Powder Blue

[macpegg]

My powder blue has caught ich, after being healthy for 11 months.


I do not want to have to use chemicals as he is in a reef setup, and do not have a qurantine tank.. does anyone have any ideas on how to treat this?
thanks

 

[gowing238]

you could try turning the temp up to 29 degrees slowly. This speeds up the cycle. Maybe the salt water would help cos in freshwater tanks aquarium salt is reccommended. But i dont really know if this is enough alone to kill the free swimming ich without using a treatment

 

[Musho3210]

freshwater ich and saltwater ich are completely different things, they just have similar symptoms.

Salt wont kill them but osmotic shock will, look up on some articles.

 

[SkiFletch]

Having just dealt with his horrible disease I can only suggest the treatments you do not wish to or cannot use . It really depends on the strength of the fish's immune system. Keeping it well-fed could help with the problem, but if the fish's immune system is comprimised enough and it is unable to fight off the infection, only hyposalinity or copper treatment will really save it

 

[Musho3210]

thats what it was called, hyposalinity, you lower the sg of the quarantine tank in were the fish is very slowly and the osmotic shock kills the ich while hopefully not harming your fish that much.

 

[SkiFletch]

Correct, hyposalinity for the purposes of treating ich should be maintained at a specific gravity of 1.009

 

[Musho3210]

what do people do about the ich inside the tank, do they just not have fish in there for a while so the ich dies without a host?

 

[SkiFletch]

what do people do about the ich inside the tank, do they just not have fish in there for a while so the ich dies without a host?

Correct, takes anywhere from 4-8 weeks to be sure.

 

[macpegg]

For the past few days, the ich has only managed to cling to the powder blue, some days he may have one or two spots then the next he is covered. He's always eating, and hasn`t started to rub against the rocks. At 1st i was hoping the spots were due to low PH but unfortunatly not, as the bicolour blennie and regal tang would have shown them signs 1st.

Do you guys suggest any treatment that can be used that have no copper contained within them? Its been long time since ive had o buy any. Oodinex sounds familiar? thats if its spelt correct.

Will have to try and get a hold of quarnitine tank, in the mean time.

 

[Musho3210]

look up hyposalinity

 

[black molly3]

m sure i haad that you can give the fish a freshwater dip until you see signs of distress. thissupposedly dislodges the paradites. but just chck it up im not sure. if i were you i would just leave the treatments and let the fish fight it on its own. feed it food with pleanty of protien and i have heared if your not feeding it already that dried sea weed makes their imune system hard as nails. if it does unfortuanatly dies which we hope it doesnt and you plan on gettinga new one. i would highly reccomend buying a UV steriliser. seems to do the job well.
good luck

 

[Musho3210]

Freshwater dip MAY get rid of the ich on the fish, but wont do much for the ich that is in the tank. Freshwater dips can cause a bit of stress making the immune system not as strong and the ich comes back fast. UVS has a lot of cons as well as a few really good pros. Make sure you deeply research UVS before you get one. Sure they MAY get rid of MOST of your ich cells. But they can also kill good things like phytoplankton and stuff.

Garlic supposedly helps the immune system, i always soak my food in seachem garlic guard for my fish.

 

[macpegg]

I purchased some dried seaweed he nva stops eating it, fat sod! Today he only has 4 spots which yesterday he had atleast 20+. I have stopped my mother in law peering through the tank, im sure its her stressing him out, she stresses me out.lol

Ive raised the temps slowley and lowerd the salinity a touch. seems to be working.. unless they just dropped off waiting for a fish to swim by. I have bought some oodinex just incase this happens and they all catch it. I know i used it 2 years ago, and its the best stuff i have ever used..

I used to have a UV steriliser and to be honest it caused me more problems. I have not used one for 11 months, and this is the 1st time ive had issues.

i`ll look into hyposalinity, then grab a tank. I do not really want to risk taking him out to put him back again to make it worse then what it is now especially if he is naturaly a stressful fish.

Since he is looking better and is still happy grazing and eating I'll monitor for a couple days whilst i set up a quarantine tank.

 

[Musho3210]

well good luck, its a very beautiful fish, hate to see it leave

 

[SkiFletch]

Remember, for hyposalinity to be effective it must be down to 1.009