malachite green

[markk]

I have set up a 10 gallon hosptial tank where I put my clownfish (false perc) and my royal gramma. I treated the tank with malachite green to get rid of the ich. I only put one treatment in and it's been 5 days since. Do I need to add more, do a water change, and how long would you recommend me keeping them in there? The both are looking much better and are eating normal. Also, when I put them back in the bigger tank, will they get infested again by the ich?

[rshimek]

I am moving this to the Marine Fish forum, where you will undoubtedly get more help with this topic.

:D

[billsreef]

Hi Mark,

Malachite green, while it can be usefull for some diseases, is not particularily reliable for ick. It would also need to be dosed daily to have any real chance for being effective. For curing Ick the two most reliable treatments are copper (I prefer Cupramine) or Hyposalinity (keep fish at 1.009-1.010 for 4 weeks).

As ick can go dormant in a cyst for about 30 days on the average (72 is the maximum ever documented) the fish will need to be treated for 4 weeks and should be kept out of the tank for 4-6 weeks to allow any cysts to die off before returning the fish to the display tank.