Ick... yuck!

[dorkfish]

On friday I purcased 2 oceleris clowns and about 3 ponds of LR to go into my 30g. The tank has about 8 pounds of LR and 2-3 pounds of used to be dead rock from my friends tank. The tank has finished cycling about a week ago and was set up october 14. I am using red sea salt and prime as a water conditioner. I am using a penguin 200 or someshing close to that (this used to be freshwater and it almost made my female betta run into the glass, it's good enough). all parameters are good exept the ph wich is at 7.8, not too bad. I spent almost an hour aclimating them adding a fish food can of water every 5 minutes. The fish were and still are actng normal but I have noticed white spots on them today (ick). My first idea as for treatment was to raise the temp. to 86 and keep it there for about a week or until the ick was gone(heat treatment).however this could be a bad idea because if it killed the bacteria that caused the ick it could kill the bacteria that filters my water , wich would kill my clowns (bad) I am not exactly sure that will happen but then again, i am not exactly sure it won't happen. What should Ido for this Ick?I can set up a ten gallon for treatment if I need to.

 

[FloridaBoy]

You need to remove the fish to QT and treat them there with copper. It's a good idea to monitor QT water quality and copper with daily testing. The display run fallow (no fish) for a month and you can return them. Be advised my friend; a 3 - 4 week QT procedure should be used for ALL new arrivals before adding them to your display. This is essential for your long term success.

 

[Gealcath]

Marine Ich is caused by a parasite called Cryptocaryon, its basically like a tiny insect or bug and not bacteria.



But a QT tank is a good idea, otherwise once Ich is in the aquarium, you can either add copper (which will kill most invertabrates), or let the tank run fishless for 3-4 weeks (without a hose the Ich will die off). This is what a QT tank is good for

 

[dorkfish]

Thanks for the reply. one of the clowns died this morning but the other one doesn't have any spots on it now. The clowns at the store were all huddling up into one big school . they seemed to be almost rubbing off each other. I thougt it was quite comical while it lasted but im'e not sure if that's normal.I read an article on live aquaria today and it said that ick is present in ll aquariums so they might have been stressed to the point where they couldn't fight off the infection.