1.009 I believe the number is. Just something to be aware of.

Jimbo662 · Dec 15, 2015

I just read another article about the resistant strains!!!! My luck that's what I would have. I've got a Milwaukee digital refractometer so that wouldn't be an issue. I wonder if it would be worth a shot trying in tank hypo or just breaking down and setting up the HT and doing copper.

melypr1985 · Dec 15, 2015

Jimbo662 said:
I just read another article about the resistant strains!!!! My luck that's what I would have. I've got a Milwaukee digital refractometer so that wouldn't be an issue. I wonder if it would be worth a shot trying in tank hypo or just breaking down and setting up the HT and doing copper.

I guess it just depends on your time and how quickly you get fed up. Personally, I wanted a guaranteed one and done method so I took everything out and went fallow for 76 days. I knew that would take care of it no matter what.

What i mean about time and being fed up is, if the hypo doesn't work after all the work you did to make sure it did, will you be ticked? Will you be dissapointed to have to then take them all out, treat and go fallow for 76 days after that? It could work no problem and you wont have to do that. I'm just giving you a "for instance" to think about and help make your own decision.

Jimbo662 · Dec 15, 2015

Thanks...yes I probably would get fed up having to deal with it for an extended period...I'm so ready to get my QT tank out of my dining room as it is!

melypr1985 · Dec 15, 2015

Jimbo662 said:
Thanks...yes I probably would get fed up having to deal with it for an extended period...I'm so ready to get my QT tank out of my dining room as it is!

I know how ya feel. I still have several months with a QT up in my future as I'm planning on adding a few more fish to the tank soon.

Humblefish · Dec 15, 2015

IMHO; Encountering a hypo resistant strain of ich is probably quite rare. But yes, it's still a concern.

The real danger with hypo is operator error: refractometer isn't perfectly calibrated, you forget to top off one day and let the SG tick slightly up, etc. There is NO wiggle room when doing hypo, NO margin for error. I just personally don't like working under those kind of conditions. We all make mistakes.

ncfishguy · Dec 15, 2015

Humblefish said:
IMHO; Encountering a hypo resistant strain of ich is probably quite rare. But yes, it's still a concern. The real danger with hypo is operator error: refractometer isn't perfectly calibrated, you forget to top off one day and let the SG tick slightly up, etc. There is NO wiggle room when doing hypo, NO margin for error. I just personally don't like working under those kind of conditions. We all make mistakes.

Love your advise !! And videos on YouTube (reef2reef)

Luna · Dec 16, 2015

I put some ginger powder in a container with frozen mysis shrimp, let the shrimp thaw with tank water. Let the mysis soak up the powder and feed. Haven't had any sign of ich on my blue tang or any other fish. Its been about six months since I got my tang.

Hal 9000 · Dec 16, 2015

So I recently had an outbreak unfortunately it very quickly killed 2 of my 3 fish. The third is unaffected and has been doing his normal thing for several weeks. Do I need to run fallow for 76 days and treat to clear everything up before adding more fish?

melypr1985 · Dec 16, 2015

Hal 9000 said:
So I recently had an outbreak unfortunately it very quickly killed 2 of my 3 fish. The third is unaffected and has been doing his normal thing for several weeks. Do I need to run fallow for 76 days and treat to clear everything up before adding more fish?

That would be a very good idea. Are you sure it was ick and not velvet (are both treated with copper and fallow period)? What fish is the one left standing?

Hal 9000 · Dec 16, 2015

I lost a clown and a carpenters wrasse and had a lemon damsel survive. Wrasse and damsel had lived happily together with no issues. The clown must have been the carrier monkey.

melypr1985 · Dec 16, 2015

Hal 9000 said:
I lost a clown and a carpenters wrasse and had a lemon damsel survive. Wrasse and damsel had lived happily together with no issues. The clown must have been the carrier monkey.

Ok, regardless if it was ich or velvet you'll treat it the same. 30 days of copper for the damsel and 76 days fallow for the DT before adding any new fish. If you had any pictures of the fish before they died it would be helpful in making sure of what it was though.

dieselkeeper · Dec 16, 2015

Question: I have a powder blue now for 7 years. He got ich on several occasions. 3 at last count. I never could catch him to treat him due to having a reef tank with SPS colonies. How does he come down with ich and then goes away after several days? One or two other fish also has it at the same time. Out break years apart. Where does the ich come from if the fish never show any signs, scratching, white salt looking spots? It must be always in my tank and rears its ugly head when a fish is streesed. But then ich needs a host fish to survive. Just trying to make sense of it all.

I'm learning a lot about fish diseases and signs of fish having which disease. Been in the saltwatee hobby for 10 years now. Now I know all the fish I lost over the years most has been from disease.

A big thank you for those who take the time to teach others about fish diseases.

Hal 9000 · Dec 16, 2015

melypr1985 said:
Ok, regardless if it was ich or velvet you'll treat it the same. 30 days of copper for the damsel and 76 days fallow for the DT before adding any new fish. If you had any pictures of the fish before they died it would be helpful in making sure of what it was though.

Unfortunately it went from "my wrasse has dust on his head and that clown isn't acting like any clown I've had" to "my clown is swimming doughnuts near the overflow but wrasse is normal still dusty though " finally to dead wrasse and clown barely moving and covered in what looked like mucous I euthanized him at that point he didn't even fight the net. This all took about 24 hours.

melypr1985 · Dec 16, 2015

dieselkeeper said:
Question: I have a powder blue now for 7 years. He got ich on several occasions. 3 at last count. I never could catch him to treat him due to having a reef tank with SPS colonies. How does he come down with ich and then goes away after several days? One or two other fish also has it at the same time. Out break years apart. Where does the ich come from if the fish never show any signs, scratching, white salt looking spots? It must be always in my tank and rears its ugly head when a fish is streesed. But then ich needs a host fish to survive. Just trying to make sense of it all.

I'm learning a lot about fish diseases and signs of fish having which disease. Been in the saltwatee hobby for 10 years now. Now I know all the fish I lost over the years most has been from disease.

A big thank you for those who take the time to teach others about fish diseases.

The ich will live unseen in the gills of the fish. Sometimes it is able to take a better hold on the fish and you see some signs of it. Your fish have some resistance built up by now, but it will only take one stressful event to have it come out stronger than ever. Its also important to note that ich will only stay on the fish for a couple days before falling off to encyst on a hard surface and continuing its life cycle. Hope that helps! Look through the other stickies for more in depth info

melypr1985 · Dec 16, 2015

Hal 9000 said:
Unfortunately it went from "my wrasse has dust on his head and that clown isn't acting like any clown I've had" to "my clown is swimming doughnuts near the overflow but wrasse is normal still dusty though " finally to dead wrasse and clown barely moving and covered in what looked like mucous I euthanized him at that point he didn't even fight the net. This all took about 24 hours.

That sounds like velvet to me. The quick death and the "dusty" appearance speaks to velvet for me. Again, 30 days of copper and 76 days fallow to be safe. Velvet is typically y weeks fallow, but im in the play it safe camp. 76 days will starve out anything in the dt that could be lurking.

Humblefish · Dec 16, 2015

@dieselkeeper How large is your tank? It is very unusual to be able to keep an Acanthurus tang with a continual presence of ich. The reduced composition of their mucous coat makes them more susceptible. I've only seen it done in very large systems, where the large volume of water is able to dilute the number of parasites. As Meredith said, ich can come & go for years inside a fish's gills sight unseen.