how to be rid of ich permanently and treatment method

[Anonymous]

No I haven't set up a QT / hospital tank yet. I need to get all the bits together. I didn't realise the cu medications kill off the nice bacteria in the filter media.

I thought for sure I'd mentioned that. If I forgot, my apologies.

I'm not a big fan of Melafix myself. As you call it, it's just a tonic and can't really substantiate its claims. If I didn't know what a royal pain in the arse the royal post is, I'd suggest having someone back east ship out a bunch of Spectrogram for you. As it is, I couldn't even send a birthday package for a friend in London without the post going through the ENTIRE package. Of course, could they have been arsed to put it back together with any semblence of regard for what it was? :evil: No, of course not.

In any event, those filaments, by the photo (NICE shot, too, mate), appear to be scrapes. I can't see them, though, and if they appear to be attached to the fishes' sides, then I'd have to guess parasite here.

Everything, in my opinion, points to the wiser choice being hyposalinity to start, with antibiotics on hand. I'm really hoping you can find a vet, if not, then at least try to get a hold of some triple sulfa, and maybe some penicillin. Not my favorite, but you gotta do what you can do, yeah?

 

[Anonymous]

Wings
have you got any inverts in your display tank ? I seem to have read that hyposalinity isn't so good for inverts ?

Ahhh.. Missed this quote.. sorry!

No, I have a full reef tank with tube organ coral, shrooms, sea mats, and hammer corals.

Most people when they do Hypo, they bring the salinity way down to .009. I only brought it down to .014. The only object is to prevent spawning of more cryptocarion. That's it. The object is not to kill them by a "freshwater dip". If you do some research on crypto, they require a very high salinity in order to reproduce. I lost absolutly nothing by bringing the salinity down to .014, and to date, I only keep my salinity at about .021-.022 with very good results.

One of these days, i'll post some pictures.
~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

C. irritans does NOT need high salinity to reproduce. That I know from experience. I've seen C. irritans reproduce in tanks maintained at at salinities lower than what you maintian your tanks at, and very quickly too. Back in the day I had an outbreak in a tank maintained at 1.019.

1.014 is not low enough to be effective against C. irritans across the board. Glad it worked in your instance.

Jim

 

[Anonymous]

Oh right. .021-22 they would definitely multiply (Sorry I wasn't clear on that). But at .014 (which is the salinity that most wholesalers will ship fish in general exactly for this reason), it's difficult for them to breed. I keep it at .022 so that if I were to add more fish, the acclimation period can be done at a much shorter interval.
~wings~

 

[firestorm]

Update
The neon goby seems to have lost the filaments attached it's side. They're definitely not scrapes, as you could see them move in the current and it affected the way the fish swam.

Regal tang has two spots left on it's side.

I've bought a 96l tank, 25 us gallons. I'm waiting for the RO unit to arrive, then I'll start putting the hospital tank together.

My plan is to go hypo first for five weeks to see if it does the trick. I'm going to transfer one of the eheims I have in the main aquarium to the hospital tank, as it has a decent flow rate and mature media. I'll need it as I will be moving all my fishes to the hospital tank.

I realise that it will not be effective if I choose to go with copper, but I feel it will improve the fishes' chance of survival and then hopefully recovery during the hyposalinity treatment and not rely on 80% water changes just to keep waste products in check.

I'll take the salinity of my main aquarium down as well, in a bid to ensure the demise of the parasites. I currently got it at 31.5ppt, or 1.022 sg. Any idea how far I can dilute the water to ? I have planty of snails, not sure which ones, some are turbo (strange name) others have a cone like shell. Also have a cleaner and 2 blood shrimps with loads of mushrooms, a large sarcophyton and a couple of sinularia (I think). Don't want to stress the inverts.

How would you keep the water quality up with out LR, bacterial or chemical filter ? I can't see daily water changes being practical, even if you have your own RO ?

Is the marine whitespot visible at any stage of it's life cycle if it doesn't have a host ? I guess I'll need a microscope to see them ...

Any tips on how to capture then transfer the fish ? I plan to do it whilst feeding them! As they seem to forget their inhibitions then.

 

[Anonymous]

You'd have to buy water to keep up with the w/c's.

There are some points I feel it's important to stress here.

1:I really wish I could get you to reconsider the copper at this point. Small, scaleless fish tend to be sensitive to this stuff, though I've not had much trouble with neon gobies and ich.
2:I also strongly recommend against fiddling with the salinity in the display.

I'm not positive, but I believe that the only time you can easily see this parasite off host is in a bare-bottom tank (which is what's recommended for hospital/QT systems). Remember, you can use trash bins as a sort of sump, which is helpful to add water volume in a small space. Keep them covered in the house.

I believe that we have many threads on capturing fish. With yours I'd suggest one of the traps many folks have mentioned. I believe someone else tried a trick of waiting several hours after bedtime, then putting a bright light (or was it flashlight?) on them, they seem to go into some sort of torpor. <shrug>

Watch the fishes for those filament things! Any more piccies of what you describe will help.

 

[firestorm]

I'm going to use copper as a last resort. Hyposalinity will be my first treatment in QT.
Changing the display tank salinity is a tactic I am considering, but I don't want to jeopardise the inverts, so is unlikely to happen.
The QT will be bare bottom, makes vacuuming a lot easier.
I've heard of people using trap-eze or similar, looks like something I need to invest in as well.
Creating a sump is something which I have no experience/knowledge of, sounds like a recipe for dry fish and wet floor 8O

Guess I need to look around the forums and websites for more info.

Thanks for your input.

I'll send an update as and when things happen.

Cheers All !

 

[firestorm]

Neon goby has lost the filamental attachments. Regal Tang has lost some and gained some white spots. Fish still very skittish.

They are very, very hungry all the time. I'm feeding 3 times a day. Morning is a few flakes, afternoon nori, some frozen food with some algae flakes for the chalk gobies and shrimps. In the evening about 22h00, more frozen food. I usually feed one cube. Each feeding session lasts about 30-40 seconds, most of the food is gorged by the tangs. Especially the regal.

 

[Anonymous]

Alright, as soon as you get your refractometer, and other equipment, you can begin treatment in earnest. You've got to remember one thing, though, generally true of all fish (notable exceptions, but not worth mentioning at this time): A Hungry Fish Is A Healthy Fish. Sounds like you have them on an excellent feeding regimen, though I would increase the meaty foods a bit. Avoid brine shrimp, mysids, chopped squid, and similar are good.

<sm, keeping her fingers crossed>

 

[firestorm]

Hi ya Seamaiden,

though I would increase the meaty foods a bit. Avoid brine shrimp, mysids, chopped squid, and similar are good.

frozen brine shrimp, mysids, krill are what I feed the fished with. What do you suggest that is more meaty ?

Got the refractometer today all the way from the US of A, easy to use. Looks like the swing arm hygrometer was over reading by 0.001.

The fact the fish are so hungry reinforces my wariness about moving all the fish to another tank, but I will get the QT ready.

 

[Anonymous]

Scallops, octopus, fish such as roughy - pretty much anything at the seafood counter in your grocery store. I'm fond of the Formula foods too, expensive, but good stuff.

Jim

 

[Anonymous]

The brine's the only thing I would eliminate. They love it, but it's like feeding 'em Pringles.