Marine Ich - Myths and Facts

[W Churchill]

OK, I have Ich and have battled against it for nearly 6 months, thought I'd got rid, added new fish when I thought it had gone only to have it re-occur, I guess the fish that look free are simply going through the immunity stage and I can now appreciate what is happening after reading the article.

I'm quite happy to go through what ever I need to get rid, indeed I'm now up to 130 W of UV in my efforts so far, but am willing to go the quarantine road, but there are a few things that concern me.

First up the hospital tank. - I don't have a cycled tank ready and it would take a while to get one ready, but even when I do, it seems I would need another ready to transfer the fish after a few days. Unless I had yet another tank ready after a further few days, my only option would be to drain the first tank and fill it again ready for this next move, but then it wouldn't be cycled. I don't understand how I would achieve this without a whole room full of tanks.

When it comes to quarantining new stock I can see that one tank would do unless Ich shows up then I'm back to the hospital routine. Also I can only see how I could purchase new stock once every 8 weeks without having another quarantine tank or else I could potentially be introducing new Ich into a tank that is already half way through it's quarantine period and wasting my time.

I understand the cycle I just don't see how to achieve the cure.

[lcstorc]

I understand the confusion since you are missing a vital part of the process. You need to treat the fish for ich while they are in the hospital tank or when they are in qt. Effective treatments are either copper or hyposalinity. Both require very careful monitoring and testing.
If you have a sponge or other filter material from the DT you can use that to start cycling the qt. If you are not trying to fight an extreme situation I would wait for the tank to cycle.

[W Churchill]

Yes it seems I might have misunderstood, I thought the original article gave 3 treatments; reducing salinity, chemical and transfer, I thought the transfer was instead of chemicals.

[lcstorc]

I believe that can be done or at least I read about it somewhere. It just sounded like too much work and stress on the fish not to mention the expensive of all of the tanks etc.
I'll try to find the article.

[W Churchill]

So it's cycle a tank, move the fish to it, treat the fish and wait 8 weeks for my display tank to eliminate itself of Ich before putting them back.

[leebca]

Correct.

If you are unprepared with an already cycled hospital/quarantine tank, you can still begin immediately. Put water from your display system into the QT to start with. Then, you'll have to control the water quality (readings of zero ammonia and zero nitrites) of the QT by making two or three water changes daily (using fresh made-up water NOT water from the display system) and removing all wastes and uneaten foods daily or twice a day, until the biological filter starts.

You may want to read this for quarantine tank information: A Fish Quarantine Process - Step by Step

[fishcasa]

Is there anything else that looks like MI?

I put six small fish in a new fallow tank yesterday without quarantining them. The fish did not show any white spots at that time. Last night and this morning they showed what looked like ich to me (white spots on their bodies and fins, some stress behavior), but this afternoon, the spots are almost all gone and the fish are swimming around like normal, eating, etc.

Could the spots just be caused by the stress of the move or water conditions?

[leebca]

If it is Marine Ich, then you're falling into the trap of thinking it went away, when in fact it has just moved on to the 'invisible' stages of its life cycle.

Read the top post closely; your answers are there.

There are few parasites that look similar to Marine Ich, but usually they are not quite true white and/or not quite the size of a grain of salt. You're the one that saw it so you have to ask yourself if they were white and the size of a grain of salt.

The answer may come in a few hours or days when the next wave of Marine Ich parasites show themselves on the fish.

[fishcasa]

Thanks Lee, it was wishful thinking on my part. I have them all in a QT now and have started hyposalinity treatment.

Thanks for the response.

[justreefnmon]

hi i noticed today that my hippo tang has noticable spots and seems very irritated. i guessing ick. he has been rubbing himself on the glass all day for while. i have had tanks set up for about 8 months now. i have had tang for 5 months no problems since. i also has 3 other fish ,coral,and clam.
from this article i only take out infected fish and treat him in seperate tank.
so queation is
1# do i only treat tang, or all 4 fish?
2# what do i do about my coral/and clam in main tank?
po4 is 2
ni =1
sal=1.022
thank you mucho i have learned ALOT from you guys and galse

[Woodstock]

#1 - you need to treat all four fish in a seperate hospital tank.
#2 - leave all inverts in the display tank which needs to be kept fish free (fallow) for at least 8 weeks in order for the ICH to starve out.

That salinity is low for a reef tank. It is recommended to keep it at 1.025 - 1.027. Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

[justreefnmon]

oh those numbers are from the tank im am going to put them in. in article it says to have salinity a little low then slowly bring up

[Octoman]

I have a question...

Is there any reason I couldn't put some live rock from my fuge in the QT if I am treating with Hyposalinity? I understand that any worms, pods, etc.. won't survive the hypo, but this rock was cooked just a couple months ago and is relatively devoid of invert life. I think it would help substantially with the biological filtration...

[leebca]

Invertebrates cannot handle a low salinity. The live rock would turn into 'base rock' and anything dieing in or on the rock will begin to add pollution to the water.

It has been done before, however if the rock is not 'very alive' it may be okay. But odds are it will be asking for trouble with pollution.

I have known whole display tanks and systems treated with hyposalinity, but only those that did not contain live rock. Those with live rock have crashed about 75% of the time.

Pollution will be a primary concern in the QT so it isn't best to risk this. Besides, as far as bacteria goes, they are free and attached to everything in side the QT. Hobbyists sometimes miss the point that when the salinity is lowered, that the established bacteria may stop their metabolism. Thus established bacteria in the biological filter of the QT could stop; this also means that even bacteria on live rock could stop, requiring the hobbyist to perform water changes or use chemical filters to control ammonia and nitrites until the bacteria start up again.

[Nanoreefbro]

Is is true that running a UV Sterilizer will kill the parasites?