Ick Question

[Guest Lori's Reef]

I am in need of advise from those with more experience than I have.

 

I have a 5 month old 140g tank.  I brought in a sick fish that infected the whole tank. (Learned my lesson, won't do that again!)  White spots, I think it is called ick.  Does ick infect the tank as well as fish? I pulled the fish out to treat them in a quarantine tank, but was wondering if I should somehow treat the tank itself.  Nothing in there except about 60-70 lbs live rock, live sand, one cleaner shrimp, 1 sally lightfoot crab, 2 pincushion urchins.

 

Any advise would be appreciated!

 

Lori

[michaelg]

If there are no hosts for the ick- i.e. the fish are out of the tank, I think the ich dies in about 3 weeks.  I would not treat the tank.

[ctreptow]

Michael is right do not treat the tank. The Ick needs fish to complete it's life cycle. It can't attach to inverts. Once the last ick spot disappears from you fish in the QT tank leave the fish in QT for at least 4 weeks before moving them back to the display tank.

 

I just got done fighting this myself and it's not fun but the tank is recovering.

 

How are you treating the fish in QT?

 

Chris

[krish]

Lori,

 I would leave the fish in the display tank and just slowly lower the salinity over to 1.020.

 I have a hippo that is pretty susceptible to Ick. Fought the Ick using various means -

QT, UV etc.

 

 I am seeing substantial difference after having dropped the salinity to 1.021. This will help

since it will not stress the fish by moving to QT etc.

 

My 2 cents.

 

-krish

[cabrerad]

I have succesfully treated ick with garlic.  I just finely chopped up a few garlic cloves and mixed it in with the fish food.  It has worked every time.  Anyone else tried garlic?

 

David

[Guest Lori's Reef]

No kidding, its no fun! I am treating with Kent Marine RX-P.  Completed the recommended 13 days of treatment and put them back into the show tank.  I did this mainly because the yellow tang was not eating well in QT and was loosing weight like crazy. And, I didn't see any white spots.

 

Chris - thanks for the news about ick not clinging to inverts.  I was wondering about that!  I guess I just didn't wait long enough in QT.  I just tore the show tank apart again and put the only two fish left (yellow tang, coral beauty angel) back into QT for another round.  

 

Patience Lori, patience!

[Guest HVF21221]

I tried the Kent product when I was new to the hobby and it did not work. If you go round 2 with ick I would be prepared to remove the fish and let the tank go fallow for 1 month. Some people say once ich is in your tank it is always there. If you go fallow for a month you get a clean slate to start over, making sure it is not introduced again. In a hospital tank I use coppersafe at the recommended dosage and have had great success. The wild caught clown pairs I have bought seem to always have something. Howard

[miller]

do you have any corals in the tank? if so i would not recomend lowering the salinity

[ctreptow]

I treated mine with hyposalinity. You do need a refractometer for this but it's worth having one for hobby anyway. In th QT tank slowly drop the SG to 1.009. The Ick can't survive at this salinity level. Once the spots disapear keep sality at 1.009 for at least 4 weeks.

 

I dropped mine slowly about 5 points a day. and I will bring it back up much more slowly since the ride up is more stressful then the ride down.

 

Good luck and I hope they start to feel better.

 

My guys didn't like QT at 1st but after a week they seem to be eating much better and looking better.

 

Chris