Very Bad Ick - Copper not working!!

[scott foster]

Copper?????Somebody told me to raise the temp. in tank. But please dont take my advice without doing research.

 

[Crown Royal]

Crown Royal, i don't agree with that.

That's cool. My wife doesn't agree with me either most of the time :

u can speed up ich's life cycle by getting temp. higher.

1. A faster life cycle doesn't do anything unless you break it (the life cycle) somewhere along the way.

2. You can only speed the life cycle up so much. Virtually everything out there recommends leaving the main tank "fallow" (i.e. fishless) for AT LEAST one month to ENSURE that ALL parasites have died while you treat all the fish in a quarantine tank.

3. Invertebrates are generally less tolerant of temperatures in the mid to higher 80s as is usually suggested making prolonged exposure very problematic in a reef setting.

also there are meds now that can kill ick even if it's deep in the skin of the fish.

I'd be very interested in these meds. What are their names?

hyposalinity and copper are too very old ways of getting rid of ick, and both are very slow acting and i think only somewhat effective as preventitive

Very old, but very effective. They are "slow acting" simply because of the nature of the parasite's life cycle.

Once you have eradicated all parasites, why would you need to use either as a "preventative"? Some LFS use constant low levels of copper, but this is a potentially dangerous practice as it is only effective above certain levels and long-term chronic copper exposure can be deadly.

also copper can kill some fish even in low ammounts

Very true as I've indicated. But the large majority marine fish commonly found in the aquarium trade such as tangs, damselfishes, etc. take copper quite well for the relatively short periods required for treatment. Only certain fish such as sharks and rays are unable to stand copper.

 

[BadRoma1]

copper can kill some clown fish and jaw fish too. the med that killed ich directly on my fish was Quinsulex from Aquatronics. not reef safe, but the fish had no secondary infections. doesn't effect bio bacteria and easy to get out of the system, like filtering, water changes, or just simply washing the QT for next time

 

[gomrjoe]

QT Size question?

How large of a QT would I realistically need to house the following critters from my 100 gallon??

Pac blue tang
Yellow tang
Coral Beauty
3 spotted cardinal fish
3 reef chromis
mated pair perc clowns
diamond watchman goby

I am thinking at least a 45 gallon, but the thing is, I really don't have the space to accomodate such a QT. I have access to a 20 gallon, but I don't think this will do. I am considering emptying my main tank for 30 days to clear the ich once and for all.

 

[BadRoma1]

u have ich too? another thing that i wanted to note is that Coral Vital by Marc Weiss should be able to keep ich at bay on the regular bases, but don't know for sure. i also have been adding vitamins into the food and vitamin C into the water, which i strongly believe help to keep my fish looking great in overall. the healthier fish is the less chance of them braking out in ich

 

[Crown Royal]

Quinsulex is quinine sulfate. Along with other quinine-based medications, it's hit and miss according to the following sources:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ichartmar.htm

http://www.marineaquariumadvice.com/aquarium_fish_4.html

Quinine has been around since the 18th century to treat malaria and it's also the "tonic" in tonic water.

If it worked for you, that's great, and it's worth a try if you have scaleless fish. But it's not as reliable as copper/hyposalinity.

Keeping your fish well-fed and healthy is always a good idea. However, ensuring that there aren't ANY ich parasites around (by proper quarantine techniques and use of copper/hyposalinity) you know that even if things are not 100%, you won't have a sudden outbreak.

 

[BadRoma1]

i don't think any of this methods work 100%. there are many people say that what they used worked great for ich and many that say that the same treatments didn't work at all. it's possible that many people confuse ich with something else. i was there with ich problem too, at one time, and used many named methods that didn't work for me either, not until named drug. also, it treats other simular parasites and i felt that it was the best way to go without guessing if i got the name of a parasite right. and as for scaleless fish, the med isn't just for that type of fish but for any, it's just often u can't use some meds with scaleless fish, but u can with this med and that's why the company noted scaleless first. now, i'm not saying that this med is effective at all times and everybody must use it, u always should stick to something that works for u, and the reason i can't say it is because i only used it once and thankfuly didn't have an outbreak of anything for some time. i also know only one person that tryed it and it's me, so that's why i can't say for sure. but one thing i wanted to note is when i used everything else before i had 3 ich outbreakes and lost every but one fish by using everything out there, until i got the med that i recomend.

 

[scott foster]

Salt,Salt,Salt................ciclid salt, just a little more than the package says and raise the temp. just a bit.,,,,,Worked for me.

 

[BadRoma1]

u are on the right track for fresh water, that's the way to go!!!

 

[scott foster]

If you have tried everything else and nothing worked try boric acid it will kill ick everytime........NO NO NO I am just kidding!!!!!!!Like I said before dont take my advice without research. I am new and I like to kid alot. But cichlid salt is natural. Not some chemical.