the cupramine

[MotoReef]

Sounds like you are headed in the right direction.

Hi and thanks for the reply. Yes, due to the amount of fish (all) that I needed to treat, I reconfigued my 135g DT with bioball wet-dry (established), void of all carbon, rocks, sand, etc... to a Fish Only Hostpital. A small hospital was not possible as such setup would have been multiple tanks and more gallons, considering the load of all of my present fish stock.
This DT (now hospital is humming along fine, all fish almost cured, eating well)

The question about FALLOW separate tank I have going housing basically my reef minus fish: on my 2nd week of 8.


All corals and inverts, sand, rocks, and skimmer has been moved to a separate tank void of all fish, and not connected in any way for a fallow period.

Just another quick question:

Lymasota Cleaner and Fire Shrimps are in my fallow reef as of now, without any medication obviously. Are those safe to keep in there, and will not be a cause for propagation of ich in anyway? There are no fish in there, but I was just wondering for any crustaceans to be a alternate host for ich.

Thank you in advance.

 

[leebca]

No invertebrate plays host to the Marine Ich parasite, Cryptocaryon irritans. All shrimps will not harbor this parasite.

 

[MotoReef]

No invertebrate plays host to the Marine Ich parasite, Cryptocaryon irritans. All shrimps will not harbor this parasite.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this quickly.
I guess I am on the right track, 2 of 8 weeks of this...

Shrimps have laid a whole bunch of eggs, which hatched a few days ago and the fallow tank is just FULL of hundreds of baby Lymasota... I doubt from reading elsewhere that they will survive long enough for them to grow through their various stages of life before they are 'shrimps'. However, they are getting larger each day No praying fish. If anything, in 8 weeks time, fish will have some really cool meal. LOL!

Thanks again for the great information!

PS: The weekly 30% water change on the 135 gallon hospital is KILLING me...LOL But must keep ammonia/nitrite and other junk down.
This week, I have reattached the spare skimmer to start getting rid of junk, and I suppose some copper and antibiotics will come out as well.
I should be OK as long as I continue to monitor copper levels (intending to keep it at 0.4 for couple more weeks) but at the same time, give a little boost on the biofilteration by skimming (and resulting oxygen input). All fish have been free of 'visible' ich for 4-5 days now, but just to make sure.
I should, after 2 more weeks, rid of copper and see if ich re-appears? yes? And take action if it does, or run it fish only till the reef tank side can pass 8 weeks of fallow period even if no ich shows in the hospital.

 

[leebca]

After the copper treatment, remove as much copper as you can, then hold fish in quarantine at least another 4 weeks or until the display system is ready, whichever is longer, to verify the fish are no longer infected with the parasite.

 

[MotoReef]

After the copper treatment, remove as much copper as you can, then hold fish in quarantine at least another 4 weeks or until the display system is ready, whichever is longer, to verify the fish are no longer infected with the parasite.

Thank you, Yes yes...

I am following that method to a tee. I have the 135 fish-only medicated tank slowly weaning off the Cupramine, and antibiotics.
Fish seem well on its way to stay ich-free as of now. (we'll see)

Awaiting the DT tank contents in another tank to be 8 weeks old without fish before I will begin to merge the two systems back to the big tank. That's happening in late July. :bigbounce

 

[MotoReef]

Just an update:

Thank you all for the help you've given me.
It's been a couple of weeks since the copper treatment, re-quarantine has been completed, as well as 8 week fallow of my main tank.

I am VERY happy to report that all corals and inverts have thrived really well, and the Lymasota Cleaner Shrimp even managed to spawn a few times in the process (though none of the fry ever made it to transform beyond brine sized critters)
Mainly because as soon as the heniochus went back in, he had a feast that lasted 3 days on them

The fish came out all looking great out of the QT, nice and fat from normal feeding and nutritional levels, the pop-eye in the heniochus acumanitus is gone, and all ich has not come back despite the restocking/migration process of the main tank (from the QT life) and stress related to that. They seem really glad to see purple rocks and living copepods again and not having to lodge in plastic ship models and fake plants!! LOL!

The purple tang has not gone back in due to it becoming an aggression issue.
I'll just keep him in the QT tank, which is now a normal tank until I need to QT new fish again. (probably not for a LONG time)

Yellow watchman seems to have found his old friend pistol in there and digging a home together.
Lost a few snails in the main tank for some reason, but it may just be lack of algae and food as I didn't feed the fallow tank much.

All in all, the main display showed no sign of ammonia each day as I moved fish back. So mini cycling is quick and in a few months, may reach total equilibrium again.

Everything is what I dreamed of and wished for from the start, and hoping for since the ich outbreak some 11 weeks ago.

It's time to wish a VERY NICE DAY for everyone here!:hug1:

It's officially a "DISPLAY TANK" and not a "STRESS AGENT TANK" any longer.

 

[Woodstock]

AWESOME work!!!

Congratulations on your ICH FREE display!!!!

 

[leebca]

Thanks for the follow up. It's good to hear that your efforts have paid off.

Don't let that evil thing back in!

 

[lcstorc]

Awesome!!!

 

[sneaks03]

Glad you had success. I am currently fighting ich as well and things are looking good so far, but it has only been a week. Hopefully i will be able to report the success you did.

 

[MotoReef]

Thanks for the follow up. It's good to hear that your efforts have paid off.

Don't let that evil thing back in!

Yes, seriously! From now on, I'm using copper dose for all new fish arrivals during 4 weeks of QT, and make new corals thrive in a nano tank for 6 weeks before going into the DT.

Great Leebca, another successful tank! Thanks to you and everyone else's expertise! Its really the first time I had a successful ich cure, ever, where I didn't lose a ton of fish or had the buggers come back repeatedly.

 

[MotoReef]

Glad you had success. I am currently fighting ich as well and things are looking good so far, but it has only been a week. Hopefully i will be able to report the success you did.

Just follow everyone's advice here with careful reading using the "search button" and you will. I am sure of it!

Just make sure you follow the instructions exactly and NEVER take short cuts thinking you'll be lucky. Nature is much more persistent than any of us trying to modify it.

 

[leebca]

It's a very long thread. The longer they are the usually less beneficial they are to the new reader.

However, with this followup, I'm closing the thread.

Start a new thread if you have more to say.