Treating Ich:
If some morning you get up and it looks like someone has salted the body, fins, and gills of your fish, you are looking at "Ich", sometimes called ick, or white spot disease. "Ich" is a protozoan parasite with the scientific name of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. It is the largest of the ciliated protozoans. It is easily introduced into your tank by new fish or equipment or plants that have been moved from one tank to another. A quarantine tank is the best way to prevent introducing this parasite into your display tank. If you see ich on your fish they should be treated immediately. In heavily stocked tanks it can cause massive death rates within a very short period of time. Some symptoms before white spots appear may include flashing, clamped fins, weakness, loss of appetite, and decreased activity. In the case of heavy gill infestations, you may not see evidence of white spots, but may find your fish breathing heavily at the surface of your tank. Secondary bacterial and respiration difficulties may result, so keep an eye out for complications in addition to the ich infection.
The best way to prevent ich, as I stated above, is to quarantine all incoming fish. A minimum of three weeks in quarantine (in my opinion) is the best way to go. When kept at 76 to 83 degrees, incoming fish that have been exposed to ich may show symptoms within the first 3 days. However, at cooler temperatures, ich outbreaks may take longer to show up because of its lengthened life cycle. Water temperature has a tremendous effect on how fast the life cycle of ich is completed. At water temperatures of 75 to 79 degrees F, the life cycle is completed in about 48 to 72 hours. In water temperatures below 75, it takes much longer for the parasite to complete its life cycle.
LIFE CYCLE
There are three phases to the life cycle of this protozoan. Ich is susceptible to treatment at only one stage of its life cycle, so knowing the life cycle is important.
ADULT PHASE: the parasite attaches itself under the mucus layer of the skin or gills, causing irritation and the appearance of small white spots. As the parasite matures, it feeds on blood and skin cells. After some time, the parasite breaks through the mucus layer and falls to the bottom of the aquarium.
CYST PHASE: after falling to the bottom of the aquarium, the adult cyst bursts and divides into numerous daughter cells called tomites.
FREE SWIMMING PHASE: after the cyst phase, the free swimming tomites search for a host. If a host fish is not found within 2 to 3 days, the parasite dies. Once a host is found the whole cycle begins again. These three phases take about 28 days at 70 degrees F but only 3 days at 80 degrees F. For this reason it is recommended that the aquarium water be raised to between 80-86 degrees F. for the duration of the treatment. If the fish can stand it, raise the temperature to 86 degrees. Raising the aquarium temperature in this manner will shorten the length of time between the cyst phase and the free swimming tomite stage. It is during the free swimming tomite stage that chemical treatment is effective in killing the parasite. During this time, whatever you use for treatment should be supplemented with daily or every other day water changes and gravel vacuuming to remove as many adult cysts and free swimming tomites as possible.
TREATMENTS
Before starting treatment you should do at least a 50% water change and vacuuming of your tank. I also suggest doing 50% water changes every other day of treatment, to reduce the number of parasites in the water.
I do not like to use meds w/my puffers, except in a heavy infestation. All natural Melafix is helpful to treat any damage done to the puffer's skin from the parasite. If you run into any severe secendary bacterial problems, Pimafix will help.
One tablespoon of salt per 5 gals. of aquarium water (for FW puffers) gradually raising the temperature to 86 degrees F. Continue with this for a period of 21 days, adding back 1 tablespoon of salt for every 5 gals of aquarium water that you remove during water changes. One thing to remember with high temperatures is that you should run an additional air stone to oxygenate the water. There is less dissolved oxygen available in warm water than there is in water at cooler temperatures.
Written by Dawn R & Pufferpunk, (aka Jeni Tyrell)
Saltwater “Whitespot”
Marine "ich" is a different creature, Cryptocarryon irritans, with similar habits to freshwater ich. The good news is you can go the opposite direction if treating a fish only or quarantine tank - hyposalinity. You can slowly drop the SG of the saltwater to below 1.015 and sustain it at that SG and the saltwater parasite will die, but only as it drops off the fish, otherwise it's under the fish's slime coating and protected from smaller changes in salinity.
You must keep up the hyposalinity for at least 3 weeks preferably 4 or 5 weeks if possible. If you have coldwater SW fish you must keep up the treatment longer than for warm water SW fish as the cold temperatures extend the life cycle of the parasite. Do not raise the temperature for SW ich, you can cause pretty serious damage to the fish. Remember that SW already has quite a bit less dissolved oxygen than FW and raising the temperature could prove disastrous especially in QT tanks which are often required to hold more than the recommended amount of fish out of necessity.
Marine fish in hyposalinity need to be fed quality foods. I'd suggest frozen or live foods soaked in both a HUFA enrichment supplement and a marine vitamin. I use normally Zoe and Zoecon or Zoe and Selcon daily to maintain fish health. There is a possibility that feeding foods soaked in garlic will prevent some of the parasites from attaching - it couldn't hurt. Vitamin C and antioxidants like astaxanthan may boost the immune system, helping the fish's immune system to concoct whatever antigen they seem to concoct to discourage parasitic attachment when infested with parasites.
Frequent water changes help to reduce the number of parasites in the water column and vacuuming may get some off the substrate. I'd suggest skipping the substrate in your QT/Hospital tank.
Sometimes a freshwater dip can help dislodge the parasites to speed recovery especially if gills are heavily infested. The water must be raised in PH to match the PH of the saltwater the fish has been living in and the temperatures should match as well. Only keep the fish in it for 5 to 10 minutes maximum and remove them immediately if they seem to be experiencing extreme distress. Osmotic shock can be quite harmful, especially to scaleless fish.
Marine velvet or Amyloodinium occelatum can be treated the same way.
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You all but the unfortunate fact was he is now dead.
