What fish to hyposalinity QT to get rid of Ich?

[MiniDevil]

Starting this afternoon, I noticed three white dots of Ich on my foxface. After reading around, it seems hyposalinity QT is the best way to get rid of the ich from my reef tank.

What creatures do I need to be concerned about hosting Ich? I have:

-Farm Raised Percula Clownfish (No Ich)
-Foxface Rabbitfish (3 specks of Ich)
-Coral Beauty (No Ich)
-Scooter Blenny (No Ich)
-Flame Angel (No Ich)

-Peppermint Shrimp
-Cleaner Shrimp
-Monkey Shrimp
-Various Snails
-Various Hermit Crabs
-Emerald Crab
-Bristleworms

-Green Star Polyps
-Zoas naturally popped up on the LR
-Another invert, forget what it is


Would removing all the fish, and doing the hypo in a QT be enough? Do I need to worry about any of my other critters hosting Ich and preventing it from dying off?

Thank you in advance for the insight!

 

[Squishie89]

Okay. Ich only negatively affects fish. So all your fish can host ich. Sometimes inverts and corals can have ich on them and bring it in, but it will not ..affect them. I would put all your fish in QT and do copper. Let your tank run fish-less for about 2 months or so. Unless more people chime in, I would purchase https://www.mrsaltwatertank.com/quarantine Mr. Saltwater Tank's book on quarantine and diseases.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Eggs will reside on the rock, coral and sand bed, leave the fish out of the tank for 2 months. Just QT the fish and your all set.

 

[jschultzbass]

Just to add a little on what everyone said already; ich can only feed off of fish. If you take all your fish out of your tank for 8 (10 is better) weeks then all the ich in your tank will starve and die. If one fish has ich it is a safe bet all the fish have ich, it's just not visible. The fish should be treated with copper (Cupramine seems to be the best and is what I use) in a bare QT tank (no sand or rock). There are a quite a few threads out there on how to set up a QT tank. There are arguments back and forth whether hypo-salinity gets rid of ich or not but really the only true way to get rid of it IMO is copper.

Chloroquine phosphate is also one that people have used with success but there isn't near as much info out there about it as there is copper. It is not near as readily available either.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Copper Treatment for Marine Ich - REEFEDITION
Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com
Marine Ich

 

[MiniDevil]

Should I do copper treatment INSTEAD of hyposalinity, or a combination of both? The three white dots are now gone off of the foxface, replaced by a bunch of grayish dots.. about 15 of them. I'm setting up a dedicated hospital tank right now for use with copper. If I am supposed to do hyposalinity as well, what precautious should I take (such as proper acclimation, and how to raise/lower pH if it starts to wander?

Thanks guys!

 

[jschultzbass]

Only one treatment at a time. Do copper INSTEAD of hypo.

 

[jschultzbass]

Is it possible to upload a pic of the fish in question?

 

[MiniDevil]

Here's the fish with the now black dots. Yesterday it looked like three small grains of pure white salt on his left side. Those are gone now.

For higher resolution:

http://www.craeton.com/aquarium/IMG_2104.JPG

 

[jschultzbass]

hmmm.....it doesn't really sound like ich. Anyone chime in on what they think it is?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Id leave him alone. Feed him well, possibly a nutrition thing. Doesnt appear to be Black or normal Ich.

 

[H2O]

Ich is a sign of bad water quality your NO3 or PO4 is high or salnity is out of order or u had a huge temp swing I recommend adding 2 cleaner shrimps to keep future outbreaks in check

 

[MiniDevil]

I am confused. On some threads I see people saying that cleaner shrimp have no effect against Ich, and other places people are saying they do. Same thing with garlic. Some people swear by it, and others see it as a snake oil homeopathic remedy.

I can do the copper treatment, the tank is almost set up. What concerns me now is that either I have misdiagnosed this, or it is possibly more than one type of disease at the same time.

