Freshwater dip for ich?

[Stacyvamp]

Hello, I recently Started suspecting that my tank got infected with ich. I lost two fish so far.… A domino damsel died a week ago, and today I lost my six line wrasse. both of them showed very different symptoms, for example the damselfish started turning white on his forehead and was barely moving at the top of the tank, next morning I found him all white on the bottom of the tank dead. My six line wrasse had very heavy breathing last night, laying on the bottom of the tank and not moving. Today she died. My other fish seem to be fine, however I see a few white spots on their bodies, and on one fish, one of his gills is red/irritated . two days ago I bought kordon rapid cure for ich and have used it every day, double dosing/ every 12 hours. I just read about a freshwater dip, and they said that if I put my fish in freshwater the parasites will suffocate and fall off. I’m just wondering if I do this method How can I return them back to the tank that already has the infection? I don’t have a quarantine tank. What can I do?

 

[Colin_T]

Have you checked the water quality for ammonia and nitrite?

Can you post some pictures of the fish?

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Giving marine fish a bath in freshwater does nothing to white spot parasites.

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You need to be very careful using chemicals in marine tanks because the rocks displace water and you can easily overdose and kill everything.

Before you treat the tank, do the following things.
Work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.
You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75-80% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

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The safest treatment for white spot in fish tanks is heat. Raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks. The parasites can't tolerate the heat and die. No chemicals needed.

Before you raise the temperature, do a huge water change and gravel clean the substrate, then clean the filter in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media.

Increase the aeration/ surface turbulence too because the warmer water holds less oxygen than cooler water. You should do this when treating with chemicals too because they also reduce the oxygen levels.

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The other safe way to treat white spot in marine tanks is to move the fish to a clean container of salt water every day for a week. The parasites drop off the fish and when you move the fish, you leave the parasites behind. Each day after you move the fish into a clean container, you tip the old water out and wash the container out, then let it dry until the following day when you set it up with clean water and move the fish into it.
This method requires a lot of salt water and is time consuming but works and you don't need chemicals.

 

[Stacyvamp]

Have you checked the water quality for ammonia and nitrite?

Can you post some pictures of the fish?

----------------------
Giving marine fish a bath in freshwater does nothing to white spot parasites.

----------------------
You need to be very careful using chemicals in marine tanks because the rocks displace water and you can easily overdose and kill everything.

Before you treat the tank, do the following things.
Work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these so you get a more accurate water volume.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.
You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75-80% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

----------------------
The safest treatment for white spot in fish tanks is heat. Raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks. The parasites can't tolerate the heat and die. No chemicals needed.

Before you raise the temperature, do a huge water change and gravel clean the substrate, then clean the filter in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media.

Increase the aeration/ surface turbulence too because the warmer water holds less oxygen than cooler water. You should do this when treating with chemicals too because they also reduce the oxygen levels.

-----------
The other safe way to treat white spot in marine tanks is to move the fish to a clean container of salt water every day for a week. The parasites drop off the fish and when you move the fish, you leave the parasites behind. Each day after you move the fish into a clean container, you tip the old water out and wash the container out, then let it dry until the following day when you set it up with clean water and move the fish into it.
This method requires a lot of salt water and is time consuming but works and you don't need chemicals.

I just did a freshwater dip on all of them, a lot of white spots fell off, and one fish had a worm come out of it apparently. I will be doing a water change, I already raised the temperature to the maximum that the fish can survive, and I started treating with kordon rapid cure two days ago

 

[Fishiemang]

Freshwater dips work great for treating itch in marine fish. You do need to treat the entire tank, but, to treat the fish and.provide it some.relief in the mean time, you cando the freshwater dips. I wouldn't leave them in there longer than 15 minutes however. Just watch the fish. Make sure it is temp matched water as well. This will buy you time to eradicate the parasite from the main tank, and.help the fish to survive.

 

[Stacyvamp]

Freshwater dips work great for treating itch in marine fish. You do need to treat the entire tank, but, to treat the fish and.provide it some.relief in the mean time, you cando the freshwater dips. I wouldn't leave them in there longer than 15 minutes however. Just watch the fish. Make sure it is temp matched water as well. This will buy you time to eradicate the parasite from the main tank, and.help the fish to survive.

Thanks for the info!!

 

[Colin_T]

I just did a freshwater dip on all of them, a lot of white spots fell off, and one fish had a worm come out of it apparently. I will be doing a water change, I already raised the temperature to the maximum that the fish can survive, and I started treating with kordon rapid cure two days ago

If the white things came off in freshwater, they weren't white spot. Once the white spot parasite is attached to the fish, it doesn't come off until it has filled with blood and is ready to detach itself from the fish.

If white spot simply came off fish when you put them in different water, it would be in the books as the main treatment. All you would have to do is put the fish in freshwater for a bit and then put them in a clean tank. Hey presto, magic goes caboom and the fish are treated.

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Post some pictures of the fish so we can ID the problem (worms and spots).

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If you are using chemicals to treat the fish, you do not raise the water temperature because the chemicals reduce the oxygen levels in the water and so does the heat. If you do both, you can remove most of the oxygen in the water and the fish suffocate.

You either use chemicals or heat, not both.

If you use heat, you need to get the water temperature to 30C (86F). Anything below this will not kill the parasites and simply causes their lifecycle to go faster.