every fish i get seems to die from ich within a week or two. this is really starting to bug me, and my wallet, im doing everything i possibly can like take someimtes more than an hour to acclimate, feeding anti parasitic foods, water params are perfect for fish, everything is at 0 even nitrates are below 1 ,my corals are doing great and growing. i try to keep temp to not fluctuate mor e than 1-2 deg, i dont know what else to do. the only thing i dont have is a quaratine tank. im guessing that is a must? the only thing im woried about is if it will make a diff, if my fish die so rapidly(my tomato clown was fine 2 days on the 3rd day when i turned on the lights he was FULLLLLLLL of ich like he was playing in the sand, 2 days later hes dead, my pink skunnk clown.....didnt even really show signs of ick till yesterday morn, and by night, he was dead also.)is a Q tank going to help?? if they die so rapidly, wont they just do the same in the Q tank? someone please help, gimme soe info on how to set a Q tank up and what med ication to add to it. thanks
every fish i get seems to die from ich within a week
- Thread starter blackthunda77
- Start date
IMO, there are only two treatments for ick, copper or hyposalinity. Copper is tricky, and the therapeutic dose is rather close to the lethal dose for most fish. If you do decide to use copper, only do it in a QT, because it will kill all invertebrates. Keep in mind that the tank will be FOREVER unable to house inverts, as the copper is absorbed into the glass/silicon, whatnot.
If you decide copper is the way to go, I highly recommend Seachem's Cupramine. It is a special form of copper (chelated vs unchelated) that is less toxic to fish, but still kills ick.
Hyposalinity is probably even better. Drop the salinity in the QT tank to 1.009 over a 3 day period. Hold for 3-6 weeks. This will kill the ick. Hypo also kills most inverts, so only due it in a quarantine tank. Also use a refractometer to measeure the salinity, as a swing-arm hydrometer is usually not accurate enough. A salinity of 1.010 will probably not kill ick. Also monitor Ph closely, because as the salinity drops, so does the water's buffering ability.
Ick is usually caused by stress. Do your fish have enough hiding places? Are you acclimating them slowly to the new tank (water and lights)?
If you decide copper is the way to go, I highly recommend Seachem's Cupramine. It is a special form of copper (chelated vs unchelated) that is less toxic to fish, but still kills ick.
Hyposalinity is probably even better. Drop the salinity in the QT tank to 1.009 over a 3 day period. Hold for 3-6 weeks. This will kill the ick. Hypo also kills most inverts, so only due it in a quarantine tank. Also use a refractometer to measeure the salinity, as a swing-arm hydrometer is usually not accurate enough. A salinity of 1.010 will probably not kill ick. Also monitor Ph closely, because as the salinity drops, so does the water's buffering ability.
Ick is usually caused by stress. Do your fish have enough hiding places? Are you acclimating them slowly to the new tank (water and lights)?
well like i said before, ive taken more than an hour to acclimate them sometimes, with only the atinics on, and as for hiding space, lets just say when they die, i ave a hard time finding the carcases. coincidentaly i weent out and bought that cupramione corpper so i guess i will use that when i set uyp my QT. thanks for the response.
Welcome to RDO, and I am sorry you are having this problem.
A couple of questions that may help others to help!
How old is your system, and how often are you buying new fish? What is your salinity and what is the salinity of the store you are getting your fish from? What is your acclimation procedure? How many fish have you lost? Are they all from the same LFS?
A couple of questions that may help others to help!
How old is your system, and how often are you buying new fish? What is your salinity and what is the salinity of the store you are getting your fish from? What is your acclimation procedure? How many fish have you lost? Are they all from the same LFS?
system is almost 4 months old, i havent bought fish in a while since i first had a problem with my cardinal, but since then hes reocvered and is like immune to all the post out breaks. so ive tried to get a marron about 3 weeks ago, he didnt make it more than a week and a half, and i tried a tomato and a skunk and they didnt make it as well.also a lawnmower blenny, and the thing is that they dont eat, the pink and the tomatoe were eating fine the first 2 days,live brine shrimp but then stopped, salinity is at 1.025.... fish store i dont know and the fish have not been from the same supllier.
The lifecycle of ich is 30-60 days, so introducing fish in that time after one has died of ich ups your chance of the new fish getting ich.
Check the LFS animals real carefully, the store itself may be your problem. It feels like it is to me.
Find out what the salinity is at the store.
It is also not uncommon to acclamate new fish for three or more hours.
Check the LFS animals real carefully, the store itself may be your problem. It feels like it is to me.
Find out what the salinity is at the store.
It is also not uncommon to acclamate new fish for three or more hours.
I'll add on to what Righty said about acclimation. Best method is the drip method. Get a piece of airline tubing and a flow restrictor (or just tie a knot in it), and hang that into the acclimation bucket. Let it run for several hours,a nd you get a much slower, much steadier acclimation than the 'cup every 10 minutes' method.
hmmm. never tried that. thanks guys oh yea.....drip method, that do i do just gravity method, hang it over the side of the tank with a flow restrictor?? and what do i do with the water in the bucket afterwards?? throw it away?cuz ive heard to not put water from the stoe or from transport container back into main tank.
I rescued 4 ich infested fish from a new friend and I though for sure half of them would die, AT LEAST!
After 1-2 weeks in hyposalinity treatment they look and act fully cured! The trigger is getting colors back I didn't even know he had. Of course they need to stay in hypo for at least 4 more weeks.
So, forget the cooper, go hypo! Here is the link that helped me:
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevo ... inity.html
After 1-2 weeks in hyposalinity treatment they look and act fully cured! The trigger is getting colors back I didn't even know he had. Of course they need to stay in hypo for at least 4 more weeks.
So, forget the cooper, go hypo! Here is the link that helped me:
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevo ... inity.html
one thing if you want inverts dont use copper can take upwards of a few months to get it fully out of the tank if at all. just not worth the risk. second it seems you have ich in your main tank i would leave the tank fishless for 6-7 weeks to make sure your tank has cycled most of the ich. you wont have to worry about the ich surviving on your corals/inverts because it wont happen. so just take some time and let the tank sit fishless for a while and get a list together of what fish you may and may not want. gives you an opportunity to rethink what you may or may not want to house in the tank.
Sharkky":2k632c4r said:On a bit of a tangent, it's always been a pet peeve of mine that people still call it 'ich' or 'saltwater ich', when it's cryptocaryon irritans. Ichtheosis (sp?) is a freshwater only disease. :|
Not that it's that big a deal, just me being anal I suppose.
Let's come up with a new abbreviation then, cuz I don't wanna have to say cryptocaryon irritans every time. How about crypto.? That sounds kewl.
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