 

[jschultzbass]

Basically you will get two schools of thought:
1) Ich is present in every system all the time and there is nothing you can do about that. The best thing you can do is keep the fishes immunity high by supplementing garlic, keeping great water parameters and basically reducing stress as much as possible. The shrimp will help pick off ich that is showing on the fish (white spots) but does nothing for free floating parasites and the eggs in the sand bed. The shrimp can help relieve the fish but it is not a cure. Garlic helps boost immunity (this is also debatable, all evidence for garlic working is anecdotal, no scientific research has been done), but is not a cure.

2) Ich is a parasite that can be eradicated by taking advantage of the natural ich cycle: feeding on the fish (where you see the white spots), dropping off and burrowing in the sand bed, spawning in the water column, then attaching to fish again. This cycle takes from 2 - 4 weeks usually. Ich is only vulnerable when it is in the free swimming phase as it tries to find a fish host. This is where QT and copper come in. When your DT is fallow (no fish) the free swimming parasite can't find a host and will die. In the QT tank, that is where copper comes in. The copper is the only reliable way to kill the free swimming form of ich in the water column. If you QT every new fish you get and make sure it doesn't have ich BEFORE you put it in the DT then you can potentially have an ich free DT.

I'm with #2 on this one. I QT everything that comes in after a bad outbreak where I QT'd all fish and left DT fallow and haven't had ich in my tank since.

 

[jschultzbass]

As for misdiagnosing, I think a couple spots are nothing to worry about. If it was ich the fish would look like you put a salt shaker over it...especially the fins. I'm with Reefing Madness, leave him alone and feed him well and let us know if anything else pops up or if his health declines.

Since you do have a QT tank now, I would suggest QTing all new fish for at least 4 weeks to help get them eating and adjusting in a stress free environment before addition to the DT. This way you can monitor for disease and treat if necessary. A lot of people pretreat with Prazipro which works on flukes and worms and then only treat with copper if signs of ich are present. Some treat with copper no matter what to be safe. If you haven't done this with all your fish, or if you don't' remove them, treat them for ich and let the DT go fallow for the 8-10 weeks, then pretreating ich probably doesn't matter because you have it in your DT already from one of the other fish that brought it in. And if you got lucky and ich is not present in your system this will make sure it stays that way.

In this case I would just QT all new arrivals from now on and only take the fish out of the DT for treatment and go through the fallow period if you verify your system has it.

 

[H2O]

Yeah a lot bad info on ich out there copper treatment is one of them its more harmful then ich it self fish won't eat when sick garlic on their food is used to bust their appetite and immune system . Cleaner shrimp or cleaner wraase will do the trick 100% and it won't come back as long as the water chemistry is in normal range take a water sample let the local pet store test it just to compare your test results a lot of bad test kits out there that give u false reading

 

[jschultzbass]

Yeah a lot bad info on ich out there copper treatment is one of them its more harmful then ich it self fish won't eat when sick garlic on their food is used to bust their appetite and immune system . Cleaner shrimp or cleaner wraase will do the trick 100% and it won't come back as long as the water chemistry is in normal range take a water sample let the local pet store test it just to compare your test results a lot of bad test kits out there that give u false reading

I will go ahead and disagree with you 100%.

 

[fishroomlady]

it's hard to tell from your picture if the fish indeed has ich. Is the fish acting strangely? is it eating? if it seems otherwise normal, then I'd continue to observe for a bit and verify that it is indeed ich before you think about stressing it out and placing it in the QT.

As a side comment, garlic can help entice a fish to eat the food, it does not cure ich or boost the immune system imo, it encourages the fish to eat which can help keep it healthy. Make sure to feed a varied diet.

 

[H2O]

I will go ahead and disagree with you 100%.

Go ahead build hospitals anything u want give them copper treatments as long as u want if u gonna put them back it the sewer like water conditions they will get ich again from stress and u back square one no time I fixed my nitrate problem shrimps cleaned the fish I haven't seen ich in at least 8 years

 

[MiniDevil]

Go ahead build hospitals anything u want give them copper treatments as long as u want if u gonna put them back it the sewer like water conditions they will get ich again from stress and u back square one no time I fixed my nitrate problem shrimps cleaned the fish I haven't seen ich in at least 8 years

So to clarify, are you saying that the copper itself is more harmful to fish than the Ich, or are you saying that neglecting your aquarium causes Ich?