Ich

[Keith92]

I have a 92 gallon reef tank. Ammonia, Phosphates and salinity are in line. Temp is 77-78
When I got home from work I noticed about 15-20 white spots on my hippo tang. No other fish infected. I have a  lot of rock and could not catch him without draining most of the water and rock. Im sure this would cause even more stress for the fish. Has anyone tried kick ich? What about raising the temperature a little? I use selcon mixed with LRS food as well as some pellet food and sea weed

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

[lazylivin]

Feeding tangs algae is great and adding selcon I am sure doesn't hurt. Unfortunately neither will kill the ich but can help keep the fish healthy to fight off the secondary infections. The ich parasites attaches to the fish and burrows underneath the skin to feed on it. They live inside and absorb nutrients from the fish for a very short period of time. When they get to a certain age 100% of the parasites will leave the fish. That is the only time the parasite is vulnerable. Their are three methods that are proven to eradicate the parasite from the tank and fish and 1 method that will usually keep the parasite in check. The path's chosen are best when based on your system configuration, funds available to put towards the cure and time you have available to go through the process. I recommend reading the info below and based on those choose a path. Let us know what your plan is and we can help with sharing our knowledge to help you through it

General Information about ich http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/marineich.html
Hyposalinity Method http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/hyposalinity.html
Copper Method http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/cupramine.html

If neither of these two solutions are doable you can A.) Purchase a large high quality UV sterilizer to manage the problem. It may not completely get rid of it but can significantly reduce and possibly eliminate the parasite over time. B.) Do nothing, continue to feed the fish good, vacuum the sand very well when the ich leaves the fish to reduce the numbers and hopefully fish can survive with it.

I use Hypo-salinity however copper is just as effective. Here is my Achilles tang in Quarantine.


Here it is 2 days later, Fortunately it was a healthy fish to survive the outbreak.


Here it is being introduced to the display tank

[Keith92]

Thanks so much for the information Lazy. It looks like today will be a very busy day for me.

The first thing is to find a large enough tank to house the 8 year old Hippo and 11 year old Yellow tang as well as 4 other small fish.

I have thought for a while that I have too much live rock in my tank. I am thinking of using a couple pieces of the rock in the hospital tank. I have an empty 10 gallon tank I could fill with LR and a return pump to make a temporary sump or would it be easier to use a canister filter?

I know this may sound odd, but what about the thought of getting rid of the infected hippo? He is too large for the 92 corner tank that I have. I bought the entire set up about 7 months ago and the two tangs came with it and I added the 4 small fish from my 28 gallon tank. I had wanted to trade him to someone who had a larger tank where he could have more room but it looks like it is a little too late for that. I assume that the other fish will get infected soon.

Your thoughts?

[Keith92]

BTW- I will be using the hyposalinity method.

Thanks

[Travis8896]

If you plan to do hypo I wouldn't add any live rock to the hospital tank because that will just cause die off on the rock which could spike ammonia levels. The reason it will cause die off is that the little creatures that live in the rock can't tolerate the lower salinity levels. Which is why hypo is an effective treatment. Hypo is also my personal choice for battling ick.

[lazylivin]

That is a great choice. I however feel that live rock is the best filtration method for hyposalinity or any tank for that matter. My Quarntine tank only has rock and heater. You can take some from your display and put in a quarntine tank with a salinity of 1.009. Use a heater and add a air stone. As Travis stated the microfauna will die creating a small cycle however the bacteria will survive. It will usually take 2-5 days for the cycle to complete. Once it is complete (no Ammonia) you can add all your fish. Leave the display empty of fish for 6 weeks and your fish in quarntine for 6 weeks and you will be good to go.

If you don't have coral or inverts in your display than you can lower the salinity in the display. You may want to remove the fish for a couple days until it cyles due to die off of microfauna on rock. Typically removing half of the saltwater and filling it back with fresh will get you really close to the 1.008 - 1.009 target range.  Note you will loose algae including coraline.

[AJ]

Lazy has hit the nail on the head.  You definitely want live rock in your QT/HT for filtration.  I have a 29gallon QT setup with 3 pieces of LR, heater and a circulation pump.  It has worked well for me.  If you are overly concerned with the cycle taking a few days, use some "bacteria in a bottle" to help "eat" the ammonia. 

[Travis8896]

I guess I worded that wrong, my bad I meant not to add fish and rock at the same time. I too do have rock in my qt tank, as Brian said tho its important to let it cycle first.

[Viggen]

As stated kick ICH is a complete waste... It will not do anything,. Not even buy you more time

Hypo or copper both work.... Something as simple as a rubbermaid tub willl allow you to qt the fish and treat them with hypo or copper.  I have two tubs that someone is borrowing... Not sure if he's still using them or not... If not in use you are welcome to use them if you want.   

Depending on the number of inverts removing those and treating your tank with hypo might be the simplest option.  Do you still have your old tank? 

[mrfish183]

The tank transfer method appears to be gaining favor in the online forums for treating marine "ich".  You only need a couple buckets, heaters, and air pumps.  The method only takes 14 days and 4 transfers.  On the downside, the buckets aren't sufficient if you are treating many fish.  You would need a couple tanks.  For a new fish, TTM combined with prazipro appears to be a good quarantine approach.  I haven't used the TTM method so can't offer personal experience. 

For quarantine situations, I have used hyposalinity (gave swim bladder problems with wrasses), coppersafe (nice but wipes out bio filter and takes forever), and cupramine (wipes out bio filter, ammo-locks cannot be used, and takes forever).  I've recently switched to chloroquine diphosphate for new arrivals.  Advantageously, chloroquine is a 14 day treatment that treats marine "ich" = crypt, marine "velvet", and brook.  TTM and hyposalinity don't take care of velvet or brook.  Downsides include chloroquine can't be easily monitored, may wipe out the "good" bacteria in the fish, and may wipe out the bio filter (conflicting reports).  Just like copper, chloroquine cannot be used with inverts, coral, algae, etc.  Regardless of the method, all fish would need to be treated and the main tank would need to be fish free for several weeks. 

If I did get "ich" in my main tank, I'm not sure which method I'd choose for treatment outside the main tank.  I guess we all have to pick our poison .  All treatments have their pluses and minuses.

... oh I forgot to mention that I used hyposalinity in my primary display right after it was initially set up with base rock.  I used the display as my quarantine tank for the 1st set of fish I added.  Naturally, one of the tangs got crypt.  Because I didn't have any coral, inverts, etc in the primary display at the time, hypo was the perfect option.  Everything did well and the crypt has never shown again.  After this point, every new arrival went into rigorous quarantine.   

 

[lazylivin]

Thanks Norman for sharing alternative methods. The tank transfer method is appealing. It seem like it would be fairly easy to setup. Especially if doing smaller fish could transfer every couple days between two 5 gallon buckets.