Ich (Cryptocaryon Irritans) Treatment

[DaveK]

Tangs, especially ones like powder blue tangs, are often describes as "ick magnets". They easily cquire the disease, and it quicly does a lof of damage to the fish.

If you are going to keep tang, make sure your tank is large enough. Usually they need about 70 gal or larger tank. Quarantine all live stock at least 4 weeks before adding to the main tank. You know the deal "an ounce or prevention...".

[mumble]

i'm only into the hobby 3months now and luckily no major itch outbreaks .... my yellow tang did get a white spot on his fin, but i started soaking his food in garlic & mutli vitamins .. had a couple of shrimps too that cleaned him up ... no evidence of re-appearance. but since prevention is better then cure any other suggestions ? i think i'm still in NTS as my shrimps didnt last more then 1wk .... any other suggestions for itch control apart from SG drop ? dont fancy medication either .. any fish that do the trick what about neon gobies?

[DaveK]

There is nothing special about dealing with ich or to use the proper name cryptocaryon.

Prevention is important. Always maintain high quality water, and always quarantine new livestock for at least 3 weeks.

Stress is a factor. Moving a fish will stress it. Do your best to keep this to a minimum.

Treatment is by hyposalinity, gradually reducing the SG of the tank to about 1.012, over time. Use a refractometer. Aquarium grade hydrometers are not accurate.

Treatment can also be done using copper sulfate. This is more complex, and should not be used on fish that are sensitive to copper. Always use a test kit to measure the amount of copper in the treatment tank. I do not recommend the use of chelated copper compounds, as they can not easily be tested for, and are less effective.

In my opinion, using treatment like garlic, and shrimp or fish to control the disease is a complete waste of time, and the reports you get about people being successful with them are questionable. More likely is they got lucky.

Most important, never ever medicate your main display tank. I don't care what is written on the bottle or package, or what your LFS store tells you, no medication is "reef safe". Period.

[reeferhead]

The best cure I have found for ich is turn your heat up. Turn it to about 82. Its worked for me for years now. Leave it there for a week or so

[DaveK]

Originally Posted by reeferhead

The best cure I have found for ich is turn your heat up. Turn it to about 82. Its worked for me for years now

Welcome to RAG!

I know it's considered bad form to be critical of someone new to RAG and on a first post, but the treatment you recommend does absolutely nothing for SW Ich (Cryptocaryon Irritans). For the FW disease, the treatment you mention is fine.

In addition the life cycle of the SW disease is 3 - 4 weeks, and treatment muse be maintained that long.

For the SW disease the only really effective treatments are hyposalinity and copper.

[Gecko]

Actually he is partially correct Dave; Turning up the temperature will speed up the life cycle but won’t do anything to kill the parasites, but if you were to turn up the heat and run Hypo or meds in a QT then we have a new ball game.

[DaveK]

You have something of a point, but raising the temp also reduces the available oxygen in the water, and also places additional stress on the fish. This is exactly what you don't want when treating for a parasite that infests the gills of a fish.

Also, this is a disease with a long life cycle, so the increase in temp doesn't speed things up that much.

So I stand by my original statement. "[heat] does absolutely nothing for SW Ich (Cryptocaryon Irritans)."

[Gecko]

Agreed; raising the temp alone will do nothing but increase the life cycle of Ich, however running Hyposalinity will increase the oxygen levels in the water so there is no need to worry about oxygen levels if your running Hyposalinity.

[ChuckG]

One thing I didn't see in this post is a good picture of what Ich looks like.



After doing fine for months I rearranged my tank. No new additions. Just moving frags from the frag tank into the main display. My Achilles came down with Ich. He would get better almost overnight and then again looking like above overnight. I boosted up the feedings but I'm giving up on the no intervention theory.

I'm setting up the QT today. Now I hope I can catch him.

[ChuckG]

I don't know if this has been said before.

DON'T wait to remove your sick fish. Remove them while they are still eating well. I baited a trap last night to get the fish used to the trap and I baited it again this morning. Every fish I have has been inside the trap except the achilles. He is/was always the first one eating the nori when placed in the tank. Now he doesn't even seem interested in the little flakes that are breaking off and floating outside the trap area.

I've now placed a net in the tank and will attempt to net him latter on today but I have serious doubts if this will work. Removing all the life rock just to get him is out of the question. It's a shame you can't reason with these guys and simply convince them that it is for their own good.