ich help

[mameroo2000]

I will suggest you to get a QT, add water from your DT and let it run. For trap your fishes get a fish trap from lfs or ask if any member can lend it to you...Put your fishes in the QT and mix on they food garlic, some people said that the garlic doesn't work...but it been working for me; you can use copper too. After 8 weeks your DT will have not any ich, as they die if there is not any fish...I hope that could help you.

[Reef Pilot]

I sure hate reading these threads. People just keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again.... Unfortunately, some of the advice isn't the best either.

I QT new fish for a total of 3 months (not 6 weeks) and use the hyposalinity method. Have been 100% successful with that. Not only does it ensure your fish are ich free, but they get a chance to eat well and get strong before being added to the DT where they might not get a very warm welcome initially from the resident inhabitants.

The trick is to have a fully cycled QT running all the time. If you try to set one up quickly and transfer sick fish from your DT, that very often does not work. Also, it is not good enough just to observe new fish in your QT without treatment for a few weeks or even 6 weeks. They still could be carrying ich without showing symptoms and infest your DT.

And 6 weeks fallow in your DT is not long enough. Go 3 months to be sure.

And yes, ich is deadly. Many people think they have MV when their fish die, but ich kills too. I know,... as I've been through all that in the past...

[scubadawg]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

I sure hate reading these threads. People just keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again.... Unfortunately, some of the advice isn't the best either.

I QT new fish for a total of 3 months (not 6 weeks) and use the hyposalinity method. Have been 100% successful with that. Not only does it ensure your fish are ich free, but they get a chance to eat well and get strong before being added to the DT where they might not get a very warm welcome initially from the resident inhabitants.

The trick is to have a fully cycled QT running all the time. If you try to set one up quickly and transfer sick fish from your DT, that very often does not work. Also, it is not good enough just to observe new fish in your QT without treatment for a few weeks or even 6 weeks. They still could be carrying ich without showing symptoms and infest your DT.

And 6 weeks fallow in your DT is not long enough. Go 3 months to be sure.

And yes, ich is deadly. Many people think they have MV when their fish die, but ich kills too. I know,... as I've been through all that in the past...

I have a 90 gallon and 50 gallon that are fully cycled, they both been running with carbon, to take the cupramine out, so I'm just making sure the temp and salinity are the same before I start the transfer. The 90 has been running since the end of Dec, the 50 gallon was started in Feb

[scubadawg]

2 dead purple dottybacks this afternoon

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by scubadawg

2 dead purple dottybacks this afternoon

You have my sympathies, for sure. I've been there and know how it feels. Hopefully you will get past this, and with the lessons learned have better success in the future.

There is a lot more to having a proper QT than just being cycled and having the same salinity (that is probably the least important). I should have said mature QT, not just cycled. That means having sufficient bio filtering capacity to handle the extra feeding and fish waste in a smaller tank. I have a canister filter with a sponge filter running all the time. Prior to use and as part of ongoing maintenance, I also change the water in the QT using DT water from changing that water.

Then after placing the fish in the QT, multiple water changes (with RODI water) are used to bring down the salinity to 1.008 - 1.009 (use a refractometer). That of course freshens up the water, too. The fish need to be at that level for at least 6 weeks since the last time you saw any ich symptoms. Any shorter, and you just wasted your time. The complete cycle for me, lowering the salinity, keeping it there (usually 2 months) and then slowly raising it, takes me a full 3 months.

Here is a good article about hypo, including many of the other benefits to your fish.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/6/fish

[daniella3d]

Be carefull never to put copper in your display tank, and carbon will NOT remove copper! There is a product I think by Seachem that is supposed to remove copper but it is very hard to remove so never put that in your display or you will not be able to put any invertebrates, probably for a very very long time.

The danger with hyposalinity is this...if you put your fish right away in hyposalinity and it turns out to be marine velvet, then you must raise the salinity to treat with copper (it is not good to treat copper with hypo) and raising the salinity must be very very slow so marine velvet would wipe out your fish before you get the chance to have the right salinity to treat.

This is why a positive ID is important. If it is ick, then treat with hypo, if it is marine velvet treat with copper or preferably chloroquinine right away. Hyposalinity don't do a think for velvet.

For broklynella then it's Seachem Paraguard. In fact I would start my quarantine with full salinity and Paraguard, and only do hyposalinity when absolutely certain it's ick.

[sam]

well all my fish is still battling the ick problem.....

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Be carefull never to put copper in your display tank, and carbon will NOT remove copper! There is a product I think by Seachem that is supposed to remove copper but it is very hard to remove so never put that in your display or you will not be able to put any invertebrates, probably for a very very long time.

The danger with hyposalinity is this...if you put your fish right away in hyposalinity and it turns out to be marine velvet, then you must raise the salinity to treat with copper (it is not good to treat copper with hypo) and raising the salinity must be very very slow so marine velvet would wipe out your fish before you get the chance to have the right salinity to treat.

This is why a positive ID is important. If it is ick, then treat with hypo, if it is marine velvet treat with copper or preferably chloroquinine right away. Hyposalinity don't do a think for velvet.

For broklynella then it's Seachem Paraguard. In fact I would start my quarantine with full salinity and Paraguard, and only do hyposalinity when absolutely certain it's ick.

I agree avoid copper.

My understanding of MV is that it is very quick, and if you see it, you are probably too late to treat your fish. I believe it is also more rare, and most often it is mistaken for Ich.

I use hypo as a pro-active treatment as per this article, even if no signs of Ich are present. I had a situation one time where I also bought some shrimp along with new fish, and so didn't use hypo, just observed the fish in the QT for several weeks. They all looked good, so I transferred them into my DT. A few weeks later, Ich showed up in my DT, and soon I had a full blown outbreak. I fed my fish well (not much else you can do in your DT), but lost 2 of resident fish before the Ich subsided (I think the survivors can develop a short term immunity). Ironically non of the new fish died, but they obviously were carriers. I now assume any fish I get from anyone, LFS or private, carries Ich. It is certainly very common, no question about that.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/6/fish

I have never used Paraguard, so can't comment about that, other than what you can read on the internet.

I do have PraziPro, which I understand can be used together with hypo. Haven't tried it yet, but it is supposed to help get rid of other parasites like flukes and worms. Will do that next time I QT new fish.