Ick!

[FERG42995]

I bought several fish Friday evening. My Flame Angel that I bought appears to have ick! I am terrified that it is going to wipe out my whole tank. The store sold me some garlic drops to put in the water and in the fish food and told me to turn the temperature up to 82 degrees to get the ick to run its life cycle faster. They said the garlic drops are an immune booster to help the other fish not catch it and to hopefully, get the angel strong enough to fight it.

Any other ideas of what I should do? Even though I don't have corals, I know I can't use copper. This is what is in my tank:

sick flame angel
Fridmani Pseudochromis
a variety of snails and hermit crabs
fire shrimp (got at same time as flame angel)
banded starfish
Blue Green Chromis
Oscellaris Clown
Royal Gramma (got at same time as flame angel)
PJ Cardinal
2 Emerald Crabs
live rock
live sand

I am in a panic as I have invested a lot of money and don't want it all gone in one big ick breakout.

[FERG42995]

Make that 1 Emerald Crab. My daughter just called crying that the small one died. I assume it is unrelated.

[urban79]

ick killed my box fish.. So get a small tank and use rid ick.

[apedroza]

Yes seperate it and treat in a different tank if possible.

[erikharrison]

For preventitive maintainence, a UV sterilizer will kill off any free floating ich. So when it gets to that point in their lifecycle if you have the correct sized UV and pump powering it, you should have the upper hand in treating a display tank chemical free. Speeding up their life cycle isn't necessarily a good idea either. Speeding up the life cycle of a parasite that has a host just makes it worse for the host, I would assume. If you plan on keeping corals in your display, don't treat that tank with any chemicals to try and subdue or remedy the issue. Deposits of those chemicals will remain in the tank for a very long time! Ich lives all over in an aquarium, and the best way IMHO would be to house the fish in a qt tank and leave the display without any fish for the ich to host on. Copper (yes I said it) in a qt tank will kill off all of the ich as long as you treat the fish exact to label specs. You will need a test kit for that as well. I recall saying that strands of ich build up a tolerance to hyposalinity as well. I tanked some xenia completely this way. If you have any good corals, yeah, I wouldn't try it! Aquarium design is getting in a shipment and they will have some cleaner gobies. I think he ordered six, but one is mine :)


Oh yeah! I forgot, Aquarium Design has some ***panese Bulb replacements for UVs. CHEAP!!! UV will also make your water clear!
HTH :)

[FERG42995]

Thanks, Erik!

I don't have a QT but obviously should get one as everyone is suggesting it.

Also, I don't know what a UV is?

And, I checked my salinity level and it is too high. Don't know how that happened but it for sure needs to be brought down just to get it in the high level of the "normal" zone. Can I change out 5 gallons of salt tonight and replace with 5 gallons of RO? (tank is 55 plus a small sump).

I have no corals and don't plan to for at least a year. I can't even figure out how to keep my fish alive yet, more less corals!

[erikharrison]

Lowering the salinity, you should be ok. Buy a floating hydrometer! It has a darn thermometer built right into it as well. :) Oh and its a UV Sterilizer. Essentially, the water flows into a chamber that has a light inside of it. The light inside is a uv bulb which the uv kills the parasites. Most HQI (which basically means a double sided bulb) metal halide pendants have a UV shielded piece of glass to keep from frying the tank. The trick with UV is to find the right one for your size. You have a 55g but do you have a sump? What is the gallon size of that? When you look up UV sterilizers, make sure to keep two major things in mind, you want an oversized bulb and a pump that is rated for that sterilizer. I FORGOT, water quality is KEY for control as well!


I DIDNT MEAN THE HYDROMETER WAS A UV STERILIZER TOO, it just read funny. :ROFL:

[erikharrison]

Here, this one is fairly inexpensive and easy to maintain. The replacement bulbs (off brand) are 14.99 at AD.

Big Al's Online (http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18545/si1383256/cl0/coralifeturbotwist3x9wattuvsterilizer)

Can you tell what I have been pricing out lately? haha. I have a puffer and they are ich prone :)

[FERG42995]

Erik,

Thanks. I'll order one. Sounds like this is going to be a tough fight but I plan to win (at least I hope!)!:bareteeth:

[erikharrison]

AD as them in stock, if you just wanna run out and grab one. Also, I have a thirty gallon tank you can have for free. The top trim just needs to be resealed.

[FERG42995]

Thanks, Erik! I'll take you up on the tank! Can I meet you on Saturday to get it? Or maybe Friday night?

[erikharrison]

Whenever's clever. I'll shoot you a PM. :)