ick??

[dtowsley]

I woke up this morning to find my purple & hippo tang with white spots on them mainly the purple. To me it looks like ick %&*%(. I have a 180 gallon tank and i am unable to dig out all the fish that i have in their and don't have a large enough qt tank to house all of the fish that I have. I only have a few inverts in the tank (still working on my clean up crew) just snails and crabs, and only a handful of corals some lps and sps. My question is how should I treat this tank, obviously treating them in a smaller qt tank is best but not a practical option. I was reading about doing hyposalinity treatment. I understand that most of my snails and crabs will probably die, worth the sacrifice to me. Treating with chemical would cost a small fortune and still no guarantee. All fish are eating like pigs and I will start soaking all their food in garlic and also raise the temp of the tank to help

[MrTuskfish]

There is no chemical you can use in a tank with LR or inverts. Garlic does nothing for ich. I don't trust hypo at all. More & more folks are saying it doesn't work for them. A QT/HT is a vital piece of equipment; not just something that's nice to have. I wish i had some idea of how to help; but you're facing the inevitable result of not using a QT with all fish. Hypo may work. But has to be done exactly right. You could find a 55 gal QT on Craigslist for less than the price of your purple tang.

[dtowsley]

I have over 2 dozen fish so a qt tank would have to be large, some of my tangs are large and the smaller space might cause more harm as well

[Painted skin]

If you are not willing to get a larger QT tank, then I would take the little amount invert and corals you have and place them in the smaller QT and turn your DT into a QT. You may try hypo if you want but I had not luck with it. If you are worry about cost of med for large tank then reduce you water volume in the DT to half which would be 90gal..

Oh ya put as much rocks as you can from DT into the smaller tank and the rest into a rubber maid or something with heater and flow.

It's the only way I can see it work if you're not getting another bigger QT.

[wooden_reefer]

I woke up this morning to find my purple & hippo tang with white spots on them mainly the purple. To me it looks like ick %&*%(. I have a 180 gallon tank and i am unable to dig out all the fish that i have in their and don't have a large enough qt tank to house all of the fish that I have. I only have a few inverts in the tank (still working on my clean up crew) just snails and crabs, and only a handful of corals some lps and sps. My question is how should I treat this tank, obviously treating them in a smaller qt tank is best but not a practical option. I was reading about doing hyposalinity treatment. I understand that most of my snails and crabs will probably die, worth the sacrifice to me. Treating with chemical would cost a small fortune and still no guarantee. All fish are eating like pigs and I will start soaking all their food in garlic and also raise the temp of the tank to help

The greatest concern about hypo is that it will kill inverts. Even if you don't care about them, the decay of their remains will cause ammonia to surge. Hypo that does not harm fish will not harm nitrification bacteria, but even a healthy nitrification filter can be overwhelmed.

If overcoming such a calamity is easy, people will not QT to eradicate ich.

There are still certain things you can do, and if you are skillful you can escape calamity. (If you were skillful you would not allow this to happen in the first place, however.)

1. Start a cycle with enough medium ASAP in a separate container, such as a plastic container.

2. Get two more large plastic containers to treat the fish. Alternate with 100% WC daily. Treat for a few days until ich is no longer life threatening, then return fish to DT. You may have to repeat this process a couple of times.

3. Generally, one has to balance the harm of ammonia with that of ich, both can kill.

4. Eradication of ich and the fallow period is a lengthy process, so a large QT with enough well-cycled medium and correct makeshift filtration will be needed to eradicate ich, especially in the case when infestation has already occurred in DT, not just prevention.

[DeathMagnetic]

hypo unfortunately hasnt worked for me either.... qt and copper... im going to save my fish ( hopefully ) in quarantine and nuke my display and start over.. i was able to get all my corals / inverts into my frag tank....

