View Full Version : Do I need to hire a new crew???
I have two cleaner shrimp. The red skunk kind... They have claimed a rock as their station to clean I guess. They have been in the tank for about a week now, maybe a few days longer. Anyway I have a Coral Beauty with a bit of Ich and now I think I can see a spot on my Metallic Fox Face! Anyway I have never seen these two shrimp clean anything except them self's! They will stroke the fish and they will all have loving pets and kisses but there never seems to be any actual work getting done. Whats the deal? Do they not all get along?
dreamreef
03-31-2008, 9:00 PM
I have 2 cleaner shrimp and one of mine doesn't clean fish, the other I bought when I had some ich and the guy at the LFS put his hand in the tank to check to see if the new guy was a "good cleaner". He came right over and got on his hand and began to clean. When I got him home, he went to work right away and will clean anything that you put in the tank. So I guess they are like people, some are good workers and some just aren't.
Horchata
03-31-2008, 9:12 PM
i'd try getting another one at your lfs. see what happens. maybe trade one?
mandy21
03-31-2008, 10:06 PM
Cleaner shrimp aren't meant to remove ich . . . . not in an enclosed small system. If that were the case, I would have my 75g tank full of fish right now instead of QT under hyposalinity for 6-8 weeks. no one would ever have ich in their tanks if it were as simple as adding cleaner shrimp.
lferg
03-31-2008, 10:41 PM
So more bad info from LFS??? SO them how do I cure the Ich in the tank? take out the inverts and treat with copper and hope for the best with the live rock and sand???? I only have a 10g QT so that will not do for QTing all my fish for more than a few minutes at most.
leocom2000
03-31-2008, 10:56 PM
So more bad info from LFS??? SO them how do I cure the Ich in the tank? take out the inverts and treat with copper and hope for the best with the live rock and sand???? I only have a 10g QT so that will not do for QTing all my fish for more than a few minutes at most.
Ouch!!! Ouch!!!! Ouch!!!!!:eek3:
mandy21
03-31-2008, 11:06 PM
So more bad info from LFS??? SO them how do I cure the Ich in the tank? take out the inverts and treat with copper and hope for the best with the live rock and sand???? I only have a 10g QT so that will not do for QTing all my fish for more than a few minutes at most.
NO AND NO.
Get any other QT - a rubbermaid container that is new and rinsed, anything if your 10g isn't going to work. Remove ALL fish, not just fish showing signs of ich and put them in hyposalinity conditions for 6-8 weeks and leave the tank fishless for that long. It takes a lot of monitoring of ammonia as well as salinity levels so need a refractometer. I currently am monitoring a 10g, 20g and 30g all at hyposalinity levels and doing daily water changes and topoffs to keep salinity where it needs to be.
http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/ich.html read and understand before doing anything.
There are chemicals that can be used, but it's not a method i like since I have fish that don't respond well to copper or that I deem as being sensitive. But, again, even if you use any chemical it should be done in a quarantine tank.
journey0820
03-31-2008, 11:22 PM
Copper is toxic to many things in your tank and is nearly impossible to get out of your tank once in there. Do not put copper in your main tank no matter what!
andy1130
04-01-2008, 1:51 AM
Additionally the ich is in your main system now so even if you medicate the fish in a different system you need to leave the main tank fishless for at the very least 6 weeks (longer would be safer) for the ich to run its full life cycle and die off, otherwise the fish can simply become reinfected when they return to the tank
mandy21
04-01-2008, 9:29 AM
I really think there should be a sticky with ich in the subject line. I think there's been quite a few ich threads asking for help in the last week that I've intended to write a response on a word document to cut and paste every time there is a thread about it. Not that I don't mind helping (I'm going through it right now), but perhaps could be easier to point others to that thread with all the information laid right out.
Reefscape
04-01-2008, 11:39 AM
I really think there should be a sticky with ich in the subject line. I think there's been quite a few ich threads asking for help in the last week that I've intended to write a response on a word document to cut and paste every time there is a thread about it. Not that I don't mind helping (I'm going through it right now), but perhaps could be easier to point others to that thread with all the information laid right out.
I have an article write up in the Marine Article section on treating Ich via Hyposalinity, if thats any help to you Mandy....
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=144242
mandy21
04-01-2008, 6:17 PM
I have an article write up in the Marine Article section on treating Ich via Hyposalinity, if thats any help to you Mandy....
very nice. However I can honestly say I don't think I've looked in there and it's pretty clear that I'm not the only one. I just used other resources. But I can now direct them to that now that I can look at it :grinyes:
alpha123
04-02-2008, 12:34 AM
So copper is bad. How about gold? I hide all my gold bars in the tank.
leocom2000
04-02-2008, 1:34 AM
Can I use holy water to rid of ick?
Can I use holy water to rid of ick?
No I hired a Priest to bless the whole tank... No good. :( I think I am going to ask Billy Dee Williams to come over and pour some Colt 45 in it... He says it "Works Every Time", we'll see.
rscuddvr
07-16-2008, 9:44 PM
My pacific blue came down with a minor case of ich, just a few spots. The guys at the LFS said it was okay, it'd clear up on its own in short order. She would rub herself on the sand, several times a day, and it actually worked. The clowns and the goby never got it, and she cleared up in a couple of weeks....
mandy21
07-17-2008, 12:29 AM
My pacific blue came down with a minor case of ich, just a few spots. The guys at the LFS said it was okay, it'd clear up on its own in short order. She would rub herself on the sand, several times a day, and it actually worked. The clowns and the goby never got it, and she cleared up in a couple of weeks....
You are aware of how the life cycle of ich works, right? It doesn't just disappear like that or none of us would have problems with it.
BToast
07-17-2008, 8:06 AM
Good call Mandy, these ick questions seem to be constant.
Bama8200
10-08-2008, 2:58 AM
could you not get a uv filter to get rid of ich. I haven't actually used on but i have been told it works well in freshwater to get rid of ick.