Learning to quarantine everything...the hard way...

[Star_Rider]

I have a 25 w uv sterilizer..it seemed to have masked the issue for a bit.

my understanding of ich..is it needs a host to survive..no way to treat a reef tank as any meds will kill the reef.



"Ich in a main tank with no fish to host in will completely die off in 8 weeks"
is news to me..my understanding is the tomites need s host or will parish in short order..the only question is when do they hatch out.

my reseach suggests that in the tropical environement the ich should hatch out and die in approx 3 weeks.(temp at 80-82)..the warmer water should speed the hatch cycle.

I never heard of it dying off naturally in 11 months.
I always equated it to a living cycle.

I aso understand that meds may be harsh on fish but you can aso use hyposalinity..dropping the specific gravity over the course fo a few days to 1.009-1.010
but it also has some drawbacks as some fish don't tolerate the ower salinity.

I will be trying to catch the fish tonite and place them in the q tank..with daily water changes.the treatment and hospital tank will need to sit for 14 days ..



in my case all the fish came from the same source and are the first inhabitants to the tank.

I will also be running my uv sterilizer in the maintank during the ich treatment.

 

[rusty-nail-z]

sorry to hear about that subliminal, Im sure you guys saw my little post about a possible ich on one of my fish. Im also takin that advice an immediate reaction response.. going to the fish store right when it opens to get a second opinion, then gettin myself a hospital/ quarantine tank. My femal perc is the one with the spot, but the male doesnt have any spots. Should I hospitalize them together? On that topic, what isa an effective, wallet friendly quarantine/hospital set up??

 

[Star_Rider]

sorry to hear about that subliminal, Im sure you guys saw my little post about a possible ich on one of my fish. Im also takin that advice an immediate reaction response.. going to the fish store right when it opens to get a second opinion, then gettin myself a hospital/ quarantine tank. My femal perc is the one with the spot, but the male doesnt have any spots. Should I hospitalize them together? On that topic, what isa an effective, wallet friendly quarantine/hospital set up??

the problem with ich is in the way it spreads.

the white spot trophant is what you usually see(white spot/salt) it is feeding on the flesh of the fish and will feed from 3-7 days..leaving the fish (protomant) it attaches to surfaces/sand and begins to encyct(Tomite) they are non-infective at this stage and will remain like this for 3-28 days.(this is the stage where it is possible to speed the time by raising the temp slightly as in cooler water they will remain for the longer 28 days it is also the stage where they mutipy) the tomite will hatch and the new theront begins to look for a host.(they have only 24 hrs to find a host and this is the stage where they are treatable).

so if you can catch all the fish I would treat all the fish.

here is a good read if you are interested.


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

I also discovered the method described here..you can do large daily water changes to reduce the re-infection eventually wiping out the ich..I think similar to the change the tank method..which actually sounds like a good idea.

 

[Subliminal]

Ok, I'll try and answer a few questions to the best of my understanding.

First, the low cost quarantine method:

Get a 25w heater (~$12)
Get a 10g tank ($~12)
Get a powerhead ($~15)

Personally, I'd recommend a second 10g tank for the tank to tank method, but we'll see how that plays out first.

I used some pcv piping from my garage (scrubbed of course) for the fishies to hide in in the tank.

Rusty, yeah I'd hospitalize them together...but they're your fish and I think you need to do your own thing...

As to the UV, well...I actually was given one recently, but not sure if I'm even going to bother. I'm going to wait the whole 8 weeks and never worry about it again (hopefully). The UV might speed things up, but since there's just inverts and rock in there now anyway, and I'm not going to cut this short, it really wouldn't help me with anything.

As to the 3 week thing, I believe it's the unhatched eggs in the substrate that make it take longer.

 

[Subliminal]

I think in the future, I'm going to recommend that people wait 8 weeks before sticking fish in their tanks. I know nobody will listen, but maybe, just maybe someone will prosper from my mistakes...

 

[Star_Rider]

makes sense

I was just pointing out info I learned from researching.

8 weeks would give you a safety margin..and remove all doubt.:thm:
the biggest problem is getting rid of the pest.

time is your best friend in a reef tank or FOWLR

 

[Reefscape]

Mistakes are there for people to learn from and i do hope that people will give this thread some good thought as we have seen from this, the effects that a paracite in an aquarium can have, not only to the fish but how diss-heartened it makes the keeper..

Niko

 

[Subliminal]

Yep. Totally sucks.

And if I didn't have the time/money to qt these fish, chances are I would have lost them all.

And chances are, if I rush the fallow time in the big tank, it would just come back.

And chances are...that would really stink.

Oh well...what's a boy to do?

 

[rusty-nail-z]

Lots of good info here guys... I just got back from my reputable LFS. I borught my female perc in to show the guys the little white spot. At this point, it was no longer visible. At that time, I thought I was just trippin out, or maybe it was some debris from my frogspawn. The guy proceeded to inform me that from the look of the fins and the movement of the fish that it wa healthy. I know this is a true statement, but IM sure it doesnt rule out the fact my fish might have ich. Anyyway, with no visible proof and the healthy fins dialogue, I proceeded to get a quarantine tank set up for future problems, new fish etc. When I got home and dropped my fish bank in the tank under the lights, I could see thatsame little white spot again. Doh! There is only one spot right now, but if it is ich, I dont want that @!$% in my tank.... Any advice on whether I should quarantine the both of them just to be sure?? I do have lots of living things besides fish in my tank (LR, LS, corals etc. which represent a far greater investment monywise...

 

[Reefscape]

I think if there is any doubt in your mind, they should be removed to QT and monitored..But dont take any action unless you can confirm it IS Ich...

Its just what i would do....

Niko