Help with ICK

[zep]

Upon our return from a three day trip, we discovered what appears to be ick on several of our fish. We have no quarantine tank and are wondering what would be the best treatment. Water quality seems to be fine. We have live rock, coral, anemities. We have lost a domino damsel and a bi-color blenny. Capturing the fish is not an option due to too much rock to hide in.

120 gallons

[itstheantitang]

I dunno if your lfs carries this but heres the link:
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_medications_ruby_reef.asp?ast=&key=
If you ship it I dunno if your fish will live till it comes

[FloridaBoy]

These pseudo cures can be a deadly waste of time my friend, to kill cryptocaryon you need copper (in your case, in a QT---which as you have discovered is essential to your long term success in this hobby so set one up asap and use it) or starvation (fallow display tank, no fish for 4 weeks). Also, be advised some species (i.e. eels, puffers, moorish idols, etc.) are harmed by copper treatments so research your charges. Fresh water dips applied correctly when you move the fish to QT will kill parasites on the fish, but not the thousands lurking in your display substrate.
Try this to remove the fish:
try the double bag method; place a small sealed Ziploc bag with live brine inside a large rolled-op open bag, this will lure the fish into the big bag where they can be trapped/lifted by hand or fishing line wrapped under the rolled top. Patience required here; it usually fails the first few times. Run a search on Kick-ich over on WWM and you will find out how many fish have died while wasting time with it.

[zep]

Thanks Floridaboy Im going to have to bite the bullet and set up a qt tank is this something I need to have running constantly just incase I need it? how much equiptment do I need, what about cycling it? How large does it need to be? :confused:

[itstheantitang]

Ive never tried kick ich but I thought it might be good as it said reef safe and the op said he/she didn't want to net the fish out of the tank.

I myself have a QT tank running with copper

[FloridaBoy]

Ive never tried kick ich but I thought it might be good as it said reef safe and the op said he/she didn't want to net the fish out of the tank. I myself have a QT tank running with copper
Yes my friend, the advertising on those products is very convincing, I'm sure some have had success with garlic and other pseudos, also there is a big difference between prevention and killing an acitve infestation. Copper is not always a silver bullet; daily tests should be made to monitor the correct amount to avoid over-dosing.

Zep, the QT can be set up as a temporary solution but I have always and continue to advise keeping a second back up marine tank running and cycled at all times for QT, hospital, isolation for aggressives, etc.--it's just one of my basic rules for the hobby. It can be very simple with an outside bio filter, no inverts or LR, as small as 10--20 gallons, depending on size/number of fish you have. Plenty of info on the web for QT strategies.

[dorkfish]

Kick ick seemed to work for me however It was on a clownfish wich, acording to my LFS just is'nt suposed to get ich also theres something wrong with my heater so the temp. was a little to high and the fish had already fought off most of the infection by the time I got the product but by the next day after dosing the spots are gone.

[FloridaBoy]

Hopefully you stopped it for good... usually it subsides for a while only to return with a vengeance worse than before; the trophonts/protomonts grow in a cycle, dropping into the substrate and then re-emerging in higher numbers. This cycle confuses a lot of hobbyists, who think they have solved the problem.

[zep]

Would UV sterilization have helped or could it help in the future with Ick or problems of this nature?

[FloridaBoy]

Well in theory yes it will help but there are limitations to UV including contact time, bulb life, dirty sleeves, etc... to my knowledge, UV will not resolve an active crypto infestation, we're back to the prevention thing.

[zep]

Wifes not thriled about another tank,Ive got way to much money in this one but we all are getting an incredible amount of enjoyment out of it.One thing that is confusing me is this morning for example the fish were covered with the white dust looking stuff and there color was very faded (DONINO DAMSEL}to a light gray and there resperation was fast and labored, this evening they look like different fish,much better not cured but better.O Happy Thanksgiving

[Crown Royal]

Cryptocaryon's life cycle can lead to a false sense of security among aquarists. The white spots can often seem to disappear on their own. However, this does not mean that the ich is gone, rather the parasite is simply in a different part of its life cycle either incubating in the substrate or as a free floating tomite. When it reattaches to the fish weeks later after multiplying, then the white spots return with a greater vengeance.

Copper and hyposalinity are the ONLY scientifically proven ways of killing crytopcaryon. The only way to properly do this is in a simple Q-tank.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php

I fought an epic 2.5 month battle with crypto on my hippo tang. Fortunately, it was in quarantine. This likely saved everything else in my display tank.

[FloridaBoy]

And there you go... I repeat, proper use of the quarantine tank is essential to long term success in this hobby. The alternative is at best Russian roulette, and at worst simple stupidity. That's why my first rule of marine aquariums is always have two of them.