Removal Of Ich

[krosebush]

I quarantine my fish for about 2 weeks before placing them into my tank...but I still have ich issues with my 3 of my tangs. It's not an overwhelming amount but enough to bother the hell out of me. I have treated the tank with ich removing agents and still ich. I have 3 cleaner shrimp in the tank that do they duty as a biological cleaner and the fish look great when the lights kick on every morning but by the end of the day ich is present once again. Any suggestions? I was thinking about buying some neon gobies but have heard they don't do well for very long. I could have just heard bad info but I would like to know if it's worth the shot, or if there is something better to try. I have already tried to catch them...impossible in a big tank like mine. Suggestions please? )

 

[xNOTLOCx]

well majoriy lower the salinity level to about 1.022 or even 1.021 just make sure you dont add too much freshwater after top ups, because low salinity can help with marine ich but it wont cure it, unless you have corals, then 1.022 , most wouldnt use the goby because if the tank is too small and the goby chases the fish it can stress them out if there isnt anywhere to swim to, in your case im not sure i think thats a good tank size and it depends im not 100% sure on that so you might get a different opinion, but im afraid that the most assured treatment is dips and if you cant then hundreds will keep recirculating into the water because te fish are stressed from it and it wont go away unless you can catch and dip them, or quarantine them, some have succeeded with just treating the water, but afterwards reinfestation will be a high risk to any fish or any new fish for awhile since it has been in the tank so long, a great way to kill the organism is to elevate the temperature to 85 degrees for 10-12 days to start killing off the organisms, the low salinity helping, ide suggest removing the fish lowering the salinity raising the temperater for a prolonged period of time, then before turning everything back to normal and puting your fish back, replace all the filters you have and clean most of the things you have inside or operating the tank with hot water. i cant tell you much more what to do to my knowledge, but if you cant catch the fish than still lower you salinity itl help, and if you donth ave a reef use a copper based med, make sure any of your other fish can do good and inverts, and if you do have inverts and a reef or sensetve fish then, try a different med like the so called reef safe, no-marine ich, ruby reef kick-ich, Chem-marine stop, fish-vet, well i hope i helped a little sorry it might not make total sense i had to type different parts at different times

Edit: sorry i forgot you do have shrimp so no copper based solutions

 

[hutsler]

how big is your tank and what are your readings?


sorry noticed it is a 150g, the tangs being stressed may be due to the fact that you have four different tangs in one tank

 

[SkiFletch]

Perhaps a properly adjusted UV sterlizer or Ozinator would suit your situation? Reduce the number of parasites over time, might help out

 

[Lovesfish]

well I had an ich problem that whipped out almost my whole tanke needless to say after a water change so we bought some cleaner wrasse and have never had an ich problem since they take care of any problems.

 

[andywg]

To effetively remove marine Ich, hyposalinity is one of the best ways.

Remove all the fish and acclimatise them to around 1.015. Keep it that way for a couple of weeks. The parasites in with the fish will die due to the hyposalinity, and those in the tank will die from a lack of hosts.

I cannot endorse using a cleaner wrasse as a number will not feed on other foods, and they have a habot of pestering the other inhabitants of the tank by trying to clean them, leading to increased stress levels. And the link below provides scientific reasons as to why they are not a great wepaon in the war against Ich.

Ozone is a good way, but can be a bit costly, while the effectiveness of UV is still in question.

A very good guide which focuses on facts rather than myths and beliefs is here: http/www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

(don't forget to go to the second page as well)

 

[krosebush]

Thanks everyone. I have set up two quarantine tanks and have been treating them with copper and I only lost one fish, so hopefully that's all I'll lose.