hippo dies to ich

e46er · #1 02-06-2009, 04:20 AM

my hippo devolped ich pretty much as soon as i got him and he finally died tonight none of my other fish have got it or showing signs they have it all swimming and are interacting with people viewing tank
my question is do i just not add anything for 4-6 weeks and let any potential ich left die or is there some type of preventive measure i can take to insure my other fish dont get sick

plutoniumJoe · #2 02-06-2009, 04:33 AM

I'm suffering through an outbreak in my tank as well. Have had a couple of mild cycles but no fatalities. I added a hippo at Christmas that is probably too big for my tank and he has a severe outbreak now. In the past garlic and Selcon seemed to have cleared things up or at least kept fish strong enough to fight it off. Time will tell.

Joe.

plutoniumJoe · #3 02-06-2009, 04:36 AM

I guess my previous post wasn't actually a reply. I found that even after leaving my tank fallow (QT'd everything) for 4 weeks ich came back. This last round everything was healthy and in the tank for a couple of months but still an outbreak.

naesco · #4 02-06-2009, 04:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by e46er

my hippo devolped ich pretty much as soon as i got him and he finally died tonight none of my other fish have got it or showing signs they have it all swimming and are interacting with people viewing tank
my question is do i just not add anything for 4-6 weeks and let any potential ich left die or is there some type of preventive measure i can take to insure my other fish dont get sick

It is highly likely that your other fish will develop ich too and ich can kill.
Soak all your food in garlic extract or garlic extreme. Feed more often and feed only garlic soaked food. The idea is to get as much in them as possible. Use dry food as it absorbs more.
Also use some selcon.
If you can get a cleaner shrimp and or neon gobies which will clean the fish as well.
Do not get sucked into a cleaner wrasse.
Good Luck

e46er · #5 02-06-2009, 04:50 AM

my clownfish and flame angel love formula 2 pellets so soak them in garlic too?
i have seachem garlicgaurd and kent garlic extreme
the fish seem to prefer the seachem product

cleaner shrimp how many jsut 1? or a couple?

dkcrx · #6 02-06-2009, 05:26 AM

cleaner shrimp do best in a small group, and by the size of your tank they should do great. Nothing beats the natural cure.
Also when you put them in your tank pick them out of the bag by hand and put them in your rock, gives them the chance to settle before larger fish mistakenly chomp them. I learned the hard way.

BlueAbyss · #7 02-06-2009, 05:34 AM

In order to completely rid your tank of ich, you will have to remove the fish for 4-6 weeks... I doubt this is an option, and it will require you to QT every fish that you get after for 4-6 weeks in order to stay completely ich free.

Ich on your fish is only part of their life cycle. Fish that are healthy and unstressed rarely get this parasite, and if they do are strong enough to fight it off without too much trouble. The problem is when fish are otherwise stressed, whether because of poor water conditions, bullying by other fish, poor and otherwise unvaried diet, etc. I would think that your hippo died because he was still acclimating to a new environment and fighting ich... this is all too common, sorry to hear of your loss

naesco · #8 02-06-2009, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by e46er

my clownfish and flame angel love formula 2 pellets so soak them in garlic too?
i have seachem garlicgaurd and kent garlic extreme
the fish seem to prefer the seachem product

cleaner shrimp how many jsut 1? or a couple?

acclimate them slowly and put them in when the tank is dark, two or three is fine
check the bottle on seachem carefully as it may be a watered down product.
Good Luck

xtreme · #9 02-06-2009, 05:48 PM

Naesco, I'm just curious why you say to avoid cleaner wrasse?

BCOrchidGuy · #10 02-06-2009, 06:57 PM

Cleaner shrimp do well in small groups, they'll breed and provide planktonic food for fish and corals. A lot of people say garlic doesn't work, there is evidence to support this if you look around. I've had reasonable luck with garlic, the idea makes sense to me, feed the fish garlic, the garlic comes out in their waste, (salt water fish don't pee they osmoregulate), the garlic isn't nice for the parasite so it drops off. I learned the hard way about QTing fish and I strongly recommend a QT tank, even if it's just for a week or so to observe your fish. The ich may have manifested itself simply from the stress of a tank change, Tangs are notorious for it. I would QT any tang before putting it in my display tank, other fish (hardy) I've put in with out problems but really, I should QT.

Douglas