ICH OUTBREAK!!!

[toor.attar]

Hello everybody, Unfortunately I came home today from work and saw that my Blue Tang and Coral Beauty have Ich on them. All of my fish are presumably “Quarantined,” and the most recent addition was the coral beauty who I think brought it. As of right now my other fish aren’t showing signs of ich besides minimal on my Flame Hawkfish. What should I do?? I really don’t want to lose any fish, as I’m so attached to them. I don’t have any coral or any inverts in my tank besides a few small snails. My fish are eating fine and are active as usual. My blue tang seems to be the most affected, I really don’t want to lose him or anybody else. What should I do, this is my first saltwater tank and I’ve never had to deal with something like this before. Please let me know what to do thank you.
Best picture I could get of the ich, they just never sit still ahah!!

 

[liddojunior]

I don’t see corals.

So ich works by cyst exploding and dropping eggs. And the eggs hatch and they find new host. So it takes time before you’ll see new cyst on your fish.

So basically your tank is already infected. Buy marine ich-X and use that to treat entire tank.
Or move them to a hospital tank treat there and keep your display tank fishless for couple months.

IchX is not safe for corals but inverts will be fine.

 

[toor.attar]

I do not have any corals in my tank. It’s just fish and 5 snails. I’ve been reading that Hyposalinity works to kill ich. I’m debating doing hyposalinity, ich-x, or copper since it’s a fowlr. Hyposalinity sounds the easiest, I can keep the salinity at 1.09 for 30 days and see if the ich has cured. If not then I can do copper or something. I really hope I do not lose any fish, worst part of the hobby!

 

[threebuoys]

The tang does appear to have ich. The coral beauty is fuzzy and at a difficult angle to view Better pictures there would be helpful for diagnosis.

Our QT protocol utilizes copper, usually either Copper Safe or Copper Power. Both of these products should be administered at a concentration of 2.50 ppm. Cupramine is another copper product. Due to its formulation, a concentration of 0.50 is targeted. Any of these products should be administered for 30 days. You will need a good quality test kit to monitor.

While you do not have any coral and limited inverts, treatment in your display tank is problematic. First, any calcareous (calcium based) gravel or rocks will absorb copper making it very difficult to maintain the correct copper level. Second, once treatment is complete, the copper will leach back into the tank from the stone, making it impossible to add coral or inverts later.

The link below explains the entire QT process.

 

[threebuoys]

I do not have any corals in my tank. It’s just fish and 5 snails. I’ve been reading that Hyposalinity works to kill ich. I’m debating doing hyposalinity, ich-x, or copper since it’s a fowlr. Hyposalinity sounds the easiest, I can keep the salinity at 1.09 for 30 days and see if the ich has cured. If not then I can do copper or something. I really hope I do not lose any fish, worst part of the hobby!

You are correct that hyposalinity is a viable alternative. You will need to drop the salinity over perhaps 12 - 18 hours to be safest. After the thirty day period, you will need to gradually increase salinity over 2 - 3 days. Rapid increase in salinity from 1.09 to 1.25 would likely be harmful to the fish.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

+1 on hyposalinity being an option. You’ll need to pull the snails. Ich-x doesn’t work very well for marine fish. Coppersafe is great, but it can bind with your rocks.
Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Agree on coppersafe or copper Power in lieu of ichX which rarely brings good outcomes and hyposalinity works with many fish but not all in some cases posing stress on certain fish. If resorting to copper products, apply at therapeutic level 2.25-2.5 For a FULL 30 days (do not interrupt this 30 day period) monitored by a reliable Copper Test kit such as Hanna Brand- No API brand. Also monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit and add aeration during treatment using an air stone.
The display tank will have to be kept fishless (FALLOW) for 6-8 weeks to assure the existing parasites go through their life cycle without a host fish and die off.

 

[exnisstech]

+1 on hyposalinity being an option. You’ll need to pull the snails. Ich-x doesn’t work very well for marine fish. Coppersafe is great, but it can bind with your rocks.
Jay

Just a question about hypo Jay. If the OP does do hypo in the DT for 30 days does that mean all ich is killed and a long fallow period is no longer required? I realize inverts and corals would have to be removed (OP only has a few snails) . I'm just curious as it seems like it would be a very good option to treat a DT without having to remove fish and avoid the long fallow period.

