Start of a ich outbreak

[90G Mark]

have had my tank for like 4 years with no ich ever to show its face. but now here it is. i have cupramine on hand but i would like to know will my coral survive it. i have a GSP, a Bushy sea stem, a elephant ear leather, and a zoanthid. not sure what type of zoe it is. will my coral survive the copper?

 

[drmantistoboggan]

You need to treat fish in a separate tank. Inverts, coral included will not survive the use of copper in the display. Additionally copper will get in your rock and sand and then release later on making it 1) very difficult to keep copper at therapeutic levels and 2) fully removed the copper from the system later

Your coral will survive ich if not treated. Ich doesn’t attack coral or inverts

 

[BlennyTime]

Yes, if you put copper in the tank, it will be very difficult to do corals or inverts ever again.

 

[90G Mark]

You need to treat fish in a separate tank. Inverts, coral included will not survive the use of copper in the display. Additionally copper will get in your rock and sand and then release later on making it 1) very difficult to keep copper at therapeutic levels and 2) fully removed the copper from the system later

Your coral will survive ich if not treated. Ich doesn’t attack coral or inverts

Ok i could move them to a 20 gallon long i have. but what about the ich in my display from what i read they like swimming around. or is there a product that is safe for my display. just want to be sure to remove all signs of it

 

[drmantistoboggan]

Ok i could move them to a 20 gallon long i have. but what about the ich in my display from what i read they like swimming around. or is there a product that is safe for my display. just want to be sure to remove all signs of it

So let’s take a step back. You have to choose the route you want to take. There are two ways to treat ich. 1) management and 2) prevention.

Management goes under the theory that we all have ich in our aquarium it only becomes an issue if things are stressed in some way, weakening their immune system and leading to an outbreak. A lot of people will buy UV sterilizers to help manage it as a property sized one will kill the free swimming ich (research the ich life cycle to learn more) but those are expensive for a properly sized one. And cheap ones just likely aren’t killing it.

Prevention or elimination would mean you need to transfer the fish from the display into another tank, treat them and then keep them out of the tank for 76 days. This will starve the ich and kill it outright BUT it can then be reintroduced to the system when you buy new coral or fish if you don’t QT them prior to putting in your tank.

 

[drmantistoboggan]

There are lots of forums on ich treatment here. @Humblefish is an expert on this and has created great resources for the community. If you search “ich Humblefish” it’ll probably pop up a lot of his posts

 

[drmantistoboggan]

Either way if the outbreak is bad enough you may need to treat in a separate tank just to provide the fish a fighting chance and THEN figure out a management strategy if you decide to go that route

 

[90G Mark]

So let’s take a step back. You have to choose the route you want to take. There are two ways to treat ich. 1) management and 2) prevention.

Management goes under the theory that we all have ich in our aquarium it only becomes an issue if things are stressed in some way, weakening their immune system and leading to an outbreak. A lot of people will buy UV sterilizers to help manage it as a property sized one will kill the free swimming ich (research the ich life cycle to learn more) but those are expensive for a properly sized one. And cheap ones just likely aren’t killing it.

Prevention or elimination would mean you need to transfer the fish from the display into another tank, treat them and then keep them out of the tank for 76 days. This will starve the ich and kill it outright BUT it can then be reintroduced to the system when you buy new coral or fish if you don’t QT them prior to putting in your tank.

thank you so much. think ill remove them and treat and hopefully when i put them back all will stay clear. thank you for taking the time to respond to my question

 

[Uncle99]

The only way to rid a DT of ick is by keeping it without fish for 76 days.
As long as there’s fish in the DT, they will attach, fall off, multiply by 100s, attach, fall off.....and so on.....

 

[90G Mark]

The only way to rid a DT of ick is by keeping it without fish for 76 days.
As long as there’s fish in the DT, they will attach, fall off, multiply by 100s, attach, fall off.....and so on.....

Thank you, so if the DP has ich even if the fish are not stressed when put back in the DP after treatment they will catch ich again?

 

[drmantistoboggan]

There’s some debate on this. If your fish are healthy they are less likely to catch ich if you put them back. That being said, there is still a chance and you need to understand what stressed them in the first place. Is there a bully? Bad water chemistry? Overstocking? Not enough flow? Over feeding? Etc. there are no guarantees without elimination but there people do have success with management but you need to be more in tune with the tank and be ready to react if something gets out of wack

 

[90G Mark]

nothing has changed. i am almost sure of it. now like a month and a half ago i did a 80% water change due to a spike in nitrate but post that spike and after spike nitrait is like 4 maybe closer to 2. i did add a new light and been messing with it trying to get the intensity right. could light stress out fish? other then the few spots on them no more the 4 on the fish with the most they seem real happy. they are doing alot of flashing.. so can light stress them out?