Met the Enemy (Ich)

[down and outman]

I was doing my weekly maintenance of my buddy's tank when I looked at his Hippo Tang and he was covered with Ich. He was doing very poorly. He was literally covered with Ich. The rest of the fish were OK, so my first reaction was to get him out of there.

Took him home and set up a hospital tank with my spare 30 gal hex tank. This is in the middle of the night so I can't get any more R/O water til tomorrow. Had 10 gals which I made into saltwater, used a spare heater and a powerhead (too much flow) . Also added some food. Quickly read up on cures, Hyposalinity and copper, but being so far from a LFS, copper is out for a few days. I planned on getting more R/O water as I used all I had to get him 10 gal in the tank. Needless to say when I goy home from work he passed away. Feel like crap that I wasn't able to save him. I know we both screwed up, gonna set up a QT tank for future emergencies. Can't help to wonder if I should have left him in the tank and treated the whole tank. Well hindsight is 20-20.

Now I need to make sure the rest of his fish don't come down with Ich. I'm gonna reduce the salinity in his tank. slowly to try to control it. It's a 55 gal. FOWLR tank ( yeah, too small for a Tang and he knows it, but I really don't want to use copper it it.

Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks in advance. I'll read your suggestions when I get off work tonight.

[kevin2000]

Hypo kills inverts and is not recommended for show tanks. Inverts includes all the infauna within the live rock and live sand .. so if your going to do hypo in your show tank I suggest you remove the live rock.

Keep a close eye on ammonia ... all the micro critters in the sand may die off an create eventually contribute to ammonia issues. An inexpensive Seachem Ammonia Alert badge (about $7) will help monitor ammonia levels ... making up a large batch of replacement water when you start the hypo process may be good insurance if you have ammonia issues.

As a side note - not sure of the water quality in your area but in general its OK to use tap water when setting up an emergency hospital tank - many will just use a conditioner to remove the chlorine/chloramine.

[down and outman]

OK, you talked me out of it. Now what should I do with it?

[sherm71tank]

Nice to meet you met!

[surf406386]

I have the same problem my angelfish and tangs were covered in itch. All these fish are very difficult to catch especially the angelfish as he/she does not accept food except when extremely hunger.

So I have added pro series Itch from aqua pharm labs to my water. The corals do not seem to be affected by this. On the other hand the fish with Itch still died so I don't know if this is a good product or not. But it seems rather harmless compared to other medications.

http://www.aquapharmlabs.com/medication.php

[down and outman]

I'll check into that. His other fish seem OK at this point. I want to keep it that way. I may end up setting a hospital tank at his house for him and let his tank remain fishless while I treat the fish.