HELP!!!

[Guest clownfish4]

I bought a powder brown tang and blue hippo tang today and they both have a very small case of ich.  I have never had this problem before and am kind of at a loss.  I have been lowering the salinity of my QT very slowly, but how low should I go?  Also, how long of a freshwater dip should I do and how exactly should I go about it?

[quazi]

Well, I will weigh in on this one.  My approach is controversial, but has worked for me for 17 years without a loss (ok, maybe about the last 10 years; it took me awhile to learn this.)  It is easy: lower the stress on the fish and they will heal themselves.  Things to do:  Heavy carbon/Polyfilter filtering, good food (frozen is what I use, for these guys use some algae from a Japanese food store.)  limit lighting.  Provide them with hiding places.  Make sure the QT is well functioning with a great biofiltration system.

 

I would lower the salinity to 1.022 or so.  Do you have a refractometer or have you calibrated your hydrometer with one?  Without really knowing your actual salinity, I would hesitate to go lower.  

 

I would not perform fresh water dips, it is too stressful.

 

Just to clarify, I have lost new fish in the last 10 years.  However, it was due to things going bad in my tank (mostly fish starving to death or crushed when rearranging my tank :p )  Of course I have lost fish due to power outages and unknown reasons (I rarely see a dead fish, too many things to eat them after they die - too many savenging critters in my tank.)

 

All the ick in my tank has been solved without medicating, and if my tank was properly maintained, I have had no losses due to ick.  I do not have a QT tank.

 

Anyway, that is my story.  Others will disagree with me, so what else is new? :D

[Guest clownfish4]

I am using a refractometer and am still lowering the salinity, very slowly.  Both fish are very active and eating and only have a few small spots.  The hippo tang is scratching on the rock every now and then.  There are several hiding spots but they don't seem to want them.  They are swimming the entire length of the tank out in the open and are getting along great, no aggression.  I don't think I will have to medicate and will probably drop my salinity to between 1.020 and 1.022.  Thanks for the help.

[krish]

My tank is howering around 1.022. I have had it at 1.021 and the ick is less of an issue now.

With a refractometer, i would go as low as 1.019 over a period of say another week or so.

Check with David( Chideloh). He has perfected this technique.

 

-krish

[miller]

hippo tangs are very prone to ich mine gets a little once in a while and it just kinda comes and goes cleaner shrimp and cleaner gobies work pretty well i have also heard tha "kick ich" work well but i have never tried it myself

[Guest HVF21221]

If the fish are in a QT why not just use coppersafe? Ich will be gone in no time at all. I think it is easy to do and is no stress on the fish at all.

[ctreptow]

If you want to go the hyposalinity route and the fish are in QT without inverts, livesand and liverock, drop the salinity to 1.009 over the coarse of a couple of days. The Ick cycle is 4 weeks long and it can't complete the cycle at this SG level. Anything higher then 1.009 will not break the cycle. The fish may get better but the ick will still be there.

 

I just got done beating ick and this worked fine.

 

Chris

[Guest clownfish4]

Okay, fish went in the QT at 10 a.m. this morning and are completely clear of white spots now.  However the hippo has some scrapes, probably from scratching the rock, and the powder brown has some black spots near is tail.  Plan to quarrantine them for 2-4 weeks in 1.020 water.

[Guest clownfish4]

Here are a couple pics of my beauties.  Link below if they don't work.

 

 

 

PICS

[ctreptow]

Hey Mike

 

I would wait at least 4 weeks before putting them into the display tank. If they had ich it takes 4 weeks to run it's cycle.  You run the risk of introducing ich to the display if you move them any sooner then 4 weeks.

 

Chris

[Lee Stearns]

Mike,

If you have them quarantined then you can treat them with some effective meds- there are plenty of sites and articles that I read when I was treating Ich. However  the low salinity is the only option taht I saw as truely reef safe for all the little critters for treating in the reef system if you can not capture them- I tried it for about a month and would not do it again in my main tank. Dropping salinity just a couple of points woul be Ok, but down to the 1.019 range is not a great idea for the reef. I got three cleaners and saoked my food offerings with garlic for every feeding for about two months- I guess the combination of my fish being very happy and fat and the cleaners doing their thing and maybe a bit of pressure from the hypo salinity, and the ich has been completely gone from my main tank for over three months now- I was going to add a UV to the tank but couldn't bite off on the price of them.

Just my experience--

Regards