Ich again

[Planefanatic]

My banded cat shark is itching now :grumble:. Stupid ich. I did a fresh water dip on my trigger and moved him from the 110 to my 45. Then a day ago my marron clown itched and i dip her. The clown is fine now and now its the shark itching. Should i dip the shark?? Would it live?? I am soaking the foods in Kent's Garlic Xtreme, and trying a different type of ich med called quick cure (my LFS uses it on their tanks). I dont know if it will work but trying anything now. I just dont want to loose another shark. Any more advise??

 

[andysgirl8800]

Sorry for all the troubles PF. Ich can be very frustrating. My tang has periodic outbreaks also. Sometimes, I think all our preventatives stress out the fish even more, further weakening their natural immune system defenses. JMO. Good luck with your shark.

 

[Rcpilot]

If one fish in the tank has ich - then they all have it.

Only way to get rid of ich IN THE TANK is to remove ALL the fish and place them in QT for AT LEAST 6 - 8 weeks IMO. Some say you can go less than that - but really - do you want to do this one twice?

So now ya got an ich-free tank. But did you clean up the infection on all the fish? You have to provide health care for the fish and heal them up or you'll just end up re-introducing the ich parasite.

I don't know the best way to cure ich. I do know that a freshwater dip will only pop the ones on the outside of the scales. It does nothing for the ones buried underneath the scales. You can slowly lower the salinity to 1.009 over the course of a week or 10 days. The ich cannot live in that environment but the fish can if you take the salinity down slowly. You must keep the fish in hyposalinity for a period of time to assure all the ich is dead. I don't know how long - somebody else probably knows that answer for you. After the time period in hyposalinity, you can then raise the salinity back up to the normal range of 1.020 - 1.025 over the course of another week. Then the fish can be re-acclimated to the display tank. That should provide an ich-free environment ........ until you introduce another fish without treating it for ich before hand. :mrgreen:

 

[daugherty]

there is only two proven ways copper meds and hypo salinity treatments copper needs to be at least 3 weeks min and hypo is longer but i am not shure ho long for shure

 

[Melosu58]

Good reading for ich

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: A Quarantine Tank for Everything by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com

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

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

ATJ's Marine Aquarium Site - Reference - Hyposalinity Treatment