Help with my ich situation

[dmort]

So far so good with the Copper treatment on the one remaining clown. She (she was the larger of the two I had) is eating well and swims actively. No spots, no weird behavior.

The bottle of Cupramine says keep it up for 14 days. Anyone have different advice? Tank is going to be fallow until November 11th. That's 10 weeks, and according to a basic statistical analysis I read on "another forum" that should be enough time to allow 100% of the parasite to die off. 99.7% should die off by 9 weeks, 100% by ten.

In the meantime I'm thinking about stocking options moving forward. I also plan to add more base rock to the rock in the tank. I figure the two months is a great time for it to become "live" and to start coloring up with coraline. The rock I currently have is starting to purple up a bit too, no additives.

Let me know some thoughts on stocking... I'm interested in all sorts of fish! Thanks.

 

[fishroomlady]

flamehawk, yellow watchman goby, midas blenny, a partner for your clown

 

[saltyhog]

Most of the recent stuff I've read said to treat for 4 weeks with Cupramine.

 

[dmort]

Do you have a link you could refer me to? I guess I feel most comfortable following the manufacturer recommendation, but I also want to fix the problem.

 

[LetItReef]

Does the ginger have any affect on corals? I used garlic laced noori which helped a good deal but my corals calmed up for a few days. I left the top off for a day and added some fresh R/O and they came back out beautifully but I don't think I'll do that to the DT again

garlic pellets to help prevent ich.

 

[Marshall O]

garlic pellets to help prevent ich.

?? Proof of this? I do believe garlic can help entice a finicky eater to pick at food, but that is it. IME garlic does nothing to prevent or cute Ich.

 

[NanaReefer]

Check it out! Been hearing positive feed back about his foods.
http://www.drgsmarineaquaculture.com/frozen-antiparasitic-detail.cfm

 

[saltyhog]

A treatment that is reef safe and kills amyloodinium, Brook, Ich and uronemia? The phrase "if it sounds too good to be true....." comes to mind. Would love it to be true but skeptical till some sort of proof available.

 

[NanaReefer]

A treatment that is reef safe and kills amyloodinium, Brook, Ich and uronemia? The phrase "if it sounds too good to be true....." comes to mind. Would love it to be true but skeptical till some sort of proof available.

Just the food ingredients alone are good
Exceptional Fresh Ingredients: Atlantic Shrimp, Squid, Aquacultured Oysters, Oyster Eggs, Scallops , Clams, Octopus, Pacific Cod, Gut Loaded Mysis & Krill, Freshly Harvested Dr.G's Rotifers, Freshly Hatched Baby Brine Shrimp, Adult Brine Shrimp, Arctic Cyclops, Green/Red Unroasted Nori, Garlic, Freshly Harvested Dr.G's Phytoplankton, Dr.G's Reef Essential Vitamins and Amino-acids.

 

[saltyhog]

Just the food ingredients alone are good
Exceptional Fresh Ingredients: Atlantic Shrimp, Squid, Aquacultured Oysters, Oyster Eggs, Scallops , Clams, Octopus, Pacific Cod, Gut Loaded Mysis & Krill, Freshly Harvested Dr.G's Rotifers, Freshly Hatched Baby Brine Shrimp, Adult Brine Shrimp, Arctic Cyclops, Green/Red Unroasted Nori, Garlic, Freshly Harvested Dr.G's Phytoplankton, Dr.G's Reef Essential Vitamins and Amino-acids.

I'm sure it's great food, I was just referring to it's claims of treating all those diseases. THAT I seriously doubt.

 

[NanaReefer]

Have you ever used Bayer Insecticide? Kills numerous insects plus is highly used as a coral dip to kill many pests.
Chloroquine phosphate is used to kill the Malaria Parasite. Has also been very successful with killing other internal parasites in animals & fish

 

[dmort]

I have done so much reading on this ich topic and basically, what I can glean from the myriad of posts around the internet is that if you want to cure ich, you need either a fallow period of 10 weeks or you need hyposalinity. I've read the point that ich is specifically an aquarium disease. While the parasite exists in oceans, because of the comparably infinite volumes of water in question, the probability of the parasite finding a fish is much lower. In a tank, it is almost guarranteed. Given this, ich costs aquaculturists tons of money every year in lost product. If there was a really great solution, I think it would be employed universally and then by the time livestock make it to the store, they are cured of ich.

I'm doing copper, its gone well enough. My one remaining clown is healthy and is eating well. I'm done with the treatment now and the little guy has about another month to go before he can go back into his "big" home. In the meantime, I've run a UV sterilizer on the lowest speed possible and done weekly water changes. I'd like to think there will be no more ich in the tank after the ten weeks.

In other news...

I just noticed my first nuisance anemone, aptasia I believe. Is there any reason why I shouldn't just take the rock out of the tank and let it sit dry for two weeks? I know I'll loose whatever bacteria is on it, but there are other rocks, and I still have a month to go in my fallow period so I figure there is time for it to re-cure in the tank.



Other suggestions? I know about nudibranchs, aptasia x, and peppermint shrimp as options.

 

[dmort]

After 9 weeks and two days, I let my clownfish back into the main display... All seems well!

BTW, at a very good fish store in NJ, the manager said that there was no need to go fallow past 30 days. So I hope my 45 days is good!