Ich emergency!! Help with medication please!!!!

Jonathan blackwood · Apr 5, 2017

Emergency ich help!!! Please! So I've bought a few fish in the last few days and now I've noticed 2 of my fish have ich. I've been treating with "herbtana" and it's not working. So I've decided to use the last alternative "COPPER". It's going to be a fish only tank. My concern is, since I've used the organic medicine herbtana, can I or should I not combine the two. Copper and herbtana. I'm guessing it will become toxic and kill my fish. If I do a water change and use carbon, will that pull out the herbtana and make it safe to use copper? Or how long do I have to wait to use copper ...??? But I don't wanna wait too long for the ich to worsen

please help. I cannot catch the fish to QT either.

Jofiel · Apr 5, 2017

Petco just started their dollar a gallon sale. I would get a cheap tank and make the effort to qt them and allow your tank to go fallow. Otherwise it most likely will just keep coming back. It will also be nearly impossible to keep the copper levels consistent with the sand and rock in there.

I would suggest just removing your rock to make catching your fish much easier. You don't have a ton of rock and no coral to disturb so you've got that going for you!

Give this thread a read.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-eradication-vs-ich-management.188775/

AllSignsPointToFish · Apr 5, 2017

I doubt the two will become toxic if mixed together, but skimming and carbon should do the trick.

Since it's fish only, you could also try Kick Ich.

Personally, since it's FOWLR, I'd try hyposalinity. Safe and no long term side effects.

AllSignsPointToFish · Apr 5, 2017

By the way, is that a clownfish in the sump? LOL

melypr1985 · Apr 5, 2017

are you possitive it's ick and not something like velvet? They can sometimes be confused with each other. Do you have any pictures of the fish?

Jonathan blackwood · Apr 5, 2017

Jofiel said:
Petco just started their dollar a gallon sale. I would get a cheap tank and make the effort to qt them and allow your tank to go fallow. Otherwise it most likely will just keep coming back. It will also be nearly impossible to keep the copper levels consistent with the sand and rock in there.

I would suggest just removing your rock to make catching your fish much easier. You don't have a ton of rock and no coral to disturb so you've got that going for you!

Give this thread a read.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-eradication-vs-ich-management.188775/

It's not really in my favor to remove all the rock and get them out to QT. I'm never going to have coral or anything of that nature in this tank. Would it be ok to just dose the copper and then take it out with carbon and skim? I don't have the funds at the moment to set up a large enough QT.

Jonathan blackwood · Apr 5, 2017

AllSignsPointToFish said:
By the way, is that a clownfish in the sump? LOL

Yes it is lol it's for my daughter to look at because she's only 1 and can't really reach the top tank lol

Jonathan blackwood · Apr 5, 2017

melypr1985 said:
are you possitive it's ick and not something like velvet? They can sometimes be confused with each other. Do you have any pictures of the fish?

I'm pretty sure it's ich, and the spots on the fish are so small and hard to see, the pic wouldn't really show much. I just wanna catch it and get rid of it before it gets worse

4FordFamily · Apr 5, 2017

Jonathan blackwood said:
I'm pretty sure it's ich, and the spots on the fish are so small and hard to see, the pic wouldn't really show much. I just wanna catch it and get rid of it before it gets worse

Are there many (too many to count easily)?

Also herbtana doesn't do anything at all, unfortunately.

Humblefish · Apr 5, 2017

melypr1985 said:
are you possitive it's ick and not something like velvet? They can sometimes be confused with each other. Do you have any pictures of the fish?

+1 If its just ich, hypo might be worth a shot: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hyposalinity.247596/

But if you are dealing with velvet, copper or CP are the only options.

melypr1985 · Apr 5, 2017

If you have to go copper (because of velvet or just as your choice of treatment for ich) it will be difficult to maintain therapeutic levels of copper since the rock and sand will absorb the copper. Daily testing will be needed to be sure the levels stay constant.

Jofiel · Apr 5, 2017

Jonathan blackwood said:
It's not really in my favor to remove all the rock and get them out to QT. I'm never going to have coral or anything of that nature in this tank. Would it be ok to just dose the copper and then take it out with carbon and skim? I don't have the funds at the moment to set up a large enough QT.

Copper will kill your invertebrates though. Snails, crabs, etc...

Jofiel · Apr 5, 2017

melypr1985 said:
If you have to go copper (because of velvet or just as your choice of treatment for ich) it will be difficult to maintain therapeutic levels of copper since the rock and sand will absorb the copper. Daily testing will be needed to be sure the levels stay constant.

You could at least remove the rock from the display so it doesn't absorb the copper. Not ideal, but better.

melypr1985 · Apr 5, 2017

Jofiel said:
You could at least remove the rock from the display so it doesn't absorb the copper. Not ideal, but better.

It would be worth a try, but stirring up the sand like that could cause ammonia issues that would be more detrimental to the fish than the ich is. Removing just the rock might be a good compromise.

Jonathan blackwood · Apr 5, 2017

4FordFamily said:
Are there many (too many to count easily)?

Also herbtana doesn't do anything at all, unfortunately.

I've only seen 2 fish with the spots. And no, I can count them. Only about 2-3 spots on fins. That's all

melypr1985 · Apr 5, 2017

Jonathan blackwood said:
I've only seen 2 fish with the spots. And no, I can count them. Only about 2-3 spots on fins. That's all

That's good news then. Makes it more likely to be ich.

Jonathan blackwood · Apr 5, 2017

Would it be bad to just dose copper in the whole tank ? Just to be sure I get whatever the sickness is. And then add carbon to take it out when it's time along with water changes. But my main question is will it be ok to add copper because there is already herbtana in the water ?

melypr1985 · Apr 5, 2017

Jonathan blackwood said:
Would it be bad to just dose copper in the whole tank ? Just to be sure I get whatever the sickness is. And then add carbon to take it out when it's time along with water changes. But my main question is will it be ok to add copper because there is already herbtana in the water ?

I would do a large water change and run carbon for 24 hours minimum before dosing copper. I dont' think there will be a bad reaction between the two, but it's better safe than sorry.

Jonathan blackwood · Apr 5, 2017

melypr1985 said:
I would do a large water change and run carbon for 24 hours minimum before dosing copper. I dont' think there will be a bad reaction between the two, but it's better safe than sorry.

Or should I just ride it out and keep dosing herbtana and feed with garlic and raise temp up ? Or should I just add the copper . Because the ich isn't that bad right now at all. I just wanna get it before it gets worse

AllSignsPointToFish · Apr 5, 2017

Jonathan blackwood said:
Or should I just ride it out and keep dosing herbtana and feed with garlic and raise temp up ? Or should I just add the copper . Because the ich isn't that bad right now at all. I just wanna get it before it gets worse

Raising temp will speed the infection up. If anything, you should be lowering temperatures slowly.