 

[threebuoys]

Just a question about hypo Jay. If the OP does do hypo in the DT for 30 days does that mean all ich is killed and a long fallow period is no longer required? I realize inverts and corals would have to be removed (OP only has a few snails) . I'm just curious as it seems like it would be a very good option to treat a DT without having to remove fish and avoid the long fallow period.

The gotcha here are corals. If you have corals and inverts in the DT, hyposalinity will not work. However, if you have neither, hypo for 30 days will do the trick for ich.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Just a question about hypo Jay. If the OP does do hypo in the DT for 30 days does that mean all ich is killed and a long fallow period is no longer required? I realize inverts and corals would have to be removed (OP only has a few snails) . I'm just curious as it seems like it would be a very good option to treat a DT without having to remove fish and avoid the long fallow period.

That's a great question! What I do is run hypo for 30 days beyond the date that the last spots were seen on any fish. Then, I gradually increase the salinity back to normal over 5 days. Any invertebrates that were pulled need to stay out of the tank for at least 60 days total. In rare instances, ich may rebound after hypo. If that happens, you need to drop back into hypo again...but in reality, I've not seen that happen.

Jay

 

[toor.attar]

Okay great! I’m gonna be doing a Hyposalinity treatment for at least 45 or 60 days, at around 1.09. After the hypo treatment, if I still have ich, I’m gonna be quarantining the fish with copper power or copper safe. My fish look a lil better today, coral beautys showing only one spot, and my blue tang’s spots look like they were popped lol. I’m feeding my fish with mysis and pellets soaked in Garlic and Selcon. Is there anything else I should do or know? I’m gonna be slowly bringing the salinity down over the course of a day or two but I’m really hoping this hypo-salinity gets rid of the ich.

 

[exnisstech]

That's a great question! What I do is run hypo for 30 days beyond the date that the last spots were seen on any fish. Then, I gradually increase the salinity back to normal over 5 days. Any invertebrates that were pulled need to stay out of the tank for at least 60 days total. In rare instances, ich may rebound after hypo. If that happens, you need to drop back into hypo again...but in reality, I've not seen that happen.

Jay

Great info! So basically any non fish be it coral or inverts should ideally be placed in a tank pretty much like a QT and they should be kept there for the normal fallow period duration? Unless the tank is packed full of coral this could be a better option than removing fish. At least for me, as I ussualy end up removing all most everything before I can catch all the fish. Thanks for the info. Filing this one away for future reference hoping I don't need it.

 

[Lavey29]

Okay great! I’m gonna be doing a Hyposalinity treatment for at least 45 or 60 days, at around 1.09. After the hypo treatment, if I still have ich, I’m gonna be quarantining the fish with copper power or copper safe. My fish look a lil better today, coral beautys showing only one spot, and my blue tang’s spots look like they were popped lol. I’m feeding my fish with mysis and pellets soaked in Garlic and Selcon. Is there anything else I should do or know? I’m gonna be slowly bringing the salinity down over the course of a day or two but I’m really hoping this hypo-salinity gets rid of the ich.

Great plan but I am in the mindset that ich is present in every tank irregardless of QT, hypo, copper, etc... fish just have a natural immune system to it unless a stressful event triggers it and their immune system weakens. In addition to your plan feed them very healthy frozen food and vitamins to support their immune systems to fight off the parasite. Your approach with garlic and selcon is excellent idea also.

 

[toor.attar]

Great plan but I am in the mindset that ich is present in every tank irregardless of QT, hypo, copper, etc... fish just have a natural immune system to it unless a stressful event triggers it and their immune system weakens. In addition to your plan feed them very healthy frozen food and vitamins to support their immune systems to fight off the parasite. Your approach with garlic and selcon is excellent idea also.

I was thinking the same, thankfully my fish do look a lot better now. What are some other vitamins and additives I can add to frozen or pellet food?? I just use garlic and selcon but would love other products as well.

 

[Lavey29]

I was thinking the same, thankfully my fish do look a lot better now. What are some other vitamins and additives I can add to frozen or pellet food?? I just use garlic and selcon but would love other products as well.

I use vitachem from Boyd once a week. It's hard to really get selcon to be effective in my opinion unless maybe soaking flakes.