Myths and Facts about Marine Ich.

[Mr Cob]

wow if i read the link right. ick gets into your tank by adding new fish and corals. is this the only way it can get into your tsnk? i just got a coral not to long ago from a member. give or take 5 days later my yellow tang has ick. tang looks like it has small white dots. what ick treatment do you think i should use. i dont over feed and per are good. tang eats fine. please pm with any info you may have for me. thanks

Most likely you already had ich in your tank. It's probably just a coincidence that the tang got ich some time after you added the coral. Most display tanks do have ich,you just don't see signs of it until the fish get stressed in some way.

The only sure way you don't have ich in your tank is if you followed the steps mentioned in the article for every piece of livestock in your tank.

[moe]

I really love this read. Thank u so much chris' now more than ever I to have hospital tanks. By the way do u have any? Is that how u were able to help ur BSC. U should post what u told me bout them.

moe

[seatrueblue]

I quarantined my chrysopterus aka ( blue striped clowns) in a 29 gallon tank for 16 weeks.
I know, way longer than they should be quarantined. 8 weeks after I started to quarantine my clowns I read this article. It inspired me to have an ich free aquarium. Sooo..I made my 120g go fishless for 8 weeks as well..sigh. It was a long wait but now I am rewarded with an ich free aquarium.

oh btw I used cupramine to get rid of the ich that my chrysopterus were infested with. The ich almost killed them. A couple of hours after I properly dosed the 29g with cupramine my fish were getting relief. Their breathing turned back to normal and their scales started to slim off the ich. The very next day they were looking so much better that they actually wanted to eat again. If you use cupramine..read the instructions carefully. Your quarantine must not have any live rock or live sand for it to be a proper quarantine tank. Just some pvc pipes, artificial aquascape, air stone and filtration.

To learn more about copper treatments and cupramine. read this link.

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...-problems.html

The only thing this link doesn't tell you about cupramine..is to measure cupramine with ml not drops. If you measure it in drops you can overdose the quarantine tank.

[moe]

that great, by the way my BTA kill my LTA. Very sad it was a nice looking one but it had no chance. I added another BTA and my clowns are loving it.

[hilltopperpete]

Thanks for the info. I picked up a 75g to quarantine all my fish in copper for 5 weeks before putting them in the main tank. Don't want ICH again EVER!

[barderer]

another intresting tid bit that seatrueblue was alluding to is having a bare bottom QT tank. Apparently the cyst form of the parasite does not like the hatching conditions on a ultra smooth surface. This was observed by a fish breeder who's live stock he housed in cement breeding tanks would always get ich and the ones he housed in bare glass and fiber glass would not. Once again, not a cure but just something to assist the healing. It also makes it easy to siphon out the cyst form of the parasite in the morning off the clean glass.

[juliear74]

Hi Everyone,
I found that this thread is so helpful! We have had a recurring ich problem in one of our tanks (which has been a bear) and have decided that we will try the settle the problem by using the copper treatment method described above after multiple failed treatments with a variety of agents. We have ordered the Cupramine and the test kit. I was wondering if some of you out there have done this before, and if so if you might be able to help me with a couple of questions in terms of set up. We have 5 fish that will be quarantined (2 damsels, 2 clowns, and one cowfish) for this purpose but have not yet set up a quarantine tank. My questions are as follows. (1) we have purchased a 29 gallon for quarantine of the fish. Will this tank size be adequate? (2) I understand that the QT must be simple, i.e., no sediment, and use only plastic etc. In setting this tank up I am concerned about nitrogen cycling. Should we fill the QT with water directly from the display tank so that the water in the QT already contains bacteria? The filter unfortunately will not. Should we set up the QT tank from scratch and let it cycle first? (3) How often should we test the quality of water in terms of ammonia, nitrite, etc while underoing copper treatment? (4) Should we QT the cowfish separately from the other fish to avoid poisoning all fish in the unfortunate instance that she stresses too much or dies? I fear that separating her will cause her even more stress as she is used to her tankmates.
I apologize for the length but I must admit that I am apprehensive about this process as I do not want to lose my fish but want to be rid of ich if at all possible! Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
Julie

[Richard]

(1) we have purchased a 29 gallon for quarantine of the fish. Will this tank size be adequate?
Yes
(2) I understand that the QT must be simple, i.e., no sediment, and use only plastic etc. In setting this tank up I am concerned about nitrogen cycling. Should we fill the QT with water directly from the display tank so that the water in the QT already contains bacteria? The filter unfortunately will not. Should we set up the QT tank from scratch and let it cycle first?
The tank needs to be fully cycled. You won't get enough bacteria from the water to get the tank cycled so you'll need to let it cycle. I would run the filter on your display tank for a week or so to get it seeded and then move it to the qt tank. Then you can either dose ammonia (google fishless cycling for directions) or you can add some black mollies to complete the cycle. You need sufficient bacteria to handle the bioload so you don't get ANY ammonia/nitrite spike. I've always preferred using black mollies to maintain a qt tank. They can be moved to a bucket with an airstone while you qt your fish if you don't want them in with them during qt (sometimes they pester the sw fish and sometimes they act as cleaner fish so you just have to keep an eye on them). The mollies can easily be made ick free by switching them back to fw for a few days and then used to keep your qt tank cycled and ready for future qt'ing. Although bare bottom is always recommended I always found the fish to be less stressed with just a little substrate so I usually put just a thin layer of non-carbonate sand or epoxy covered gravel, although it's not required.
(3) How often should we test the quality of water in terms of ammonia, nitrite, etc while underoing copper treatment?
Once your comfortable that the tank is fully cycled and you add your livestock, you should check ammonia/nitrite daily the first 4-5 days (should stay at zero) then just monitor nitrates weekly and do water changes to keep nitrates below 20. The lower the better but Nitrates aren't very toxic to fish so as long as you're below 20 they should be fine.
(4) Should we QT the cowfish separately from the other fish to avoid poisoning all fish in the unfortunate instance that she stresses too much or dies? I fear that separating her will cause her even more stress as she is used to her tankmates.
I guess that's a judgement call but I have never actually seen a cowfish poison a tank even when very stressed and have put a couple of dozen through copper treatment without any issues so I would not separate him.

[juliear74]

Hi Richard, thank you so much for your response! This is very helpful to me - and I am glad to hear that you have not found any problems with treating cowfish with copper. I really appreciate your feedback!
Julie

[alton]

It is nice to see Richard is still around and unless I am mistaking and making a fool out of myself again (nothing new) Richard from Bergheim and Mark use to own one of the best fish stores in the area (CB Pets). They quarantined most of the fish in the back the way Aquarium Sales and Service did when they where still around.