- Location
- long island n.y
A couple of my fish have ick,I read that if you raise the temperature to 85 for 10 days it will kill the ick.is this correct has anybody gotten rid of ick this way?thanks
Ick question
- Thread starter lanacane214
- Start date
- Location
- The Big City
No, that doesn't work. Also if this is a reef tank a lot of your corals aren't going to reacted to well to the increase in temp, not to mention your inverts and possible some of your fish too. You would need to slowly increase the temp, so that they get use to it, then again it's not going to work in killing the ich. You need to stick with either Hypo or Copper to get rid of ich.
- Location
- New Jersey
First of all, raising the temp will not kill that Marine Ich it works for freshwater.
Second if you want to treat the fish with copper you need to get them out and into a hospital tank.
You can try Dr G's parasitic food, (i am actually feeding that to my personal tank right now). It was recommended by someone that I trust.
Now here is the cavaet to it all. Unless you plan on qt'ing everything, even coral then you may never beat Ich. I have personally decided that it is part of nature and very hard to get rid of permanantely. Even one spore of ICH that is on a piece of coral may spread into hundreds. So the only way to really make sure that you are ok is to have a frag tank and qt the coral for at least 12 weeks IMO. But the prob is that you cannot add anything to that tank while they are in there.
I am sure that people may disagree but Ich is probably in all tank since most people do not properly treat/qt fish before introducing them into their DT.
I would give Dr G's food a shot.
Second if you want to treat the fish with copper you need to get them out and into a hospital tank.
You can try Dr G's parasitic food, (i am actually feeding that to my personal tank right now). It was recommended by someone that I trust.
Now here is the cavaet to it all. Unless you plan on qt'ing everything, even coral then you may never beat Ich. I have personally decided that it is part of nature and very hard to get rid of permanantely. Even one spore of ICH that is on a piece of coral may spread into hundreds. So the only way to really make sure that you are ok is to have a frag tank and qt the coral for at least 12 weeks IMO. But the prob is that you cannot add anything to that tank while they are in there.
I am sure that people may disagree but Ich is probably in all tank since most people do not properly treat/qt fish before introducing them into their DT.
I would give Dr G's food a shot.
- Location
- brooklyn
Correct on the last statement. Use copper if it is not a reef tank. If it is a reef tank you are basically going to have to trap your fish and put them the hospital tank to treat them. I have done this and it has worked very effectively.
+1 to the above.
If this is a fish only tank you are in luck.
If they are in a reef tank and the fish are eating and active then just keep them eating and they will beat the ich. Mine did.
You never know if your qt process will work and if you are lucky enough to get your fish out of a reef tank you will need another system to house them for 8 weeks minimum and treat them with copper. You will never be able to use this for coral after the copper treatment.
I used a varied diet with some neon gobies and cleaner shrimp.
And everyone was fine after a few days.
- Location
- The Big City
Yours may have but most don't. The decision to basically do nothing isn't really a good thing. Most of the time people will lost the majority of their fish by not acting. And I mean by doing nothing is either doing nothing or treating with things like cleaner shrimp, neon gobies, garlic and such which is basically doing nothing as none of these things will get rid of the ich from the fish or from the tank itself.
If you can remove your fish you can treat them in another tank with either Hypo or Copper, if it's a FO or FOWLR you can actually treat the tank with Hypo. Then again it all starts with getting good fish from good sources and QT all of your fish and corals before placing them into your tank. It mayn't be something easy to do for some but it's really something that everyone should do.
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- Location
- long island n.y
Only my 2 tangs show signs of ich and it doesn look severe,sometimes the spots dissapeare I wiil take pictures tonight thanks
- Location
- Bay ridge, Brooklyn
Having a cleaning station consisting of couple of cleaner and peppermint shrimps really helps, when my fish had ich they've immediately showed up for cleaning (cool to watch) and now only one wrasse shows signs of ich and that's only because I didn't see it going to the spa.
