Question on ICH

[bdls]

About 3 of my fish are starting to get ICH on them. My question is can I put all 3 in a hospital tank? Then how would I treat my aquarium?
Bobby D

[erikharrison]

move them to the qt tank, with a lower salinity 1.012-1.015.... Or you could do this to your main tank. Xenia will die off though... I did this in mine, but only for a day, and it worked. Did your levels spike unexpectedly? Do several water changes during the course of a week, and try to lower your salinity to at least 1.017..... It worked for me! I had ICH on a spotted boxfish and a striped burrfish (spiny boxfish).... TRY IT!
I also did some freshwater dips for 5 minutes to help alleviate the immeadiate effects of the affected fish.

[bdls]

Thanks for the reply Erik.
My tested my water today and everything is fine. Now my salinity is between 1.023 & 1.024. To lower the salinity do I remove and add purified water? and it won't hurt the fish to run them under fresh water for a while? I'm new to saltwater so I hope the questions don't sound dumb. What about turning up the temp in the water to 80 deg., will this help also or just put everything into shock.

[5.0Stang]

how much lr you got in your tank if you can put the lr in a rubbermaid or something with a powerhead and your gonna need to lower your salinty to 1.09 in the course or 2 days. Keep it there for 3-5 weeks my fish went for 2 months to make sure. If you have a skimmer its gonna be useless then cause it only will foam really good in saltwater so be prepared to make MASSIVE water changes. Lowering salinity also helps the fish brethe better you will prolly notice that once you lower. What i did to lower mine is i made water at 1.09 and did water changes that way they werent totally in fresh water. Remember take your inverts out (hermits,snails,and shrimp) they cannot take the lower salinty put them with your rock Oh yea if you have sand it will die too that why people place their fish in hypo in a QT and let their tank go fallow for a month to 2 months. Then raise your salintiy over the course or 1 week by water changes i did mine in 2 weeks to make sure. Pm me if you have anymore ?'s If you dont wanna do that then COPPER works also but no inverts or sand or lr and cost money

[5.0Stang]

Raising your temp only helps to speed up the parasite's life cycle. READ HERE http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/hyposalinity/Hyposalinity_OST_Osmotic_Shock_Therapy.htm
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/ichparasiticdiseases/Marine_Ich_Diseases_Other_Fish_Parasites.htmPlease read and understand the life cycle of ich and you will then know what you need to do

[erikharrison]

Well what I did first was raise the tank temp. It rose to 90 degrees. All that does is speed up the lifecycle of the ICH, which could actually make it worse. I have three anenomes and I just lowered the salinity to 1.012 for 2 days. The freshwater dips scared me too. I love fish (especially mine) and the 2 that were afflicted are 2 of my favorites. The lowered salinity started to affect my xenia which is the only reason that I raised it back up. If you can get away with 1.012, having no corals, will definitely help. Also don't lower the salinity too gradually, because the ICH will adjust. You do need to add fresh water to lower it. If you have a FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock) you should be a-o.k. at 1.012 for about 30 days. The freshwater dip will alleviate any immeadiate white spots by crushing the parasites. Lower salinity = heavier water. I would do the f/w dip if they have some bad spots, for 5 minutes, make sure the water is dechlorinated! Also, to do the dip, make sure youre using a bucket or something!

[erikharrison]

oh yeah! Watch the water temps on the dip!!! Too cold/hot = dead fish!
I was scared to do the dip too, now, it;s not so bad ;)

[bdls]

Thanks for the info. guys. I'll try it
Bobby

[erikharrison]

GOOD LUCK! Look at my joined date! I have had these problems too already!!!

[bdls]

My fish are doing better, Thaks for everyone's help.

[edawgm]

though i am only into my 2 month of SW. I did read that cleaner shrip (skunk shrimp) are a natural way of getting reed of ich in a reef tank. does this work as well?

[txstateunivreefer]

ok so i have never had these prolems what deos it look like how is it prevented? by having a cleaner shrimp can it keep it supressed?

is it true that using a garlic supplement works as a preventative?

[edawgm]

I have two cleaner shrimp in my 75g and my tangs (brown, yellow and salfin) have gotten this white dots on them shortly after putting them in the tank. from my guess and what i have been told about ich this is what they had. I would notice when they had the white dots on them the tangs would go over to the shrimp and get cleaned for about 2-3 days. after that the spots where gone. but i am no expert.

[erikharrison]

yeah ich is little white spots, something you can do is dip any new fish in some fresh, dechlorinated water for 5 minutes making sure the temp is ok on your water, and that should do well for them. Feed them spirulina enriched brine to help their immune system fight off the infection. Other than that one 25% water change, then 10% daily until it simmers down. Meanwhile, you can slowly raise the tank temp, and lower the salinity to 1.017 if you have corals, or as low as 1.012 with no corals. I talked to a guy at Polly's Pet Shop in Universal City that said they keep their tanks at 1.012 because of all the fish that come through there. The lower salinity makes for harder water which crushes the parasite altogether. When my fish were all spotty I would freshwater dip, paying close attention to the temp of the water and timing 5 minutes until I took him out of the water. IMO, don't drop the salinity to 1.012, stay up around 1.015. The whole tank has to be treated, so I didn't do the whole "hospital tank" method, i treated my setup.

[erikharrison]

oh yeah, the little white dots will be about the size of a pinhead, could be only 20 or so on the fish's body/eyes... almost looks like microbubbles.

[aprilmayjune]

I read an article in reefkeeping magazine that did a study on garlic and its effect on diseases. It basically said that fish do show an improvement in health when they are injected with garlic, but there is no evidence of any benefits when soaking food in garlic.

Even still, my fish seem to have a bigger appetite when I soak their food in garlic, and by keeping them fat and healthy they have better resistance to ich and a stronger immune system for when they have to fight off ich.

I have only had one outbreak in my tank on my little sailfin tang. All I did was soak his food in garlic, keep him well fed, and throw in a couple cleaner shrimp. It was gone by the next day.

[thedude]

Erik,

Dropping the salinity of a tank (within reason) can be done relatively quickly as you said. How did you raise the salinity back to normal levels in your tank? To do this correctly, it often takes one or two DAYS to go up .001 safely. Raising salinity quickly causes huge problems for the liver and kidneys of a fish.

Pet stores often have a dilemna to solve as fish come in at a lower salinity (to deter disease) than most customer's tanks. 90% of people will not acclimate the fish properly to a higher salinity level causing long term damage.

John

[jessinator752]

do the freshwater medications work on saltwater tanks? when i had my freshwater tank i got little tablets to treat ich, but i'm not sure how that would work with saltwater.

[DaBird47]

also garlic powder sprinkled in the tank ...voodoo to some but worked for me...

[erikharrison]

Erik,

Dropping the salinity of a tank (within reason) can be done relatively quickly as you said. How did you raise the salinity back to normal levels in your tank? To do this correctly, it often takes one or two DAYS to go up .001 safely. Raising salinity quickly causes huge problems for the liver and kidneys of a fish.

Pet stores often have a dilemna to solve as fish come in at a lower salinity (to deter disease) than most customer's tanks. 90% of people will not acclimate the fish properly to a higher salinity level causing long term damage.

John

A drip bucket!!! :) It's a five gallon square bucket that has a T connector with the double end inside the bucket, with a valve to adjust drip into my wet/dry...

[erikharrison]

do the freshwater medications work on saltwater tanks? when i had my freshwater tank i got little tablets to treat ich, but i'm not sure how that would work with saltwater.

no.