I hope its not Ich!

[Spammie33]

I've seen some of my fish scratching for the last couple of days and I have been watching them closely hoping that it wasn't Ich, and today I noticed they had tiny white spots on them... most and all of my fish have them, a couple of white spots. UGH what a tragedy I'm freaking out, just when i thought everything was going fine...today I checked and everything was fine Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, PH etc... I'm freaking out, I want to get this treated asap. All my fish are eating fine except my yellow tang...

I've read of many methods online, I think I'm just going to have to treat the whole tank. In your experience, which is the quickest/best/most effective method to treat a whole tank infested with Ich? Any advice is extremely helpful I'm pretty desperate. Thank you... ):

 

[Spammie33]

Here are some pictures of my Batfish, he did not have any spots on him yesterday. I saw these spots on him about 2 hrs ago. You can see the white spots on his tail ....):

 

[kyle4201]

Do u have inverts? If yes, ugh! If no, copper treatment (however it will ALWAYA b there & u cant have corals). If u dont want to do that then,, either qt ur fish in a qt tank with copper, or qt them with the water change method. Ive used both.

 

[kyle4201]

I have experienced ich before. I'm going to IM you

 

[DaveK]

Yes it is ich.

Treatment must be done by removing all the fish to a quarantine tank, and treating with either hyposalinity or copper. The treatment time is 8 weeks. Meanwhile the disease will die off in the main tank due to the lace of a host.

See these threads -
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/57175-fish-white-spots-went-away.html
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/52236-curing-fish-marine-ich.html
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/23132-marine-ich-myths-facts.html
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...nts/23131-hyposalinity-treatment-process.html
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...ents/23130-copper-treatment-use-problems.html

Now I know that the advice given is not what anyone wants to hear, but IMHO it's the only methods that actually works. Period. Pay special attention to the white spots that went away thread and the myths and facts thread so you won't get taken in by the worthless "cures".

While we are on the subject, again IMO, there are no treatments that are "reef safe" and effective for fish diseases. Despite what the LFS store might say, or what's printed on the package, or what other well meaning people might tell you, there just are not any. Save yourself the time, effort and money up front and use what works.

 

[Bearjohnson]

+1^

Only two methods to cure it. Hypo-salinity and copper treatment.

Both should be performed in a separate QT tank. Not in the main display (especially copper treatment)

Read through the info DaveK mentioned and you'll do fine.

Good Luck!

 

[whippetguy]

If the tank is a fish only tank, would hyposalinity be okay in the display?

 

[LSUFireGal]

If the tank is a fish only tank, would hyposalinity be okay in the display?

It should be done in a QT. Hypo will kill off any micro inverts like pods and such, even if you are ok with that you have no idea how much you have and it can cause a huge amonia spike.

 

[kyle4201]

^^ I read about a multiple tank method that sounded credible. Due to the life cycle of the ich you can move the fish from 1 tank to the other every 3 days or so Changing water and cleaning tanks in between fish) . the time it takes for the different life cycles, the fish will be free of ich in 4-6 weeks. Im looking 4 the article but I cant find it.

 

[Spammie33]

Yes it is ich.

Treatment must be done by removing all the fish to a quarantine tank, and treating with either hyposalinity or copper. The treatment time is 8 weeks. Meanwhile the disease will die off in the main tank due to the lace of a host.

See these threads -
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/57175-fish-white-spots-went-away.html
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/52236-curing-fish-marine-ich.html
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/23132-marine-ich-myths-facts.html
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...nts/23131-hyposalinity-treatment-process.html
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...ents/23130-copper-treatment-use-problems.html

Now I know that the advice given is not what anyone wants to hear, but IMHO it's the only methods that actually works. Period. Pay special attention to the white spots that went away thread and the myths and facts thread so you won't get taken in by the worthless "cures".

While we are on the subject, again IMO, there are no treatments that are "reef safe" and effective for fish diseases. Despite what the LFS store might say, or what's printed on the package, or what other well meaning people might tell you, there just are not any. Save yourself the time, effort and money up front and use what works.

I dont have a QT big enough for all my fish, and I couldn't catch them even if I wanted to... I just, I dont know if its worth the stress... My fish tend to get really stressed easily thats why I was looking for methods in which I could treat the main display tank. Thanks for the suggestions! I will read them ASAP!

 

[Spammie33]

It should be done in a QT. Hypo will kill off any micro inverts like pods and such, even if you are ok with that you have no idea how much you have and it can cause a huge amonia spike.

thanks for clearing this up! I was wondering the same thing. Too bad I have inverts.

 

[DaveK]

^^ I read about a multiple tank method that sounded credible. Due to the life cycle of the ich you can move the fish from 1 tank to the other every 3 days or so Changing water and cleaning tanks in between fish) . the time it takes for the different life cycles, the fish will be free of ich in 4-6 weeks. Im looking 4 the article but I cant find it.

In my opinion, even if it works, and I don't and I don't see how it could, it's a lot more work than just treating in a QT tank, and you need a lot of tanks to do it. All those moves put a lot more stress on the fish too.

 

[DaveK]

I dont have a QT big enough for all my fish, and I couldn't catch them even if I wanted to... I just, I dont know if its worth the stress... My fish tend to get really stressed easily thats why I was looking for methods in which I could treat the main display tank. Thanks for the suggestions! I will read them ASAP!

Here is the bottom line.

If you want to cure your fish, you get a quarantine tank big enough to hold them all. It need not be a regular tank. It could be anything that will safely hold the water and where you can see the fish. Then you catch them all, even if you need to remove all or almost all your live rock to do it, and move them to the quarantine tank. Then treat.

I know that no one wants to here this. This disease is a huge problem not on in the aquarium trade, but also in the aquaculture trade, as in growing fish for food. If there were some simple, easy way to treat the disease, we'd all be using it. Regretfully, this is not the case.

 

[jpsika08]

If the tank is a fish only tank, would hyposalinity be okay in the display?

If it's a FOWLR tank you can perform Hypo treatment, you don't lose all beneficial bacteria. (Just be sure you don't have inverts in there as they can't survive).
A friend of mine had a huge break of Ich in his tank, it was a 220, more than 15 fishes, no QT around.
We did a major Hypo treatment (Lowered salinity to 1.009) for 2 months (Over did the thing a little), not only all fish survived but when we leveled salt up again, the tank responded well and did not recycled.