- Location
- New Jersey
Also the problem with treating with Copper, is that you have to make sure that your copper levels are correct. Depending on what kind of copper you use also has an impact. Either chelated (sp) or non-chelated (sp).
Copper like the SeaChem Brand will actually disappear from the water and you need to continually add it. Copper like CopperPower does not disappear. But with that being said you need to make sure that you run it properly.
If you have too much then it will kill the fish and not enough and it will do nothing. Also the treatment may make the fish look better. It may suppress the problem but not get rid of it. Then you think that the fish are fine and put them back into your tank that should be and then it comes back.
If you stick to a minimum of 12 weeks fallow in your DT and you properly QT the fish and medicate them properly then you can possibly beat Ich.
The problem may just come back when you buy a fish from someone or a piece of coral and you do not QT that ITEM! Like I said previously you need to properly QT everything. Hate to say it, I would say that the great majority of people DO NOT QT properly.
Good luck....
Copper like the SeaChem Brand will actually disappear from the water and you need to continually add it. Copper like CopperPower does not disappear. But with that being said you need to make sure that you run it properly.
If you have too much then it will kill the fish and not enough and it will do nothing. Also the treatment may make the fish look better. It may suppress the problem but not get rid of it. Then you think that the fish are fine and put them back into your tank that should be and then it comes back.
If you stick to a minimum of 12 weeks fallow in your DT and you properly QT the fish and medicate them properly then you can possibly beat Ich.
The problem may just come back when you buy a fish from someone or a piece of coral and you do not QT that ITEM! Like I said previously you need to properly QT everything. Hate to say it, I would say that the great majority of people DO NOT QT properly.
Good luck....
- Location
- The Big City
The own really problem with copper is that some fish don't do well with it, as some can't take it, thus Hypo may work better for them. As for the treatment, well just like with anything else you need to test what you're using and treat at the correct levels and for the correct amount of time, that goes without saying. A good test kit is needed, I used the LaMontte. So treating with copper isn't a problem, treating correctly is. This is also the problem with using Dr G's food, you really don't know how much medication the fish is actually getting, as some fish will eat a lot of the food while others just a little while still others none at all.
As for the CopperPower the big thing is not that it doesn't disappear from the water, cause the level to go down, which will result in it not working, but that you can treat with it at much higher levels than regular copper without killing the fish and the higher level seems to have more of an impact on the ich, especially certain strains which can be hard to kill off. Because you can treat at higher levels you don't need to worry as much about the level slip below a range where it works, thus you have a much better chance of ridding the fish of ich.
As for the CopperPower the big thing is not that it doesn't disappear from the water, cause the level to go down, which will result in it not working, but that you can treat with it at much higher levels than regular copper without killing the fish and the higher level seems to have more of an impact on the ich, especially certain strains which can be hard to kill off. Because you can treat at higher levels you don't need to worry as much about the level slip below a range where it works, thus you have a much better chance of ridding the fish of ich.
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- Location
- New Jersey
Quality of water in this case is the only way too keep under control need to post pic of your tank filtration don't over fees nitrate kept low now is a must good water change schedule a list once a week with salinity to be on the spot as the one in the tank ph drop also very important now if you don't have a algae filter keep a light over your wet dry or sump which ever you have that will help ph not to drop as much at night time again water quality now is a must keep nitrate PH calcium alkalinity all parameters top notch!!! Pm for more tips!!
The way I see QT Setups working properly to prevent ich thoroughly discourage people from doing this.
You will need three separate and complete systems, one is your display tank, one is the QT for fish and one is the QT for coral that will be fully lit as any new corals will be in this QT system for 2 months.
The fish only will be a shorter QT cycle but levels of copper must be maintained.
You will also need three different sets of equipment per system as dipping a net into one tank to use in another will introduce cross contamination.
You will be required to put everything you currently have through this system to eliminate the threat of a dormant strain or a small undetectable level of ich.
