Reef Discussion
How do I get rid of it? @Dr. Schell can you help me?
Sorry to see that @Gunners85!
Yes it will infect all fish. To completely rid the tank of ich, you will have to remove all the fish to a hospital tank (bunnings tub is cheap and easy to set up) and leave the display tank fishless for at least 8 weeks, 10 or 12 weeks preferable.
It is possible for the fish to fight off the ich but it will always be present in your tank if you dont remove the fish. You are better off treating them in the hospital tank with hyposalinity or copper or tank transfer method.
Good luck!
Yes it will infect all fish. To completely rid the tank of ich, you will have to remove all the fish to a hospital tank (bunnings tub is cheap and easy to set up) and leave the display tank fishless for at least 8 weeks, 10 or 12 weeks preferable.
It is possible for the fish to fight off the ich but it will always be present in your tank if you dont remove the fish. You are better off treating them in the hospital tank with hyposalinity or copper or tank transfer method.
Good luck!
That's what sucks about ich, you can't treat the DT. You could just try and keep the fish well fed and keep the water nice and clean and the fish may recover, but the ich will always be present in your tank. The bad thing about this is when a fish gets stressed it is likely to be overcome with ich again.
In the old wiki, there is http://www.thereefuge.com.au/wiki/marine-ich-cryptocaryon-irritans/ which is well worth a read to understand the beast you are dealing with.
The new version of the wiki doesn't have it yet, but that will give you some idea. This will also help explain the reason why quarantine is necessary for eradication, and exactly what you need to do in regards to the quarantining arrangements as moving the fish out of the DT is not enough by itself to actually get rid of the disease.
The new version of the wiki doesn't have it yet, but that will give you some idea. This will also help explain the reason why quarantine is necessary for eradication, and exactly what you need to do in regards to the quarantining arrangements as moving the fish out of the DT is not enough by itself to actually get rid of the disease.
I've had ich a few times over the year. never removed my fish treated my tank though with increased husbandry. if you get rid of the stress to the fish, the fish generally fights off the infection. but i guess quarantine is a safer approach if it does not create to much stress to the fish.
Oh! So you mean for him to leave the peppermint shrimp in the DT but take the fish out, @Buddy
My bad lol. Read it as move them ALL to a QT tank lol
(Serves me right for multi tasking lol)
My bad lol. Read it as move them ALL to a QT tank lol
(Serves me right for multi tasking lol)
You'll find that there is a stage where it will drop off the fish. If you're observant enough (and have enough space), that's when you want to remove the fish from one QT to a clean QT before they get to reinfect the fish. Obviously that's a bit of a handful when you have a few fish to deal with, as the lifecycle of the ich might vary enough between the infected to make it awkward.
Failing all that, you can just accept that ich is a common problem, and as @riley mentioned, good husbandry and reduction of stressors to the fish will aide greatly in ich "going away" on its own. It seems to appear only when fish are stressed, and often seems to vanish when the stress is gone. Obviously it's never really gone, it's just not a serious problem until the stress returns and the fish wind up covered in spots and start dying. I think you'll find that a lot of tanks a like that - especially tanks with a lot of tangs. The problem just isn't evident until something causes stress.
Actually getting rid of it properly would be better, but for a lot of people it's just impossible to QT that many fish. A lot of conjecture exists on the subject, and there are a lot of ways of dealing with it, and yet the end results are questionable; ich can "go away" on its own or you can treat it away - the point that's ignored in determining what works is whether or not either makes any difference if the same stressor returns to the system (ie. if it appeared out of no where, it was already present in the system for however long.. which may be a long time).
Failing all that, you can just accept that ich is a common problem, and as @riley mentioned, good husbandry and reduction of stressors to the fish will aide greatly in ich "going away" on its own. It seems to appear only when fish are stressed, and often seems to vanish when the stress is gone. Obviously it's never really gone, it's just not a serious problem until the stress returns and the fish wind up covered in spots and start dying. I think you'll find that a lot of tanks a like that - especially tanks with a lot of tangs. The problem just isn't evident until something causes stress.
Actually getting rid of it properly would be better, but for a lot of people it's just impossible to QT that many fish. A lot of conjecture exists on the subject, and there are a lot of ways of dealing with it, and yet the end results are questionable; ich can "go away" on its own or you can treat it away - the point that's ignored in determining what works is whether or not either makes any difference if the same stressor returns to the system (ie. if it appeared out of no where, it was already present in the system for however long.. which may be a long time).
What @DavidS mentioned at the start of his post is the tank transfer method. You move the fish to a new tank every 4 days and they will be free of ich on the 13th day. I do this to all fish and haven't had ich... Knock on wood.
Ill try and find the info for you after work today if you like. I just use two bunnings tubs to transfer the fish each time.
Ill try and find the info for you after work today if you like. I just use two bunnings tubs to transfer the fish each time.
I have an ever present threat of White spot.
If you can catch all the fish (should be fairly easy in a small tank) QT them and remove it altogether).
If they are all still eating there is a good chance they will survive (each time they get it an survive they actually become a little more immune).
I wish I could remove all the fish from my system and QT the lot and fix my problem forever but I have over 120Kgs of LR so catching them is a bugger - to be honest I'm almost at that point though. Re-scape while I'm at it.
Good luck, keep up water changes and food offered and they might be OK.
I also find turning the lights off for 2 days, on for 1, off for 2, on for 1, etc helps to reduce stress, which in turns helps the fish heal quicker.
Dropping the temp slows the cycle down (which also gives the fish a little more chance of survival) however be careful you don't stress the fish more by running it to cool or dropping it to quick.
Good luck with it.
If you can catch all the fish (should be fairly easy in a small tank) QT them and remove it altogether).
If they are all still eating there is a good chance they will survive (each time they get it an survive they actually become a little more immune).
I wish I could remove all the fish from my system and QT the lot and fix my problem forever but I have over 120Kgs of LR so catching them is a bugger - to be honest I'm almost at that point though. Re-scape while I'm at it.
Good luck, keep up water changes and food offered and they might be OK.
I also find turning the lights off for 2 days, on for 1, off for 2, on for 1, etc helps to reduce stress, which in turns helps the fish heal quicker.
Dropping the temp slows the cycle down (which also gives the fish a little more chance of survival) however be careful you don't stress the fish more by running it to cool or dropping it to quick.
Good luck with it.
Members online
No members online now.