Damn Stupid Itch!

Hey everyone!

I noticed today that my trigger had these big white blemishes all around his eyes and after i fed him, he started to crazily rub and swim against my live rock, appearing to scratch himself. A few minutes later i noticed my blue tang starting to do it, however not as roughly.

I have done some research and i think that it is itch :-[

It seems to die down and i think it has gone, however then it comes back. I set up my quarantine tank again (my 85L plastic tub with a filter) and put a piece of rock to seed it.

What suggestions do you guys have of how i can handle this? I have a fair amount of fish so getting them out will be tough, however i dont have that much room to put them into.

I have about 15 pieces of coral in the tank, and i was thinking that it might be better for me to take all the corals and put them into the quarantine, then treat the tank with copper and other medicines.

Any thoughts???

 

Ich is a terrible disease that alot of time desimates fish! That being said, there are ways to cure this. The main one being to take out your fish and place in a quarantine tank-add copper etc. and let nature take its course. I don't like the idea of you taking the corals out of your main tank and then adding copper to your main tank, if that is what you were implying above. Copper is detrimental to inverts bacteria etc. and its effects last for awhile. The other alternative for you is to decrease the salinity(specific gravity) of your tank to around 1.020 by adding fresh water over the course of a few hours. Leave it at that level for a few weeks and the ICH will die off. After that point, you can then begin to up the salinity in your tank again to 1.024-.26.
One thing to keep in mind though with lowering your specific gravity is, your alkalinity level will drop as well, therefore you will want to test your alkalinity level often and add a buffer to raise it.(keep alk at around 7dKH!)

 

Yer, well i was thinking that i could try to get my trigger out and into the quarantine tank and treat him with copper. Then i could possibly use a reef safe treatment (If there is one) while also dropping the salinity of the main tank. None of the other fish are showing signs of any illness and they all seem to be fine. They are all eating healthily its just my trigger looks a bit down.

Another quick question, the tub i am using for my quarantine at the moment is plastic, so if i put a heater onto the plastic, its not going to melt it or warp it in anyway is it?

Thanks alot reefer for your help!

 

I would be careful with the heater and a plastic tub as the heater does get rather hot and it may melt the plastic!!!

 

yer, i might have to get a glass tank..

 

I had the dreaded ich awhile back and treated my whole tank with Kordon's Organic Ich Attacki it did a good jod and produced no visible side effects other than slightly darkening the color of my biege encrusting gorgonian- the stuff is listed as an treatment for Ich, fungus , Protozoans and Dinoflagellattes. All I can tell you is it was easy to use and did a great job. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED YOU CAN PICK IT UP HERE:
PetSmart - Kordon Ich Inhibitor

 

You need to lower the SG to 1.010 to kill ich. I've been that route and have tried just about every remedy available. The only thing that has worked has been copper. If you decide to use copper, use cupramine because it does not adhere to silicone. Please read the articles and FAQ's on ich at
Wetwebmedia, Aquarium, Pond, Marine and Freshwater Fish, reef tanks, and Aquatics Information, it will answer alot of questions and concerns.

 

Ok I don't understand this about ICH. If I have a tank with fish and inverts like shrimp and that stuff. I can treat the fish, but I hear that inverts can carry the disease as well. But there is no treatment for the inverts?? So won't the inverts just transmit the ich back to the fish when they are put back into the tank?

 

Where did you hear that inverts can carry ich? Every thing that I've read says that they don't carry ich. Ich needs a host organism. It can lay dormant in your tank as cysts in your substrate or live rock.

 

I thought I saw it in more than one place but I guess not. And this is only saying that they suspect.

"Saltwater invertebrates are suspected of being carriers of ich, and since most effective ich treatments also kill invertebrates (their cell structures are quite similar), they cannot be guaranteed ich-free when purchased."
Treating Saltwater "Ich"

But then looking for the links to print I found this. Cryptocaryon is one of the 3 types listed on the page.
"Invertebrates, fortunately, do not get Cryptocaryon infections."
Ich in Saltwater Fish: Treatment and Prevention