[bsilvest]

QT an copper is all that has worked for me an tried copper and hypo so with a new setup IM crazy nervous and scared like right now think its just a sting from an anemone but QT because i don't want to take that chance. however if bad enough when in QT if a fish stops eating then garlic does help them with appetite that is all

[DrPat]

Hypo alone is not enough to kill ick there must be copper in the water.
Hyposalinity kills parasites by osmosis ,the parasites body ruptures as hypo saline water rushes into the body .The Lower the salinity is the more effective the treatment will be.This is why people advocate fresh water dips, which are usually too stressful for the dibilitated. Hypo salinity is the safer way and once again depending on how severe the infection is and how strong the infected fish is all influences the outcome.Exposing a fish to 1.009 for 48 hours most often will do no harm. Most fish will live through an abrupt drop in salinity which is the most effective way to destroy both ick and oodinium.But it is not a cure1.025 down to 1.015, or 1.021 to 1.012 will kill ick on the fish.ie a modified dip.

Keeping fish in1.012 for 3 weeks is safer for the fish and raising the water temp to 82F and sometimes as high as 85F[ for 1 week aerate well] will dislodge the few remaning slime protected stubon parasites from the fish and get the parasite into the freeswiming stage. COPPER POWER WILL KILL THE FREE SWIMING and is an essential part of the treatment plan which is 4 weeks. After week 3, I then start to slowly increase the salinity back to that of the dt over the next 4 weeks.
Kidney damage can happen in 3 -4 weeks of hyposalinity.THE LOWER THE SALINITY THE GREATER THE LIKELY HOOD Damage to the sodium pump is irreversible and fish will die. The theraputic goal is to kill the disease and not the patient. my proven treament will do just that,as I have employed it for hundeds of times over the past 40 years. Each fish is different and we do not know what the fish was expose to prior to acqisition.
AS for the GARLIC iT is a fact that garlic or ALICIN the medicinal compound in garlic will also help disloge ick and irritate the parasite and is part of a multi prong approach to killing ick. again NOT A CURE However to load frozen food with kents garlic extreme I place frozen food in a cup add garlic and vitc [kents] and allow the food to thaw overnight in the refrigerator allowing it to marinate and absorb the allicin.
Sand stirring MAY cause an increase in ick since the tomont which developes from the parasite that matures and naturally falls off the fish can take up to 3 weeks to divide and release the free swimming tomites. This is why ick infections seem to suddenly appear in well established tanks months after any new fish have been added. Usually when tank temps rise in the summer to 82 or greater. [ RESTING TOMONTS]
Ick will confer immunity to fish which survive the infection and are healthy enough to muster a good level of immunity . ie no kidney damage for starters and proper nutrition. Immunity does not mean that you will not see ick on a fish it rather implies that ick immune fish are seemingly not affected by the few parasites that invade them.

[DrPat]

I woke up this morning to find my purple & hippo tang with white spots on them mainly the purple. To me it looks like ick %&*%(. I have a 180 gallon tank and i am unable to dig out all the fish that i have in their and don't have a large enough qt tank to house all of the fish that I have. I only have a few inverts in the tank (still working on my clean up crew) just snails and crabs, and only a handful of corals some lps and sps. My question is how should I treat this tank, obviously treating them in a smaller qt tank is best but not a practical option. I was reading about doing hyposalinity treatment. I understand that most of my snails and crabs will probably die, worth the sacrifice to me. Treating with chemical would cost a small fortune and still no guarantee. All fish are eating like pigs and I will start soaking all their food in garlic and also raise the temp of the tank to help

I have had clown fish that have had ick appear on them after they fanned out sand when they prepared a breeding spot . they would spawn and the ick would go away and not return on them or any other fish including 4 tangs that lived in the 180.You may not have to treat just yet unless the spots are increasing out of control or the fishes respiratory rate is increasing. it is best to look at the gills when the fish are at rest and sleeping. if its huffing and puffing remove them to qt. I would not raise the water temps but rather increase nutrition and garlic supplements and pray as you watch closely . this may give you time to get a large qt . If they are healthy they can be immune to a point where the ick will subside. It will reappear if your temps spike in the summer. I have also used reef safe poly lab medic at double dose see my review on marine depot . good luck http://www.marinedepot.com/Polyp_Lab_Medic_30mL_Saltwater_Fish_Parasite_Medications-Polyp_Lab-PP2111-FIMEPS-vi.html the instructions suggest the use of carbon to remove the meds I DO NOT USE CARBON . SEACHEMS PURIGEN tang safe as it will not cause hlle.