Ich help

Brian Kim · Dec 5, 2015

awww dude, sorry to hear that....I had almost the same probem with my tendons after the surgery. Took me years to be able to make a fist.

Brian Kim · Dec 5, 2015

I would say keep your tank as is, if you are not a fish guy and not planning on adding more fish. Just make sure your 3 fishes are well fed, add some garlic and vitamins to the diet to build a stronger immune system.
Take care of your hand first.......btw, were you making this many posts typing with 1 hand? lol

mralg79 · Dec 5, 2015

I have had good luck with this.I got a new tang and he got ich and so did some of my other fish and it cure it ,as long as they are still eating.
Here is there link http://www.drgsmarineaquaculture.com/medicated-fish-food.cfm
Good luck hope everything works out.

skydancer · Dec 5, 2015

What is the temperature in the tank the fish is/was in? If you run a "cold" tank (<78deg) fish gets stressed and will get ich. Raise the temp to 80/81/82 and in a few days the fish will recover.
I have run my 300g between 79 and 81 for many years with no ich. I'd not medicate the tank.

Rjramos · Dec 5, 2015

skydancer said:
What is the temperature in the tank the fish is/was in? If you run a "cold" tank (<78deg) fish gets stressed and will get ich. Raise the temp to 80/81/82 and in a few days the fish will recover.
I have run my 300g between 79 and 81 for many years with no ich. I'd not medicate the tank.

What I have found, is that with Ich, it's not any particular temperature. I've ran tanks at 76 and some at 80-81, and haven't had problems with Ich. What does stress fish and make them more susceptible to Ich is fluctuations in temp., like tank temp drops 2 degrees at night and then by the end of the day with lights on, tank temp goes up. The smaller the tank, the more the fluctuation, and the more your fish get sick. A chiller or heater to stabilize temp is best. If A/C is used to manage temp, then make sure that at no point, A/C set down at night, or setting up when not home affects the fish tank. My experience, .02.

melypr1985 · Dec 5, 2015

skydancer said:
What is the temperature in the tank the fish is/was in? If you run a "cold" tank (<78deg) fish gets stressed and will get ich. Raise the temp to 80/81/82 and in a few days the fish will recover.
I have run my 300g between 79 and 81 for many years with no ich. I'd not medicate the tank.

This is useful with freshwater ich. Marine ich is not effected as much by temp- only speeding up the life cycle some so that it reproduces faster thereby increasing it's numbers faster.

skydancer · Dec 6, 2015

melypr1985 said:
This is useful with freshwater ich. Marine ich is not effected as much by temp- only speeding up the life cycle some so that it reproduces faster thereby increasing it's numbers faster.

I am no ich expert, but...
I have been told that above 80 deg. Ich dies. And my personal experience has been that at that temperature you can have ich free tangs and a successful reef, and you chiller doesn't run as much.
I never understood the concept of running a reef at 76 deg.

melypr1985 · Dec 6, 2015

Only freshwater ich dies at higher temps. Freshwater ich and saltwater ich are two completely different species of parasite. What your experiencing is called ich management or pure luck. Most likely your fish developed a resistance to ich enough to hold it off some so it cant take over their whole body. Its still living in the gills. If you have a stressor event like a heater break or a fish start being agressive and you will see it come back.

cu455 · Dec 6, 2015

I don't think the rise in temp is suppose to kill the ick. It speeds up the life cycle so your fish spends less time affected by ich and you can rid your tank from it quicker. Instead of leaving a tank fallow for 80 days at 76f you can leave it fallow for 70 days at 80f because of the speeding up of the lifecycle. The dates are just to get the point across, they are not actual days and temps.

melypr1985 · Dec 6, 2015

cu455 said:
I don't think the rise in temp is suppose to kill the ick. It speeds up the life cycle so your fish spends less time affected by ich and you can rid your tank from it quicker. Instead of leaving a tank fallow for 80 days at 76f you can leave it fallow for 70 days at 80f because of the speeding up of the lifecycle. The dates are just to get the point across, they are not actual days and temps.

