Help Ich And Cloudy Eyes

[ucanbyteme]

Ok guys, I am in a panic, I had several fish in a large Nano a while back and decided then needed a biger tank. So I bought a 55 gallon tank, cycled with live rock and sand.

Tried to minimize stress a much as possable but one of my favorite fish, the one I basicly bought the tank for came down with ICH.

This was my first time with this stuff but after talking to some people I decided to use Rid Ich Plus by Kordon. The fish is a Cowfish and because it is scaleless I cannot use common meds with copper so I am kind of limited.

Treated for about seven days and as looking better, then it seemed to get worse. Doing a 25% water change daily then realized I still had a protien skimmer on which was probably taking out the meds. I turned it off and continued for another 7 days started to get better and then all of a sudden when I came home today, the poor little cowfish had coudy eyes! Carlos is scared and cant see his food.

I just bought a UV steralizer but I know that will not cure the problem, I dont know what to do, is this a possable secondary infection, should I change meds? Has anyone tried Maracyn 2 and Maroxy? Will a quarantee tank be too stressfull at this point?

Please help save Carlos

 

[tttnjfttt]

I don't know much about salt water diseases, so I can't be much help on this one. However, to help speed things up, it would be very useful if you were to post your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, and SG.

 

[Navarre]

The cloudy eye is usually connected to Ich and will clear up when the ich is eradicated.

OK so its proving resiliant to your current medication. Do a water change and ty a new medication. There are other forms of reef safe treatments on the market. OOdinex by Esha is a very good product and totally copper free/reef safe. Another product is called Octozin. Its made by the same company that makes Cuprazin but its copper free and thus reef safe.


These are treatments for your water of course and its graet that you are now using a UV sterilizer. Make sure you have the correct flow through the UV as too much flow will mean the parasite will not have enough exposure to the light and thus wont be killed.

Should you feel that the fish needs immediatel relief then perhaps try a freshwater dip. DO this for about 5 mins (or as long as the fish seems comfortable). Make sure the water ph and temperature matches your tank. THis will destroy most of the parasites on the fish and give immediate relief but it will of course not stop new parasites from attacking it. Be mindful however the a freshwater dip is very stressful on the fish so i only recomend it if you feel that there is no other alternative and the fish will die without this treatment.

Lastly.. Lace its food with garlic. Whatever you feed the fish on make sure its been soaked in garlic first. You can get ready prepared garlic from your LFS. Kent make one called "Garlic Extreme" but other manufacturers do as well. Garlic will help increase the fishes feeding responce and the more food it intakes the better its natural defences will be. If you cannot find Garlic Extreme then simply buy a clove of garlic and crush it up then soak with your fishes food.
Garlic is a proven weapon in the fight against ich.


One final note. Should the worst thing happen and your fish not pull through, make sure its removed immediately and a 100% water change is made on the tank as this fish can give of toxins in the water if its stressed and dying. These toxins are poweerful enough to wipe out the remainder of your tank.

 

[ucanbyteme]

thanks for the advice, there has been some improvement since the UV went in. I am still thinking about a freshwater dip. I have never done them, read about them a lot, but how dangerous is that? I keep reading it works wonders, others report a death several days later from stress?

 

[Navarre]

I have used it with good sucess. What is vitally important is the timing of it. Too soon and you are using unecessary treatmens and stressing the fish when it could fight it alone. Too late and the stress will kill it anyway or at least to such a severe stress level that it wont be able to fight off the parasite as soon as its placed back in.

You have to make a judgement call. Have all other methods failed? Is the fish still strong? (Dont even bother if the fish looks lethargic and easily caught in a net).
Make the dip the same ph and temperature as the tank. Place thefish in the dip and leave it there for about 5 mins. If the fish is strong then it should swim arund and look like nothing is different (like it was insalt water) If it does this then perhaps leave it slightly longer. But never take your eyes off it. Should it show signs of weakening or restingon the bottm then remove immediately and place back in the tank.

This should be treated as a last resort and a way to only remove the parasite fromthe fish to give some comfort. It in no way stops the parasite fromreturning should you place the fish back into the infected tank.

 

[triggerhappy]

This should be treated as a last resort and a way to only remove the parasite fromthe fish to give some comfort. It in no way stops the parasite fromreturning should you place the fish back into the infected tank.

Can you use the freshwater Dip method then move the fish into an isolation tank so he doesnt become infected again then move back once main tank is ok ?

Many thanks

 

[SkiFletch]

yeah, thats the ideal method for sure

 

[L200]

My Powder Brown tang has now contracted whitespot and usually has a good number of 'spots' on him in the morning,after a couple of hours my cleaner wrasse has cleaned him up but the following day it is usually as bad,i have no space or means to set up a quarantine tank either.

He is very active and eats like a horse,im sure a garlic based food will help but will it smell the room out ? ( my tanks in my bedroom and im not a fan of garlic at all!! )

My friends promised a me another cleaner wrasse to help,so thats my other option,dont want to use chemicals if I can help it... its a reef tank and im not sure how good the treatments are??

Thanks,

Mikk

 

[Navarre]

If chemicals (there are reef safe ones) are not for you then UV and OZone are excellant methods to fight this parasite.

If the tang is contiually getting this parasit then we should try and look deeper. Fish usually only fall prey to this disease due to high levels of stress. As the stress effects/weakens their immune system it infects the fish. If your fish is continually catching it (even tangs which are very susceptable to getting it should overcome it with time) then there must be something else upsetting the fish. What size of tank do you have? What volume of flow? Water perameters and other fish in with the tang. By eliminating the cause of the problem the fish should get over the disease on its own providing its healthy