Fish have Ich......Help, please!!

[CamEns]

Some of my fish have shown heavy signs of ich over the past 2 days, and one has died. My Kole Tank died last night, and one of my perculas is almost as bad as the Kole was. My goby is fine, and my purple firefish has a couple of white spots, and my yellow tang has a few on his fins. I'm worried about the percula, and concerned the others may develop it soon.

It is a 110g tank, with about 150lbs of live rock. I have about 6 corals in right now. My tests are all good, pH is 8.17, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate is low, calcium is 380, phosphates 0, silicates 0. What should I do. I did a 25% water change about 2 weeks ago. The tank is about 18 months old, but 65% of live rock was added over the last 8 weeks.

Any ideas???

[billsreef]

If you want to be sure of curing those fish and avoiding having ick problems in your reef for the future the surest method is to remove all the fish from your tank and place them in a hospital tank for treatment. The surest treatments are copper (Cupramine is the best IMO) and hyposalinity. Over the last couple of years I have come to prefer using hyposalinity. Briefly, hyposalinity is lowering the salinity of the treatment tank to 1.009-1.010 over a period of two days, then holding it there for 3-4 weeks. During the course of treatment you need to keep the reef tank fishless for 4-6 weeks (6 weeks being the surer bet) in order to allow any remaining ick to die off due to lack of any hosts (fish). Next, after your fish are cured and the tank now free of ich, you need to promise yourself to quarantine all new additions for 4-6 weeks before placing them in your display tank. This will prevent you from reintroducing ick.

I know this sounds like a major pain in the wrasse, but it is the surest method to eliminate the ick and cure the fish. All the so called "reef safe" cures tend to be rather ineffective with exeption of garlic which seems to be effective in minor cases.

[CamEns]

I like the idea of a treatment/quarantine tank. I am seriously considering going that route. The biggest problem I see is catching my fish. How in the world will I catch them with all the live rock in there. They know all the hiding places, and I don't know how I would get them without removing all the rock.

[jimi]

Does anyone know how long fish can remain in hyposalinity before damage occurs?

[smiller]

You can try a reef safe treatment like Kick-Ick although the results have been on the low side of iffy at best. Do a search on this and on garlic. You will get plenty of info.

[Al]

CamEns
You know what the answer is to your second question. You can make the job easier (of removing all the rock) by getting a nice clean plastic garbage can. Otherwise your fish will die of ich, or a combination of ich and stress as you attempt to remove them without removing the rock first.
I agree with billsreef on 'reef safe' treatments. There is no way they could work.
Al

[Edited by Al on 03-06-2001 at 01:51 PM]

[billsreef]

jimi,

I have kept fish in hyposalinity for up to 8 weeks with no problems. There are reports of people (such as Terry B) who have kept marine fish in hyposaline conditions for even longer without any problems.

[thereefer]

I have had great success with combining a lower salinity of about 1.015 and Cupramine (copper). I don't think you need to go as low as .009 but if people had had good luck with that then that is an option. I don't think this is a time to add additional stress to the fish by adding copper and such a low "hypo" solution.
Definetly need the hospital tank and be patient. Wait at least 4 weeks before placing back into your show tank. It is a pain to get all your rock and plants out to retreive fish but what is your alternative. You can do it! You can blast those buggers! :blown:

[Robert Schnell]

Bill,
I have kept fish at 1.009 to 1.010 for up to 5 months when I was finishing treatment on one group of fish and had to add another fish (lowered to 1.009 in 3 days in a pail). I quarantine all new fish for 8 weeks + at 1.009 / 1.010 and use an additional 2 to 3 weeks between lowering and raising the salinity. I have very rarely lost a fish in hyposalinity. Most of my loses occur on new purchases, just before they begin treatment.
I started the above treatment after having my 200 gallon heavily infected with cryptocaryon. Since that time, all new and existing fish were treated. There have been no signs since last May.
I would recommend using a refractometer and keeping the salinity down to 1.009 / 1.010. As an experiment, I kept a couple of infected fish at 1.013. After two weeks of the fish getting worse, I lowered it to 1.009 and the parasite disappeared in 4 days. I would also recommend that you leave your main tank empty for at least 8 weeks as a safety. My 200 gallon after 7 weeks of being empty had some fish returned from hyposalinity treatment. Within 5 days, they all had signs of cryptocaryon. No other fish from my treatment tank that were put in my other tanks (1 - 55 gallon, 2 - 20 gallon) ever showed any signs of the parasite. I would also add that you are guessing that you have cryptocaryon (aka "ick"). There are many parasites that match these signs. I went through the expense of having the cryptocaryon ID by a Marine research lab and national aquarium (it was interesting but no worth the expense since the treatment was the same). If the hyposalinity doesn't work (proven treatment for crytocaryon, but not on all other parasites) after a week (spots should be gone) at 1.009, I would use a good copper like cupramine in a treatment only tank with a filter seeded from your main tank (I use sponge / corner filters).
Bob