One fish has ich with the others get it?

Discussion in 'Diseases' started by xxredxpandaxx, May 24, 2011.

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  1. xxredxpandaxx

    xxredxpandaxx Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Ok so the first question is how fast can signs of ich show up? and the other one is will my other fish get ich? So I had ich in my tank a few months ago and lost all my fish =/ so I waited about 2 and a half months before getting a new fish to make sure all the ich would have died and I had no problems. i started off with a damsel to make sure that it did not get ich when I put him in my tank and we was fine so I got a hippo tang. so after about a month after I got my hippo tang I got a bartlett's anthias and still no signs of ich, untill last night. In the morning when I fed my fish there were no spots at all but by the time the lights went off my hippo tang had spots on him and it looks just like ich. So the only thing I can think of is that the ich came from the anthias but it is not showing any signs of ich, and I didn't put any water from the lfs in my tank at all. I am acclimating my hippo tang to the QT water right now and I am going to do the hyposalinity treatment to try and kill the ich.
     
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  3. aw1447

    aw1447 Montipora Capricornis

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    From what I hear, hippo's can be some serious ich magnets, but I've never kept one myself. It's possible the anthia's came with ich, but MOST of the time ich is caused by stress on the fish bc of water quality. I would check your params and make sure you have everything spot on. In the mean time, do what you can with the tang. IME cupramine copper treatment works great for ich, but I've heard hyposal treatment work just as well. Good luck!
     
  4. xxredxpandaxx

    xxredxpandaxx Coral Banded Shrimp

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    thanks and my water should be fine but I will check it.
     
  5. haloist

    haloist Skunk Shrimp

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    One of the things I always do with new fishes is freshwater dip them. Make sure you match the pH and temperature first and then dip them for a good 15 minutes+. This usually helps with getting rid of the ich and parasites on the fish. I know it's pretty disheartening to see them in freshwater, but they can usually take up to at least half an hour, so don't worry too much. As for your tank, you definitely do a hyposalinity treatment if you don't have any corals or inverts. If you do, you do the usual quarantine with slow hyposalinity treatment and wait it out for your Direct Tank.

    As for who brought in the ich, that's somewhat irrelevant, because you now have ich anyway, right? They both could have brought in the ich! I remember when I had my 130 gallon tank, I bought a blue tang that looked like it had no ich... introduced it to my tank... took a gamble, waited for a week or two with seemingly no ich. And then, BAM, ich everywhere! haha. You know what worked though? I bought 2 really good UV sterilizers and after running it for a few months on, it killed all the ich. In retrospect, since I had a FOWLR, I could have done a hyposalinity treatment, which would have been much more effective! But yeah, good luck! And, be sure to dip your fishes and observe them in QT before you drop them into your Direct Tank! I usually just drop them in after a good long dip with a few drops of Melafix with a 95% success rate so far.

    :D
     
  6. xxredxpandaxx

    xxredxpandaxx Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Ya I usually QT my fish but i don't know why I didn't for the anthias but I will just have to keep my tang in QT and see if the anthias gets ich or not because it will be almost impossible to catch him with out ripping apart my tank.
     
  7. xjaydub20x

    xjaydub20x Feather Duster

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    I agree that the presence of ich means something is out of whack or different in your tank. If water params are good, it could be as simple as just adding new fish made the other fish stress a little and more susceptible to ich. Rearranging aquascape, hands constantly in the tank, large water changes/param fluctuations, or forgetting to turn the lights off at night (did that on a tank in my garage) are all examples of stressful situations that can lead to an ich outbreak. So tearing apart your tank to catch the fish will most likely just make things worse.

    It has also been my experience that ich never goes away once introduced into your tank... Even after months of being fish-less. The good news is that healthy and happy fish are very good at resisting ich infections. If you remove the stress and get the fish to eat plenty of good food including algae strips for the tang, it's possible for the fish to kick the ich on their own.

    If you have a fowlr and don't plan on ever having corals or inverts, use coppersafe. The drawback is that copper is very hard to get out of your system completely and is toxic to corals and inverts and prolonged exposure can negatively affect fish as well. Some fish cannot tolerate any copper, so make sure it's safe for the fish you have or want in the future. I personally haven't had much luck with hypo treatments.

    Since we're on the topic of ich... I also highly discourage buying hippos (and most other tangs) under 3" or any fish from Petco. I doubt that many of the fish that fall into those two categories have much of a chance to survive - it's sad. I wish they wouldn't collect small hippos or sell any fish to Petco :(. Our first hippo was small and gave us a bunch of problems early on and she has the "battle scars" to prove it lol.
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2011
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  9. xxredxpandaxx

    xxredxpandaxx Coral Banded Shrimp

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    My guess is that it was the new fish that stressed out the tang but both fish are eating well so hopefully they will both survive =] I am going to do the hypo because my brother had good results with it. also do any of you use lights on your qt tank? right now i am just using the light that is in the room.
     
  10. Corailline

    Corailline Super Moderator

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    It is a dry heat, yeah right !
    The tang has already been in the display?
     
  11. xjaydub20x

    xjaydub20x Feather Duster

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    Dim(mer) lighting on a normal schedule should be good. Just make sure that they can still tell the difference between night and day. In other words, don't keep them constantly in the dark or light.
     
  12. xxredxpandaxx

    xxredxpandaxx Coral Banded Shrimp

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    ya they were both in there for about a week and the hippo just started to show signs of ich, but the anthia never did and still has not.