The problem with this way of thinking is, people start thinking that it works while their fish are in the tank and instead you are only speeding up the life cycle making it possible for the ich to reproduce that much faster and then your fish die that much faster. Also, I would just play it safe and leave it fallow for the full 76 days no matter what the temp is. Not all strains of ich respond the same way to temps or salinity changes. It's better to just play it safe in my oppinion.

cu455 · Dec 6, 2015

I am just giving the reason why people raise the temperature when dealing with parasites, including ich. It is not to kill the parasite which was mentioned earlier.

Raising the temperature isn't suppose to be a cure all. It is supposed to be used in conjunction with other treatments. You still treat your fish in CU, hypo or whatever for the extended periods of time with higher temps. It will speed up the life cycle and kill the parasite in it's vulnerable reducing the time the fish suffers.

RMS18 · Dec 7, 2015

mralg79 said:
I have had good luck with this.I got a new tang and he got ich and so did some of my other fish and it cure it ,as long as they are still eating.
Here is there link http://www.drgsmarineaquaculture.com/medicated-fish-food.cfm
Good luck hope everything works out.

Same here I actually feed this 3 times a week even though my fish are healthy. They love it and it can't hurt, just keep it off corals.

D block · Dec 12, 2015

cu455 said:
I am just giving the reason why people raise the temperature when dealing with parasites, including ich. It is not to kill the parasite which was mentioned earlier.

Raising the temperature isn't suppose to be a cure all. It is supposed to be used in conjunction with other treatments. You still treat your fish in CU, hypo or whatever for the extended periods of time with higher temps. It will speed up the life cycle and kill the parasite in it's vulnerable reducing the time the fish suffers.

Great information, @melypr1985 this is correct. Raising the temp won't kill most ich, unless you raise it to temperatures that will cause harm to your fish and tank.

melypr1985 · Dec 12, 2015

D block said:
Great information, @melypr1985 this is correct. Raising the temp won't kill most ich, unless you raise it to temperatures that will cause harm to your fish and tank.

Yeah, I'm not saying he's downright wrong. My whole point is that when you make a statement like that it requires clarification. You have to explain all that, because there are tons of people who read these threads and comments. Some, especially people new to the hobby could take this temp thing the wrong way and try it only to kill their fish without pairing it with meds and QT. THAT is my point. I hate typing this stuff out, it always gets read wrong or whatever.

I only want to add that I think it's pointless to raise the temp in the QT or the display. I dont care if it speeds up the lifecycle of the parasite. It's just one more stressful thing the fish has to acclimate to. The parasite will die in the meds regardless of the temp so why put them through that one more thing? That's it. That's all. Happy Reefing folks

Humblefish · Dec 12, 2015

D block said:
Great information, @melypr1985 this is correct. Raising the temp won't kill most ich, unless you raise it to temperatures that will cause harm to your fish and tank.

Raising temp to 40C/104F has been proven to kill Cryptocaryon (all stages) in 1 hr. However, you'll also be left with a lifeless tank you would need to recycle.

D block · Dec 12, 2015

melypr1985 said:
Yeah, I'm not saying he's downright wrong. My whole point is that when you make a statement like that it requires clarification. You have to explain all that, because there are tons of people who read these threads and comments. Some, especially people new to the hobby could take this temp thing the wrong way and try it only to kill their fish without pairing it with meds and QT. THAT is my point. I hate typing this stuff out, it always gets read wrong or whatever.

I only want to add that I think it's pointless to raise the temp in the QT or the display. I dont care if it speeds up the lifecycle of the parasite. It's just one more stressful thing the fish has to acclimate to. The parasite will die in the meds regardless of the temp so why put them through that one more thing? That's it. That's all. Happy Reefing folks

I thought it was pretty clear and no further explanation was needed. The information was correct. Raising the temperature from 76 to 78 or even 81 won't stress the fish out more then getting eaten alive by parasites.

Humblefish said:
Raising temp to 40C/104F has been proven to kill Cryptocaryon (all stages) in 1 hr. However, you'll also be left with a lifeless tank you would need to recycle.

I think you quoted the wrong person. I stated that ich can be killed with high enough temperature but It willl have a negative effect on the fish in tank. melpr1985 stated that only freshwater ich can be killed by raising the temp.