Ughhhh!!! Help please?!

[Carlson Moncrief]

Im so frustrated! My white cheek has ich. Its slowly showing up more and more. I recently spent 85 $ on the fish and would hate to loss it ( not even closs to the cost of everything else in the system) j gave him a freshwater bath for 2.00 min the first day I noticed it. It starting looking better but two days later it came back harder so I dippec him for three minutes with no trouble. Not even on his side. Im really thinking about just dipping him as long as he'll go now because its worth it if It cures him. Ive never had it before and have little expierence. What should I do? Please give me some ideas.

 

[reefnewb1982]

Qt him maybe with coppermine and parazine I think that is what its called but ill double check hope it gets better ive lost a couple of fish due to not putting them in a qt before the display expensive lesson learned

 

[Carlson Moncrief]

Ok. Hes about 5 Inches. How big of a qt should he be In?

 

[pickupman66]

Wow. Large fish. Needs as much qt as u can give. Problem is that the parasite is in your display too. All other fish are exposed.

 

[jschultzbass]

There are a lot of ich threads on here you can look at. Just due a search for ich, or even google it and you'll get plenty of results. This is the reason all fish should be QT'd before going in your display tank...especially tangs as they seem to be more susceptible than most other fish. Now that Ich is in your tank the only way to get rid of it for good is to take all your fish out out and put them in a QT tank and treat with Cupramine or "tank transfer" method and let the display tank run without any fish for 10 weeks. If you can't do this for one reason or another than the best thing to do is to keep all fish very low in stress and feed high quality food so their immune system has a chance to fight it whenever an outbreak occurs.

 

[Carlson Moncrief]

Im putting all my fish in qt tonight a nd ordering cupramine express shipping. Of course all the lfs had to say was raise the temperature of the display tank. I think they wont me to lose all of my fish so ill spend another couple thousand in there store.

 

[pickupman66]

Now that I realize you have TWO threads on this fish.....

Raising hte temperature will assist in speeding up the lifecycle of the parasite. not much but it does.

while you await your shipment... go read.

Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

 

[Carlson Moncrief]

Will 25 gallons be enough for him for 12 weeks?

 

[Carlson Moncrief]

How does it look? I have carbon, a heater, a nano 425 koralia, and an airstone. This might sound dumb but the airstone couldnt cause any harm could it? It dong want the ph raised any.

 

[reefnewb1982]

Thays a noce quick set up for a quarantine tank wish I would have thought of that

 

[reefnewb1982]

Nice*

 

[Carlson Moncrief]

Thanks! I hope it will be alright long term. I mb leaving the other fish in my system ( copperband, clowns, bangai, and chromis to wait and see if they have any trouble. If any more shows up ill take them all out. I thought about treating him with hypo slowy lowering the salinity down to .09 . Is this dangerous for the fish or will it even work?

 

[jschultzbass]

In my personal opinion just taking the one fish out and treating isn't going to do any good. You have to take all fish out or else ich will still be in your system and tang will probably just get it again. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of work to QT all your fish now and let your DT go fallow for the 10 weeks. It's also stressful on the fish and you could suffer some losses. Not to mention you'll have to do a lot of water changes to make sure the ammonia stays in check since there is no live rock. Also, don't run carbon with the medication. The carbon will just strip the cupramine out of the water. I might get scolded for saying this but if I were you I would probably return the fish to the DT and see if he can fight it. If he gets through the initial ich outbreak there is a good chance that he'll be fine even if there is ich in the DT. I hope others post their opinions.

 

[pickupman66]

having some sort fo biological filter in there will help greatly. Such as a HOB filter. Also some PVC pieces for him to hide in.

 

[TJ's Reef]

Great advice ^above^ not an easy thing to do by any means but the best option for long term success. Been there done that myself so feel for you on this difficult decision ahead of you, check out my build thread link at signature below. The one option of letting it ride is not without merit though, IF you are done adding livestock to this system for a time none zero nada for a minimum of 10-12 months the individual strains of the Ich parasite will interbreed itself to extinction. There are several papers now confirming the need for new genetic material for like 98+% of these parasites to survive and once your current group of Fish have developed resistance to this particular strain and are kept healthy they will 'Ride it Out'.


Cheers, Todd

 

[Carlson Moncrief]

What do you think the chances of the fish riding it out will be? I could increase the temp to 84 yo speed up the life cycle If it would help. And maybe do a water change anf add extra media for the time being?

 

[Carlson Moncrief]

I could also take ou Tg the blue green chromis that take up so much space... if it would make a difference.

 

[Carlson Moncrief]

Its doing good sar far. Made the decision to try and let it fight off the ich. With two extra bags of carbon. So far its eating brine and sea weed.

 

[Carlson Moncrief]

Update on the tank: the tang seems to be at bay. The ich doesnt appear to be getting worse but its not getting any better either and once in a while ill se him scratch on a rock. Quick question, if the ich on the tang eventually gets worse to the point that he nearly wont make it in the dt. Will the oc hVe growing on the tang make the other fish in the tank more prone to getting it to? Also, would it be worth it to start adding garlic extreme to there food? Ive heard that it will help, and it wont help. Is there any real evidence that it helps the fish's immune system?

 

[sager1966]

Ok....my question is regarding ich.....is it only directed towards fish ?? If I have ich in my tank, besides the fish, will I have to take out the live rock ? Corals ?? Snails and crabs ?? I been searching various places and not one place specifically says only fish.....LOL....
I know, may sound like a dumb question, but I have a 210g tank, lots invested in corals and such, and if my fish have ich...want to be sure what needs to come out....so can anyone please help with my question ?

Thanks all