Treating....<ick?> or <???>

[i have crabs]

sounds like ich or a similar parasite,
google saltwater ich there are lots of articles to read, its a parasite and was probably in the tank and on the fish when you got them, most treatments that are reef safe are garbage asfar as im concerned, you can take lots of different actions a couple common routs are
1. do nothing hope it goes back under control, problem is ich is still in the tank waiting for another chance to take over,
2. feed with garlic, add reefsafe ich snake oil treatments buy cleaner shrimp/fish, problem is you will still end up with ich in your tank waiting to take over again someday but better chances of fish surviving than doing nothing,
3.buy a qt tank if you dont have one yet, big enough for all your fish to live in for 4-6 weeks,treat the fish with either hyposalinity or a copper based treatment for min. 2 weeks and leave your display fishless for 4-6 weeks, this will kill the ich parasites in the tank and on the fish and will now not have to worry anymore.
ich can be reintroduced into the tank by adding new fish that have not been treated properly, or in there egg like state on rocks or corals you buy,
having a place to keep new rock and corals for 3-7 days is ideal but most people dont do that step since the risk is small

[kien]

In my years of battling ich, the only thing that ever truly worked for me was to add lots of cleaner shrimp and to help the fish kick the ich themselves. As others have stated, ich is always there but it rears its ugly white heads when it finds a host that is weak and stressed out. Fish get weak and stressed out for many reasons. I usually get ich outbreaks when new fish are added. Even some of the existing population develop ich because they stress out about the new addition. Sometimes one or two fish get ich if I have left a water change for too long. Generally if they are healthy they will kick the ich themselves. The cleaner shrimp help them along by picking off their ich. I have 4 skunk cleaners and 4 blood red shrimp and all 8 of them have cleaning stations that the fish line up for when they get ich, or even if they are just itchy. With 8 shrimps, I also get a lot of shrimp spawning.. they are a busy bunch!

Anyway, that is my strategy and (thankfully!), even though I get ich now and then I have yet to lose anyone to ich (since adding my population of shrimps a couple of years ago.

K.

[jassz]

Thanks everyone.

Sorry, I'm new to sw, so I just wanted to ask... what exactly are cleaner shrimp? I have a predator tank, won't they just get eaten?

Some people swear by garlic, I've read others that think it's an old wive's tale. It certainly couldn't hurt anything though, so I'll give that a shot too.

Buying a qt tank for all my fish just doesn't sound feasible. They'd probably all kill each other in smaller quarters.

Thanks again,

[i have crabs]

yes cleaner shrimp would get eatin fairly quick in your tank, and garlic dosent cure ich at all it improves the immune system of the fish so that they are able to fight it off better,
in my opinion it would be best to buy a used 90g and use it for a month as a qt if the fish start looking real bad or stop eating, a few specks here and there isnt much to stress about though so as long as things are under control id just start soaking their food in garlic and hope for the best

[jassz]

So now there seems to be more spots on both Bambi and Fabio. I really think I should treat the tank, but moving them is not a great option. I do have about a 30g spare tank, but I couldn't imagine the lionfish in a tank that size. So, what I wondered is if I could move the rock instead? I only have live rock and some base rock (I assume what is sitting under the live rock isn't live yet). Could I move those in to a tub or something, then treat the whole tank? I'd have to figure out hidey holes and sleeping spots for everyone with <?>... something. Maybe stryofoam or plastic?? What do you guys think?

jassz

[kien]

If you treat the main display tank with chemicals (even if you take out the rock), don't you still have to figure out how to get those chemicals out of your main display tank? That is, you'll probably want to flush the main display tank once everyone has been treated, that means moving them into a temporary hold while you do the flush? I would go with getting a larger used tank for QT'ing, or use your current display as a QT and buy a new tank for the main display :-)

[jassz]

The instructions on the bottle of Ick treatment say to remove it with carbon, which is what I did when I treated the first time around (plus a partial water change). But I don't want to submit the rocks to another treatment, as they did suffer a bit.

I truly have no room for a 90g tank, and I'm also recovering from surgery so shopping and bringing one home just isn't an option.

The rock would be all right in a tub, would it not? I've heard people talk about doing that, for other reasons.

thanks,

[kien]

ya, the rock will be fine in the tub. I have a few pounds of rock sitting in a tub right now with a heater and Koralia 1 circulating the water. The rock is waiting to be put into a new tank. Lots of pods swimming around in that tub with no predators.. hehe.

K.

[Red Deer Reptiles]

just a thought: kordon{aqualherbals} makes two products to fight ick. ick attack 100%organic and Rid Ick plus. also AQUARIUM PHARMACEUTICIALS sells Melafix MARINE. PLEASE PLEASE Read The DIRECTIONS. MAYBE THIS HELPS .2000gals plus running .