ick on a tuskfish

[sdietz2469]

so i have had a tuskfish for about a week now and he has developed a bad case of ick..... he is in a reef tank as a lone fish with three cleaner shrimp...... the cleaners dont seem to be cleaning him...... any ideas as how to treat him without loosing him? he is very active, but i am still worried, he is also eating good...... should i do a freshwater dip, treat with organic ick attack(reef safe supposibly)...................... HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i do have a quarantine tank, but i dont have it set up...... and it is only a 16 gal bow front and i dont want to stress him out...............

[kevin2000]

Heres a good link discussing ich .. you will find others over at the fish disease forum.

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/marineich.html

[sdietz2469]

thanks, but like i said, my quarantine tank is only 16 gal..... i think that this would be enough alone to kill my tusk with stress, anymore ideas?

[sdietz2469]

so i am going to buy a 29 gal in a few to give him more room, but i have never treated with hyposalinity, and am very reluctant to do so....... can i get some help on exactly how to do this with the least stress possible on my fish.... this such an expensive and delicate specimen, any pointers would help.... i have to do something asap, or i will for sure loose him.....

[Shagsbeard]

Hypo isn't stressful for a fish. Ich is stressful, and your fish will find his month in hypo actually lower stress than your tank. More than a month can cause problems, but you wont need to leave him in that long. Give him some clay pots from the garden store to hide in, or some lengths of PVC. Bring the salinity down to 1.009, keeping careful watch on pH and temperature. Keep him there for 28 days. Over the next week after that, raise the salinity to match your tank's... no more than .002/day. When you put him back in, aclimate him as you would if you brought him home from a store.

[sdietz2469]

what about bringing him down to .009... how fast?

[Lotus99]

This is the method I used when I did hypo. I think the article explains it well and gives you a timeframe. http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

[sdietz2469]

tank set up with tusk in it.... how soon do i begin?