You will also be required to do water changes on these and keep them running between purchases as you would not be able to set them up that day.
This would be the only way to have any assurances that ich is not in your system.
I dont think this is worth the effort when the survival rates of ich are not that severe.
JMO.
You will need three separate and complete systems, one is your display tank, one is the QT for fish and one is the QT for coral that will be fully lit as any new corals will be in this QT system for 2 months.
The fish only will be a shorter QT cycle but levels of copper must be maintained.
You will also need three different sets of equipment per system as dipping a net into one tank to use in another will introduce cross contamination.
You will be required to put everything you currently have through this system to eliminate the threat of a dormant strain or a small undetectable level of ich.
You will also be required to do water changes on these and keep them running between purchases as you would not be able to set them up that day.
This would be the only way to have any assurances that ich is not in your system.
I dont think this is worth the effort when the survival rates of ich are not that severe.
JMO.
- Location
- The Big City
I think setting up a QT for fish is a lot easier than you think. You don't need to have a tank running to do this either, and you can set this up the same day. A simple tank or Rubbermaid container will do with a small power head or filter, a heater and some people like to use some bacteria filter, which you can get from your MT. I also catch and transfer all my fish using a clear container as opposed to a net. Water is either freshly made water or water from your system. You shouldn't over feed and be prepared to do weekly water changes, and of course the large the tank or container the better. In the end I wash out everything with hot water, so there isn't a chance that if the fish did have anything it could get into my system. It's a lot less work then placing a fish directly into you MT and then having fish come down with Ich or something else, which usually results in the lost of fish. Losing fish and not being able to get Ich out of your system is more discourage to people than having them setup and QT their fish before hand.
As for corals, well that's a little hardier for some people to do a long term QT for. First I usually rinse off all my corals, including scrubbing any rocks that the coral maybe attached to. I have a small tank that I can setup pretty fast, using water from my tank system. I would leave the corals in there for a couple of days, where after each day I would change the water completely and do a couple more rinses and scrubs before placing the corals into my tank. It's not a complete QT, as some things will get through, but I've been able to keep out things like Ich and such from my MT which is my main goal.
As for the survival rate for fish that have ich not being severe, well I don't think that is true. You'll find a lot of loses due to ich then fish living through it or with it. I think you'll find that a lot of people that lose fish to ich have a habit of not say anything.
As for corals, well that's a little hardier for some people to do a long term QT for. First I usually rinse off all my corals, including scrubbing any rocks that the coral maybe attached to. I have a small tank that I can setup pretty fast, using water from my tank system. I would leave the corals in there for a couple of days, where after each day I would change the water completely and do a couple more rinses and scrubs before placing the corals into my tank. It's not a complete QT, as some things will get through, but I've been able to keep out things like Ich and such from my MT which is my main goal.
As for the survival rate for fish that have ich not being severe, well I don't think that is true. You'll find a lot of loses due to ich then fish living through it or with it. I think you'll find that a lot of people that lose fish to ich have a habit of not say anything.
Personally I have had ich in my system once and did not lose a single fish.
I have lost more fish due to problems they had before I bought them.
Problems that happened in the LFS system or during shipping that damaged the fish to the extent they did not survive. Or problems not being able to adapt to a tank as in the case of some anthias. Or due to hurricanes.
I have a tang in my 150 and ich is not something I spend too much time worrying about.
I have lost more fish due to problems they had before I bought them.
Problems that happened in the LFS system or during shipping that damaged the fish to the extent they did not survive. Or problems not being able to adapt to a tank as in the case of some anthias. Or due to hurricanes.
I have a tang in my 150 and ich is not something I spend too much time worrying about.
- Location
- long island n.y
one of my tangs died of ich,a couple of days after he died all my fish looked healthy no signs of ich.even my purple tang looked super healthy and he had ich pretty bad,its been over a month and no sign of ich.does this mean my tank no longer has ich?
- Location
- Flushing
No.. You're not out of the woods yet
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