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this morning i woke up and noticed that 2 or 3 of my swordtails had small white dots on the side. no other fish, just these two or three. im thinking it may be ich?, should i take out these 2-3 fish, place them in a quar. tank, then treat both tanks with copper safe? my tank perameters are stable. nitrates and ammonia are both very low, temp at 78 F. its a 55 gal tank with 2 clown loaches, 8 red velvet swords, 1 huge plec, and 1 angel. is what i think correct, quarrintine the 3 with spots and treat both tanks? i understand that clown loaches dont do well with meds and its best to underdose. none of the tank inhabitants are very new its been months(3-5) since anything has been added.

-nick

Last edited by swiftshark88 at 20-Aug-2005 06:18

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

You dont remove fish when treating ich.
If it looks like grains of salt then yes it's ich. Start treating the entire tank with meds ASAP, you can raise the temperature once youv'e started adding medications but be sure to increase surface agitation by using an airstone as well if possible.

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The life, the love, You die to heal.
The hope that starts, The broken hearts...
I’ve got another confession my friend, I’m no fool.
I’m getting tired of starting again, Somewhere new."

i was just thinking i could quarrintine them so if the cyst burst it wont spread to the other fish? if i dont take them out, ill medicate at about 3/4 and turn on my powerheads....you still think its not worth it to take out the 3 swords?


your up pretty early, i was worried i wouldent get answered for a few hours cause it was so early in the morning. thanks for your imput.

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

Swift,

I don’t know Copper Safe and what it does. I use Quick Cure with great success (never lost any fish to Ich).

I believe that taking the 3 affected fish out into a QT is actually not such a bad idea. If the QT has a bare bottom then you could vacuum the fallen cysts so much better. As you said, you should treat both tanks anyway.

For the main tank – do you have plants (real) in them? If so, I suggest reducing the dosage (1/2) to lower the chance of damage to them. And maybe 1/2 the dosage again because of the Loaches. Treat the tanks for 2 weeks with water changes (good gravel and bottom vacuuming) every other day, and the days between use the meds.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

PS: I just wonder why there would be an Ich outbreak now.

Last edited by LITTLE_FISH at 20-Aug-2005 06:31

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

no there are no real plants in the tank, i think i might take the three out, it seems logical, that way if they get bad, none of the other fish will be affected.

i have no idea why i would have an outbreak right now? im very confused, kinda poor timing for somthing to go wrong too, im setting up a 125 gal marine tank on the other side of my room in a few days :%) , but im going to have to put that off until this fixed.

as for the coppersafe, made by mardel, treats ich, velvet and external parisites. 1 teaspoon per 4 gallons, the active ingrediant is copper sulfate

Last edited by swiftshark88 at 20-Aug-2005 06:41

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

Once again ich must be treated in the tank if you do not treat the tank you're likely to have the ich that is currently present in the tank infect the rest of the fish.

Dose with coppersafe and follow directions exactly.

^_^[hr width='40%']"Has someone taken your faith? It's real, the [link=pain]http://babelfish.qwertydigital.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] you feel.
The life, the love, You die to heal.
The hope that starts, The broken hearts...
I’ve got another confession my friend, I’m no fool.
I’m getting tired of starting again, Somewhere new."

Babel,

That’s what we both said, treat both tanks. If he takes out the affected fish then the free form of Ich might be lowered by the amount off the already attached ones (when they fall off), albeit creating a lower chance for these to find a new host. You know what I mean? Might not be the best way of explaining my logic.

Swift,

To the cause:

- did you add anything to the tank recently?
- did any parameter change recently (temperature etc.)?
- how do you define ammonia and nitrates being very low (values)?

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Netting fish and inducing further stress is not the way to handle a stress induced illness. All the fish would need to be removed as ich requires a host to live and will only die if treated properly with medications or left without a host for a week.

i think i might take the three out,

not sure if that was refering to fish or plants acutally ...then again I didnt sleep lastnight .

^_^[hr width='40%']"Has someone taken your faith? It's real, the [link=pain]http://babelfish.qwertydigital.com/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link] you feel.
The life, the love, You die to heal.
The hope that starts, The broken hearts...
I’ve got another confession my friend, I’m no fool.
I’m getting tired of starting again, Somewhere new."

Babel,

I assume he means the fish, as he doesn’t have any plants (live).

You raise a good point. I don’t know if removing the fish and raising the stress level is creating more trouble than good.

Ingo

*wakes up Babel so she stays focussed*

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

maybe if i just medicate anmd leave them in the tank everything will be fine, hopefully... ill keep you updated.. removing them will cause more stress, i noticed it early so hopefully it will clear up.



Update: im only medicating the main tank, i did the math and added enough for 65% of a normal dosage, its supposed to treat the tank for an entire month so ill see what happens.

Last edited by swiftshark88 at 20-Aug-2005 08:30

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

swiftshark if you haven't added the meds already I would advise you to go with a non-copper-based treatment. Something like Rid Ich+ or Jungle Ich Guard II. If you have any inverts in your tank the copper will kill them, it's also bad for scaleless fish (loaches and plecs) and is very hard to get out of your tank if you intend to add any inverts later. After you use copper sulfate on a tank you can *never* use it for marine because it seeps into the silicone. If you've already added it just watch very carefully for any sign of stress in your scaleless fish, increase aeration on the tank and hopefully it will be OK.

i am aware of the probelm with the loaches and medication, but i was not aware of the other problems, thanks for the warning! i added the medication earlier this morning and they seem to be doing fine, i didnt add a full dose it was about 65% strength maybe less, as for airation, i have two large powerheads running from 7 am to about 8 pm.

thanks a ton on the warning for the marine, i know inverts are very intolerable to all meds, but i wasnt aware that the copper sulfate goes into the silicon. ill use a different medication next time somthing happens you suggested Rid Ich+ or Jungle Ich Guard II?...

Last edited by swiftshark88 at 20-Aug-2005 23:43

Nick
"Impossumable- unable to play dead"

Rid Ich +, Ich Guard II, Quick Cure, all are good. Just check the packaging and look for Malachite green, Formalin, and Acriflavine. Quick cure does not contain acriflavine as far as I know but it's still good. I like to remove my inverts when I treat with anything but the above meds are recommended because they can be pulled from the water really easily with carbon filtration for a few days without any concern about lasting effects or leaching into the silicone, they are also safer for scaleless and sensitive fish and tend to be less stressful in general.