Ich????

[noo2usa]

I've been fighting sickness in my tank for weeks. I'm doing kick ick right now (day 5). None of my fish are showing any signs of sickness except my Kole Tang. He looks as if he has sand all over him. I looked this morning and he didn't look that way. What can I do to get this over with? It is a reef tank.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Don’t dose any medication in your reef, specially copper. Don’t move rocks or sand, feed the fish good, if you want to treat them with meds, move in a dark tank separate from your system. Ick will come back after 30 days even if it seems its gone. If the freshly born parasites don’t find a host they will die in 2 days, that’s when you will be free of the pest.

 

[noo2usa]

Should I move all the fish or only the one that is showing signs?

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[btkrausen]

All the fish. You need to treat the fish (in a separate tank) with either hyposalinity for 8 weeks, copper for 2 weeks, or look around for articles regarding the transfer method.

Also, the display should stay fallow for 8-9 weeks to prevent you from reinfecting the fish after your treatment.

 

[Aquaph8]

I say 4 weeks with copper, two has failed me in the past.

 

[ritter6788]

Good advice above. It's always best practice to quarantine all incoming fish before adding to the display. You can remove all your fish and rid your tank of ich but the next fish you add without QT could start the whole thing over again.

 

[osteopth]

I used copper to treat all of my fish and then I left my display fallow (no fish) for 13 weeks. Since then I have used the transfer method before adding new fish. No sign of ICH even with my new Achilles Tang (notorious for Ich).

Since I started using the transfer method I have thought that the safest way to treat affected fish would be to transfer them between two fully equipped large containers (30-40 gallon tubs) every 2-3 days, drying the containers, air stones, PVC hiding tubes and heaters in between. It avoids the stress of copper and hypo, and fish can be easily caught in a clear container with little stress (like at your LFS). Each transfer leaves the fish with less spots and no chance of reinfection. Theoretically they should be clean after 7 days, but I'd continue transferring for 12-14 days to be safe. Search and read about the transfer method, it works and it's awesome!


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