Ick Discussion

[Navarre]

Im not 100% sure of this buti have been reliably informed (and it proved correct in my case of the disease) that Ich will form on the body and fins. Oodinium will form on the body fins AND eyes. IF you have a fish with spots on the eyes then i would suggest treating for oodinium rather than ich.. Oh and good luck because that disease is a real killer Ich will take days to kill a fish.. oodinium can do it in a matter of hours. Its also alot harder to get rid of also.

 

[mellanby]

Hi - I've been trying to find pictures if ick on the internet, but all I've found is descriptions saying it looks like grains of salt on the body and fins of the fish.

About a week ago (good Friday, actually) I purchased my first fish for my cycled tank (water params were all stable for over a week before I bought fish). After about 3 days, my royal gramma had what looks like more of a white fungus than a grain of salt on one of his pectoral fins. Does ick have a few different looks to it? Thanks.

I've also got a bi-colored blennie and a clean up crew in the tank, and they're all doing fine. Just the gramma has this spot.

 

[Jeff20147]

Hi - I've been trying to find pictures if ick on the internet, but all I've found is descriptions saying it looks like grains of salt on the body and fins of the fish.

About a week ago (good Friday, actually) I purchased my first fish for my cycled tank (water params were all stable for over a week before I bought fish). After about 3 days, my royal gramma had what looks like more of a white fungus than a grain of salt on one of his pectoral fins. Does ick have a few different looks to it? Thanks.

I've also got a bi-colored blennie and a clean up crew in the tank, and they're all doing fine. Just the gramma has this spot.

That is one I found on google images....

Ich that I have had as always been spots. You might have the fungus infection called Saprolegnia...
Here is a catfish with that (google images also)

There are many forms of treatment I'm not sure if coppersafe from mardel does well on Saprolegnia. I know it does a good job at fighting ich but Madel Maroxy does the job for Saprolegnia, never used it so I'm not sure how effective it is. But if you have a cleanup crew or inverts (corals, anemonies, crabs, shrimps) you need to remove the fish and treat it in quarantine tank by itself for about a month after it gets better to prevent reinfection. Not sure how long Saprolegnia lives in the tank. I know Ich its best to wait a month before reintroduction to the tank after the spots are gone.

I've had a long awful history with Ich I got in in my 72 bow front with fish only and it was awful it ended up killing my fish. In my new 150 I lost a Achillies and a Alantic Blue tang which I miss so much. I ended up getting a 35 watt corallife UV sterilizer and it saved the hippo his infection has been slowly but surely going away and less rock scratching every day. Hopefully he will make a full and speedy recovery and in a month after I don't see spots I will start reintroducing more fish. I will probably run the UV indefintely becuase I am ichphobic now lol.

But to add to this post which I orginally started the most effective methods I found were high heat of 86F and coppersafe or a UV sterilizer, those 3 together would probably make a great team on a quaratine. Take that with a grain of salt lol, and a ich spot!

 

[Aquascaper]

You probably know this laready but NEVER add any medication containing copper to a marine tank that has inverts in it as it will kill them and will render the tank useless for future inverts

 

[pleder]

If it were me, I would remove all the fish in the system to a hospital tank and treat with a low salinity treatment, 1.017 for 30 days. I would leave the main system with no fish during that time. Treating with copper during the hospital tank period can prove useful. Also enriching the fishes food with garlic and beta glucan will help the fish.

Leaving the tank fallow for that period will allow all of the parasites in the show tank to die, there eggs to hatch and die. Then when you are reintroducing your fish to your show tank, you will be introducing them to an ich free environment.

Dispite common belief it is very possible for healthy fish to contract ich.

UV sterlizers will not solve the ich problem. They can only kill the parasites that run through them. To be effective at killing parasites the flow must be run appropriatley. Usually around 1/2 to 1/3 of the normal rate which is used to kill bacteria.

Cleaner shrimps can be useful in helping to prevent outbreaks, but are not an effective cure.

Many fish are more resistant to ich, but none are immune as far as I know. Even seahorses who have a very thick skin can attract ich in there gills.

Again if it were me, I would treat this problem swiftly and aggressively.

Good Luck.

 

[Aquascaper]

If you are empting the display tank of fish (and have no corals) increase the temp as well, this will speed up the life cycle of the parasite and help to get it under control faster.