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Justin Kashammer
New Members
Joined: 06 Nov 2005
Location: New Jersey
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 Posted: 2006.06.13(Tue)18:54 Post subject: Ich answers |
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Just noticed that 3 of my saltwater fish have very tiny white spots on fins,
and some on body. Looking for an answer on how to treat it successfully.
I have 2 cleaner shrimp in the tank with them. |
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Mike612
Exemplars
Joined: 20 Apr 2003
Location: Quebec, Canada
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| Posted: 2006.06.13(Tue)20:41 Post subject: |
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| What fish are they? How big is the tank? What are the water parameters (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, etc...)? |
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FloridaBoy
Moderators
Joined: 04 Jul 2004
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| Posted: 2006.06.13(Tue)21:00 Post subject: Re: Ich answers |
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| Justin Kashammer wrote: | Just noticed that 3 of my saltwater fish have very tiny white spots on fins,
and some on body. Looking for an answer on how to treat it successfully.
I have 2 cleaner shrimp in the tank with them. |
There is often a temptation to ignore this, however in the small confines of an aquarium 24 hours can make a huge difference with marine ich. Usually it subsides for a while only to return with a vengeance worse than before; the trophonts/protomonts grow in a cycle, dropping into the substrate and then re-emerging in higher numbers. The FW dip is a good idea (providing you check temp/pH) but that will do nothing to kill the hundreds of parasites lurking in your substrate. If you have marine ich in a fish ONLY system and no quarantine tank, you can treat the main tank with copper just follow the directions and make a 20 percent water change in advance. It's better not to treat the main tank if possible, but if you have no q-tank it's better than watching your fish get eaten alive, and believe me, ich will kill every one of them.
If you have live rock or other invertebrates it gets more tricky; the copper will kill the inverts, so you need to move ALL the fish to a quarantine system and treat them there for 30 days. Lowering the specific gravity (salinity) to 1.018 will help. This is the preferred method and copper will work well if administered per the directions. While you are doing this, the trophonts in the display tank will starve. You can leave hermits, shrimp, stars etc. in the display, but you need a biofilter in the q-tank during treatment and monitor daily for ammonia.
Also, be advised some species (I. e. eels, puffers, moorish idols, etc.) are harmed by copper treatments so research your charges.
_________________
Keepin' marines happy for 25 years |
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karlas
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Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: 2006.06.27(Tue)3:26 Post subject: |
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| I'm not saying its a cure for ick but to help prevent it you can feed garlic soaked foods once or twice a week. It works the same way as garlic/yeast tablets for dogs and cats it gets in there system and when fleas bite they don't like the taste and leave the animal. With ick being a parasite it works in the same general way it is also known to help with internal parasites with fish also. Maby give that a shot to help prevent further outbreaks. |
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