first case of ick

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somethingfishy

New Member
I think I'm having my first case of ick. It's my blue hippo tang. Its body has several white dots about the size of a grain of salt and its scratching itself against the rocks quite often. I've seperated it in a 2 gal bucket for now. I don't have a QT/hosp. tank yet. I'll read up on this disease but can anyone give me some guidance/tips on what to do ? thanks
 
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bob60070

New Member
You could do a fresh water dip. I could not catch my hippo so I got a cleaner wrasse and he does a great job. My hippo somehow got up into my overflow and when I got him out he stressed and got ick again and it was gone a day later.
 
Woodstock

Woodstock

The Wand Geek was here. ;)
RS STAFF
Scooterman

Scooterman

Active Member
Lee's suggestions are the best I've seen, he has all the information you will need. there is no fast easy cure, these usually cause too much stressors & kill the fish.
QT is always very important when keeping a reef tank.
 
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somethingfishy

New Member
I think I'll treat all fishes(total of 5, all small size) from that tank then. I've two 20 gal containers, so I'll use one as QT and the other for extra water volumn. If I'm going to go the copper route, which product do you guys recommand? Also, I'm thinking moving the skimmer from my sump to the 2nd container to hel maintain water quality, is that a good idea? I won't need this skimmer afterwards since I'm upgrading to a 100 gal display tank.
 
WatchinFish

WatchinFish

Member
i heard this is reefsafe and also works. i read a whole article on it where the guy tested it along with other so called reefsafe products and this one seemed to actually be reefsafe. he tested it with some xenas wich are super sensitive. check it out. its called ruby feef- kick ich heres a link
Ruby Reef - Kick-Ich, Safe Rally & HydroPlex

good luck
 
lcstorc

lcstorc

Well-Known Member
It may (or may not) be reef safe but that doesn't mean it will work.
Cupermine sp is the recommended copper treatment and you will need a copper test as well since the levels are very important.
While the extra 20g tank will help with filtration it also means you will need to use more medication and that can get expensive.
 
WatchinFish

WatchinFish

Member
hey cant ich stay on the rocks? so wouldnt you have to treat the whole tank?
and from what i have reserched about kick ich people all say it works. i havent found anything saying it doesnt work. only good about it.
 
Woodstock

Woodstock

The Wand Geek was here. ;)
RS STAFF
WatchinFish said:
hey cant ich stay on the rocks? so wouldnt you have to treat the whole tank?
and from what i have reserched about kick ich people all say it works. i havent found anything saying it doesnt work. only good about it.
Click to expand...

Yes it can.
That is what the eight week 'fallow' period is for. With no fish in the display for the ICH to complete its lifecycle, it will starve and die.
 
WatchinFish

WatchinFish

Member
I see. thanks for the benificial knolege woodstock. something to add to my brain. see i guess we do learn new things every day.:dance:
 
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somethingfishy

New Member
I think I'll get cupramine, not sure if my lfs carries it, will check tonight. If not, i'd have to buy online, do u think my fish can wait that long (i think it'd take at least a week or 10 days from ordering until receiving) Should I use some other copper treatment in the meantime?
 
lcstorc

lcstorc

Well-Known Member
You should be able to get it more quickly than that. If not you could try treating with hyposalinity. That is the other known cure. It is said to be more stressful on the fish. Instructions are on Lee's thread.
 
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leebca

Well-Known Member
That time frame is too long to wait. You should be able to find Cupramine and a Salifert Copper Test kit in your area.
 
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somethingfishy

New Member
I picked up a bottle of Cupramine at a lfs last night but they only have the seachem and red sea copper test kit. I read in some thread that seachem is hard to read so i got the red sea. I also pick up a small bottle of infant motrin at walmart so i can have the small syringe (goes from .625 to 1.25 ml, i think. I daughter can always use some motrin during cold season anyway)

Here's what i did, I moved the tang to a 5 gal container, using 3.5 gal from the display tank and 1 gal new water. put in .3 ml of Cupramine(i'll put in another .2 ml today, but it's hard to get that precise.) I'll check out petco or other lfs for salifert test kit today before opening the box of the red sea.

i don't have any filtration in this QT only an airstone, if amonia/nitrite gets too high and when i do wc, do I pre-mix the new water with Curpamine before adding it to the QT?
 
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leebca

Well-Known Member
Both ways of making a water change is okay. I've always favored putting the Cupramine in the water before it goes into the tank for the water change. If a mistake is made (spilled the bottle, or ?) then it was only the water before the water change and a new batch can be made.
 
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leebca

Well-Known Member
Not okay in my opinion. Using additives to address problems is putting on a band aid. The way to address the poison is to remove it/dilute it, not to add more chemicals to the water. It isn't always clear how some chemicals interact. A medicated tank should not be 'fed' other chemicals.

Remove all uneaten food; remove all wastes daily; start a biological filter even if it isn't up to snuff; keep making water changes.

Avoid 'short cuts' you can think up. :)
 
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somethingfishy

New Member
leebca said:
Not okay in my opinion. Using additives to address problems is putting on a band aid. The way to address the poison is to remove it/dilute it, not to add more chemicals to the water. It isn't always clear how some chemicals interact. A medicated tank should not be 'fed' other chemicals.

Remove all uneaten food; remove all wastes daily; start a biological filter even if it isn't up to snuff; keep making water changes.

Avoid 'short cuts' you can think up. :)
Click to expand...

will do, thanks.
 
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