QT and Ich question

[ohlero]

I'm getting ready to purchase my first fish and I am going to do at least a 30-day quartine. My question is do I pretreat for Ich or not? Can Ich live dormant in a fish or will the Ich show its self within the 30 days if the fish has it? I have Cupramine but I have heard its hard on the fish and don't really want to use it as a preventive if not necessary.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Halal Hotdog]

A lot of these parasitic infections may never show physical symptoms, and I have never been successful with just observing fish in hopes of making sure they are not carrying a pathogen. I always pretreat with choloroquin phosphate. This is a debated topic, but I personally feel treating is definitely the safest way to go.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

These days Ich isn’t as deadly or prevalent as Velvet, Brook, or even Uronema. What fish are you planning on buying? We can help walk you through a QT for what ever you buy.

 

[ohlero]

I'm going to start with a pair of clowns.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I'm going to start with a pair of clowns.

Clowns are pretty easy. I would start with a 90 min Ruby Reef Rally bath (covers Brooklynella) then get them into QT. Start feeding metro or GC laced foods (14 days)and if they appear healthy you can start ramping up copper (copper power) to 2.0ppm over the next 3-4 days. You’ll need to maintain copper for 30 days at this level. This will cover ich and velvet. After 30 days of copper do 2 doses of Prazipro 5-7 days apart to cover flukes.
If you have a 2nd tank you can setup for QT you can do 14 days of copper then transfer to the sterile tank.
I would strongly recommend the Hanna high range copper tester with a box of extra reagents as it makes copper a breeze.

 

[ohlero]

Ok so I just wanted to make sure pretreatment would kill the parasites even if they don't have symptoms. I just want to make sure I set my display tank up for success.

 

[Spar]

Ok so I just wanted to make sure pretreatment would kill the parasites even if they don't have symptoms. I just want to make sure I set my display tank up for success.

Yes, using the recommended treatment (CP, copper, etc.) will kill the parasites even if the fish don't show symptoms.

 

[ohlero]

Yes, using the recommended treatment (CP, copper, etc.) will kill the parasites even if the fish don't show symptoms.

Ok great I'm going to pretreat them. I have Cupramine and Prazipro ready to go.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Ok great I'm going to pretreat them. I have Cupramine and Prazipro ready to go.

Just make sure to dose accordingly for cupermine. therapeutic level is 0.5.

 

[ohlero]

Just make sure to dose accordingly for cupermine. therapeutic level is 0.5.

yeah Ill be very careful with it

 

[Big G]

I have Cupramine

Suggest you do not follow the directions on the bottle of Cupramine. It calls for two big doses to achieve therapeutic levels. This can be very harsh on some fish.
Consider calculating the total number of "drops" of Cupramine needed to reach therapeutic level based on the actual water capacity of your QT. Tanks are very seldom the size sold to you. A 20 gallon can actually be 18 or 19 gallons. So it can be very helpful to actually fill your QT using a know measuring container. Mark on the side of the tank each gallon or five gallon increment. Now that you know the "actual" capacity of the QT without the danger of overdosing.
Cupramine is four drops per gallon approximately to reach therapeutic. Spread out the dosing over several days (3-5). This allows you the luxury of observing if your fish happen to be sensitive to the copper. Copper is after all a poison.

 

[ohlero]

Suggest you do not follow the directions on the bottle of Cupramine. It calls for two big doses to achieve therapeutic levels. This can be very harsh on some fish.
Consider calculating the total number of "drops" of Cupramine needed to reach therapeutic level based on the actual water capacity of your QT. Tanks are very seldom the size sold to you. A 20 gallon can actually be 18 or 19 gallons. So it can be very helpful to actually fill your QT using a know measuring container. Mark on the side of the tank each gallon or five gallon increment. Now that you know the "actual" capacity of the QT without the danger of overdosing.
Cupramine is four drops per gallon approximately to reach therapeutic. Spread out the dosing over several days (3-5). This allows you the luxury of observing if your fish happen to be sensitive to the copper. Copper is after all a poison.

That's great advice thank you

 

[ohlero]

so how do you move the fish from QT to your Display tank when they have been in copper?

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

so how do you move the fish from QT to your Display tank when they have been in copper?

Keep doing WC’s and use carbon to remove the copper from the QT. I then do a transfer between two small containers of fresh SW before going into DT.

 

[ohlero]

Keep doing WC’s and use carbon to remove the copper from the QT. I then do a transfer between two small containers of fresh SW before going into DT.

Ok thanks