Hello and please help!!! ICH

jaxjohn419 · 10-10-2007, 08:06 PM

i have a 36 gallon salt water tank and have recently had fish die. At first there were little white, almost rice shaped, fuzzy pods attached to our heater. Recently, our fish have been covered with what appears to be ich. We have no coral, just live sand and a bio-wheel filter. Our fish store gave us ICH-Attack to treat the water. we have used it for 3 days and the tank is turning brown, but the ich seems to be getting worse. our puffer is now covered and can't see to eat. The little pods seem to be dark now and floating around the bottom.
*does that mean they are dead?
*is there a "shock" treatment to try to save our puffer? we gave him a 4 minute fresh water bath tonight. *realistically, is it too late for him?
*Do you have any thoughts on what those pods could be?
*if everything dies, should we empty the tank and start anew, or can the water just be saved if there is no fish for a couple weeks?

Matt Rogers · 10-10-2007, 09:45 PM

Hi welcome to 3reef. Can you elaborate on your aquarium a bit? How long have you had it, what kind of filtration, how many fish, etc.

Here is some good info on ICH:
http://www.3reef.com/forums/tags/ich/

omard · 10-10-2007, 09:56 PM

To 3Reef!!!

Salutations! Glad to see you found way here, even under such sad circumstances.

Here is everything you need to know about ICK...and probably a heck of a lot more.

Don't give up on your fish yet.

Good Luck.

ICK Lifecycle

An outbreak of serious ich will look like white grains of salt on the skin of your fish, from 0.3 to 1mm in diameter. Each individual spot is actually an adult parasite known as the trophont, which has been enveloped in the pus and tissue of the infected fish's skin and slime layer. Heavy infestations can be very dangerous if they reach the gills or cause secondary bacterial infections, so ich is definitely not a disease to be treated lightly. If allowed to progress to the point where the fish is very ragged in appearance and hanging near the surface, displaying a lot of respiratory distress, it can be fatal.
The white spots, however, only indicate one stage of ich (the only one that can be seen by the naked eye). After infecting the fish, the adult organism falls off into the gravel and becomes encysted in a free-living dormant stage known as a tomont. THIS CYST STAGE IS INVULNERABLE TO MEDICATIONS. This is the reason why a raise in temperature is suggested IN CONJUNCTION with ich treatments...it speeds up the life cycle and makes the stages that are treatable come around faster. If you do raise the temperature, do so very slowly so as not to stress the weak fish further.. raise it no more than 1-2 degrees every day, and do not allow this temperature to fluctuate. Also, consider the types of fish you are keeping... most tropicals can tolerate as high as 84-86 F, but most goldfish will start to languish in the high 70's, so don't push them any further.

Additional Info

News from the Warfront with Cryptocaryon irritans (Part 1 of 5) by Terry Bartelme

Saltwater Ich and Garlic - Aquarium Fish Diseases Ick, By: Terry D. Bartelme

Aquarium.Net Feb 97 Diseases in Fish, By Shawn Prescot

Marine Ick Part I, Steven Pro

Marine Ick, Part II, Steven Pro

Symptoms of Stress & Disease

An Old Cure for an Old Disease (Fishlore.com)

Freshwater Ich, White Spot Disease, By Bob Fenner

Protozoan parasites. (Skeptical Aquarist)

How to Identify & Prevent Saltwater Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) (Liveaquari.com)

jaxjohn419 · 10-11-2007, 07:42 AM

i only have 2 fish left. a blowfish puffer and a sailfin tang. bio-wheel filtration.