Eeny, meeny, miny, moe (ich)

[sfboarders]

So I just purchased a couple new fish and built a larger 55 gallon QT. The blue hippo tang is starting to show ich and the other fish do not have any signs yet.

My DT has been fallow for 8 weeks already. My 20 gallon QT has my heniochus and clown which I have successfully cured from ich using hyposalinity for 5 weeks. They'll be going back to the DT next weekend.

So I have a couple ways I can treat the new group of fish but wanted to get your input. Just to note I cycled a lot of filter medium to get robust nitrification. So I'm hoping I can get away with doing less or even no water changes.

hyposalinity (which I was successful with)
- at least 4 weeks SG at 1.008 treatment
- have 1.008 sw ready
- fluctuating pH (which makes it the hardest part of doing hyposalinity)
- less stressful to fishes

cupramine
- stressful to fish
- 14 day treatment
- I am afraid of contaminating everything (gloves, nets, specimen container, syringes, powerheads, etc...) where it will be in contact with inverts and coral in the future.

quinine sulfate
- not as stressful to fish as cupramine
- 9 day treatment
- kills nitirification bacteria which can lead into ammonia spike
- no way to test/measure

Even though I have 2 QT I don't think I'll be doing the tank transfer method. Seems it's to much work and probably add more stress moving the fish back and forth.

Your input is greatly appreciated

[krowleey]

hypo all the way, worked for me a few times, never failed and never lost a fish.

[wooden_reefer]

Originally Posted by sfboarders

So I just purchased a couple new fish and built a larger 55 gallon QT. The blue hippo tang is starting to show ich and the other fish do not have any signs yet.

My DT has been fallow for 8 weeks already. My 20 gallon QT has my heniochus and clown which I have successfully cured from ich using hyposalinity for 5 weeks. They'll be going back to the DT next weekend.

So I have a couple ways I can treat the new group of fish but wanted to get your input. Just to note I cycled a lot of filter medium to get robust nitrification. So I'm hoping I can get away with doing less or even no water changes.

hyposalinity (which I was successful with)
- at least 4 weeks SG at 1.008 treatment
- have 1.008 sw ready
- fluctuating pH (which makes it the hardest part of doing hyposalinity)
- less stressful to fishes

cupramine
- stressful to fish
- 14 day treatment
- I am afraid of contaminating everything (gloves, nets, specimen container, syringes, powerheads, etc...) where it will be in contact with inverts and coral in the future.

quinine sulfate
- not as stressful to fish as cupramine
- 9 day treatment
- kills nitirification bacteria which can lead into ammonia spike
- no way to test/measure

Even though I have 2 QT I don't think I'll be doing the tank transfer method. Seems it's to much work and probably add more stress moving the fish back and forth.

Your input is greatly appreciated

Any drug/treatment against ich that harms nitrification bacteria has to be ruled out.

Eradication of ich is actually not hard at all if the QT setup is correct. This means enough nitrification. When you have the correct QT setup, little actual work is needed to eradicate ich; all you need is easy patience. Ammonia will not be a problem. You need little water change for the whole QT.

For me, either hypo or copper is good. It is easy to pulse straight copper to maintain a range of copper level. I find straight copper easy to use. I have to do very little to eradicate ich after the QT setup, in general. I treat fish actively and continuously for at least eight weeks to eradicate ich.

Bacterial infection per se is bad, but when there are concurrent ich and external bacteria infection, the QT process to eradicate ich becomes more complex. Antibiotics to treat bacterial infection general harms nitrification mildly to severely. Pick an antibiotic that only harms nitrification bacteria mildly, like kanamycin, eryrothomycin, or neomycin. I get some nitrite but little ammonia. I also use UV to reduce the chance of bacterial infection, but not when I have to use an antibiotic, as UV degrades these drugs. UV does not degrade copper.