Ick returned after Cupermine

[Hiroshii]

Hey guys! So as you all know I treated my fish for ick with cupermine. I took them all out and placed them in a hospital tank and over a 4 day period I dosed cupermine 25% of the dose each day till I reached 0.5 I kept it at that for 1 month after I saw the last spot on the fish which was day 3 in the hospital tank. On the 73rd day after all the wait and cupermine the fish looked great and no ick on them. I was so excited to place them back into the DT. All went well until the next day I saw my powder blue with ick! I got so frustrated I tore down my tank and placed them all in the hospital tank again. This time I'm going the hypo route. Was it the cupermine that failed? Was the ick still in the tank? Did I look at my powder blue in a wrong way and he got ick? (That's a joke) I don't know what went wrong or how it did because I did everything right (I think) Could the ick survived the fallow period? (I'm drying out the LR and I'm throwing out the sand gonna get new sand. I've soaked all my equipment in vinegar and cleaned the tank with it also)

 

[melypr1985]

Did you add any corals to the tank during the fallow period? Or anything wet from the store? Are you sure the copper level was at .5 the whole 30 days? I have heard some rare instances where ich persisted despite going through the entire copper routine. You may try TTM instead since it relies on outrunning the ich life cycle and not on a chemical to kill it.

 

[Humblefish]

Even if you did everything right, two possible reasons for failure:

1. You encountered a strain of ich in the QT that took longer than 30 days for all the theronts to be released from their tomonts.
2. You encountered a strain of ich in the DT that took longer than 72 days for all the theronts to be released from their tomonts.

#1 is rare, but known to have happened. #2 is possible but still just theoretical.

 

[yassin.ghanem]

Even if you did everything right, two possible reasons for failure:

1. You encountered a strain of ich in the QT that took longer than 30 days for all the theronts to be released from their tomonts.
2. You encountered a strain of ich in the DT that took longer than 72 days for all the theronts to be released from their tomonts.

#1 is rare, but known to have happened. #2 is possible but still just theoretical.

If i tried ich erradication using a 30 day fallow period would my chances be pretty good that I got rid of the ich (since longer strains are rarer and my fish arnt sick atm)

 

[Hiroshii]

Did you add any corals to the tank during the fallow period? Or anything wet from the store? Are you sure the copper level was at .5 the whole 30 days? I have heard some rare instances where ich persisted despite going through the entire copper routine. You may try TTM instead since it relies on outrunning the ich life cycle and not on a chemical to kill it.

Nothing new was added to the DT. I left it alone. Just kept up with maintenance.

 

[Hiroshii]

Even if you did everything right, two possible reasons for failure:

1. You encountered a strain of ich in the QT that took longer than 30 days for all the theronts to be released from their tomonts.
2. You encountered a strain of ich in the DT that took longer than 72 days for all the theronts to be released from their tomonts.

#1 is rare, but known to have happened. #2 is possible but still just theoretical.

I don't know what happened. I'm doing hypo at the moment. I've lowered the salinity to 1.015 and gonna lower it some more today till I reach 1.009 only the powder blue has visible signs of ick. All the others are fine. I'm gonna wait until I see the last sign of ick on the PBT then I will leave them in hypo for 5 weeks just to be sure and my DT is cycling again because I tore everything down and dried the live rock. It will remains fish less for a good 3 months or so.

 

[Hiroshii]

If i tried ich erradication using a 30 day fallow period would my chances be pretty good that I got rid of the ich (since longer strains are rarer and my fish arnt sick atm)

I wouldn't leave the DT fallow for 30 days. I did 72 days. But I guess I added the fish back while the ick was looking for a host before it could die out. I'd wait until 73-80 days just to be sure. But I read that 76 is sufficient but the longer you can wait the better you're chances are.

 

[eliramos]

With your usual tank Maintenence were you using any of the equipment that you used on your qt tanks a net a hose anything at all. Could've added ich back into the dt.
Did you use copper at all!?
I'm following cuz I'll be prophylactic in my qt set up before adding any fish so I wanna see what works best! Good luck!

 

[Hiroshii]

With your usual tank Maintenence were you using any of the equipment that you used on your qt tanks a net a hose anything at all. Could've added ich back into the dt.
Did you use copper at all!?
I'm following cuz I'll be prophylactic in my qt set up before adding any fish so I wanna see what works best! Good luck!

I didn't use anything that I used for the hospital tank. I bought new equipment to use on the DT and used the old ones for the hospital only. I didn't use 1 for both cause I read you can spread ick like that. I did use cupermine at .5 strength.

 

[Humblefish]

Other than the 72 day variant, the longest known total life cycle for ich is 41 days (Burgess and Matthews, 1994a study below):



So, going fallow for 41 days would protect you from every known strain of ich, except if you were unlucky enough to encounter the 72 day variant. Remember though, this is only for every known strain which has been studied. Who is to say whether or not there are as-of-yet discovered strains of ich with a life cycle in-between 41-72 days, or possibly even greater than 72 days.

 

[Hiroshii]

I've hit 1.009 salinity the powder blue has more ick than what he did yesterday. I will be feeding less and do more water changes keeping an eye on the PH and ammonia in this stage. Gonna keep observing the PBT and when I see the last spot of ick I will count 5 weeks till I start to raise my salinity back up. Just hoping everyone makes it. I did lose my flame angel to the copper treatment.

 

[Humblefish]

I've hit 1.009 salinity the powder blue has more ick than what he did yesterday. I will be feeding less and do more water changes keeping an eye on the PH and ammonia in this stage. Gonna keep observing the PBT and when I see the last spot of ick I will count 5 weeks till I start to raise my salinity back up. Just hoping everyone makes it. I did lose my flame angel to the copper treatment.

Just be sure it is indeed ich, and not velvet, you are dealing with here. Hypo only treats ich.

 

[Hiroshii]

Just be sure it is indeed ich, and not velvet, you are dealing with here. Hypo only treats ich.

Yes I'm 100% sure it's ick.

 

[Paul B]

I hate to say this but this thread is going like many of these disease threads go. You try copper, then hypo while feeding less. Then tear the tank down and put in dry rock, change the water etc. All of these things will contribute to the disease getting worse and totally destroying the fishes immune system. By the way, what are you feeding these fish?

Never mind, I really shouldn't go on these disease threads. Carry on, have fun.

 

[Hiroshii]

I hate to say this but this thread is going like many of these disease threads go. You try copper, then hypo while feeding less. Then tear the tank down and put in dry rock, change the water etc. All of these things will contribute to the disease getting worse and totally destroying the fishes immune system. By the way, what are you feeding these fish?

Never mind, I really shouldn't go on these disease threads. Carry on, have fun.

Well I tried cupermine first. And it did work because I didn't see any more ick on the fish so I had to wait for the fallow period to end. I added them back into the tank and the next day the PBT had ick. It was then I got frustrated and took them out again and out them back into the hospital tank (now I'm doing hypo) I did throw all my sand and water out and let the live rock dry out. I cleaned all my equipment and my tank with vinegar and let everything dry. I've set everything back up so I'm just cycling the tank again.
I feed my fish brine shrimp. Nori sheets and flakes. I mix them up so they don't get the same stuff everyday.

 

[4FordFamily]

I had this problem using cupramine as well. At first I hypothesized that I cross contaminated a known ich management tank (it has ich but wrasse don't seem bothered and haven't for years) (my arms go in each of my tanks including qt to add algae sheets each day) but after it failed two more times (total over 9 months fallow) I gave up and went to coppersafe and have had no further problems it was successful on two separate occasions and dozens fish treated separately.