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spsrookie
05/03/2016, 09:50 PM
I am in now way putting down or discontinuing the use of current quarantine methods. I have an idea, not that I want to use, but would like to know if it would hypothetically work.

So ttm is 12 days, transferring fish every 72 hours. I understand why this works, because after the ich falls off, by the time it can cyst and regroup to attack fish, they are already in another tank.

But I am seeing some basic issues, such as making sure the entire tank is 100 percent dry for 24 hours, always seems to be some moisture, especially in small pumps. The other part is wild temp swings with 2 brand new reputable heaters in small water volumes.

Again, just for my own learning experience, but if you place fish in copper, all ich would have to fall off fish within ten days.

So why not place fish in copper for ten days, and then remove fish into sterile tank for observation.

I know copper is stressful, but if copper targets and kills the infectious stage after it hatches out, and the copper wouldn't allow that, why not just have copper, long enough so the ich can fall off the fish, and having no way to reenter the fish, because of cu, move fish and be done treating.

If I understand the cycle, the ones we are worried about are the ones on the fish itself, and the ones waiting to attack. But if copper greets them as they come up to the fish, and we allow enough time for ich to fall off (10 days) why would that not suffice>?

jbvdhp
05/04/2016, 01:41 AM
I don't think about it much anymore, but TTM has cured my tangs of ich. I have a large Naso going thru it now, but he was in copper at the LFS for THREE months. They keep their Cu levels between .3 to .5 they say, so it fluctuates a bit. Tbh, I have the least amount of problems with fish from this store but I still don't chance it.

I don't know much about Cu but I know i wasn't that successful with it so I stopped. But what you describe isn't any different than the regular protocol except that it's treated for 14 days


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ThRoewer
05/04/2016, 01:48 AM
I've done it pretty much like that with hyposalinity instead of copper (which is really bad for fish). It works well as a treatment against an active ich outbreak with multiple fish but would likely not be reliable enough as a preventive measure since you don't have the feedback of sick fish cleaning up.

TTM is best done with 4 sets of equipment to prevent cleaning oversights during the treatment. If you want to add another layer of safety, do TTM under hyposaline condition at a salinity of 1.009 kg/L as that prevents encystment of most ich strains (exception are the two known Taiwan strains that still thrive at salinities as low as 1.005 kg/L).