ICK

My temp dropped from 79 to 76 and ALL my fish now have ICK badly even my cleaner goby which i thought ate these #!%$ing things , but anyways ... I have snails and i would rather not take all my fish out for a fresh water dip (cuz i dont know what im doing and id probably end up killing them) so is there any good ivert safe ICK treatment that works ? In 4 hours my fish went from looking perfect to looking like a salt block , any suggestions would be apreciated.

 

There is a product called "KICK ICK" by Rally. I have used it in the past but found it relatively ineffective. I would really try to get your fish into a Q-tank (a small emergency Tank) then you can treat them with medications like copper that are harmful to inverts.
Your goby will not like copper or other treatments so he will have to remain behind.

J

 

I'm not aware that a temp decrease would trigger Ich, in fact I thought it was the opposite.

My advice would be to closely inspect the fish and make sure it is in fact Ich before going any further.

If you are fairly sure that it is Ich, then like Jason I would strongly suggest a q tank to isolate the fish and treat them with a suitable medication.

John

 

Any stress can bring on ich if its present.  A stressed fish is just that, stressed, whether its too cold or too hot.

On the same note though, a 3 degree drop shouldn't spark such an out break.

Me thinks something else is going down as well.

Huh, never heard that one before. I've never had any problems with copper and gobies. Why do you feel they can't handle copper?

 

Thanks Gresham, you are quite right, like you I would not have considered 3 degress to be much of a stressor for the fish.

John

 

Salt block? Completely coverred? Is it lumpy or slick? Got any parameters for us? What else have you done frequently? How new are the fish?

 

[quote author=Gresham link=board=ASAP;num=1085562992;start=0#3 date=05/26/04 at 15:02:53]

Huh, never heard that one before.  I've never had any problems with copper and gobies.   Why do you feel they can't handle copper?[/quote]

I have to admit I made an assumption as Blennies do not tolerate Copper (they jump from the tank and run for there lives, Then their owner puts them back in the poison soup only to read later that it is deadly to scaleless fish, Blenny is doing fine after ordeal)

J

 

well when I said salt block I was beeing a bit sarcastic, the tang had ALOT of ICH on his whole body the smallest clown had some on most of its body and the bigger clown had very little and the poor goby looked like he was carrying twice his weight in ICH (never seen it this bad before) but I did a fresh water dip on the clowns (cuz they were so easy to catch) and i atempted to catch the tang and the gody but I couldnt , so i did a water 20 % water chang and lowered salinity from 1.024 to 1.018 (lfs said this might help) and bought another 200 watt heater to keep this from happening again , and now they all look 90% better . I was going to use greenex but i didnt realy wan to go that route , but i still might if it comes back tomorrow . we'll see i guess

 

Fishez,

Know about the life cycle of Ich will be very helpful for you, so if you are not familiar with the cycle, here is a snip from one of the many excellent articles on the subject

http://www.breeders-registry.gen.ca.us/Reprints/SeaScope/v11_sumr/crypto.htm

The life cycle of Cryptocaryon is relatively simple. Cryptocaryon is an obligate parasite, one that cannot survive without a period of growth on a fish. It spends five to seven days (at 24 to 27°C) feeding and growing in the skin and gills. The parasite at this stage is called a trophont, and ranges from 60 to 370 microns in size. When the parasite reaches maturity it leaves the fish and enters the water as a large single cell called a tomont. The parasite swims for 12 to 18 hours until a sticky, opaque cyst wall is secreted which allows it to attach to substrates such as rock, coral, or glass.

These cysts measure from 200 to 400 microns in diameter and can sometimes be seen on surfaces inside the aquarium. The cells divide within each cyst to produce up to 200 daughter parasites called tomites. This multiplication process takes anywhere from 3 to 28 days (Colorni 1985). The tomites are much smaller (25 to 60 microns) than the original cell because they result from its cell division. They produce cilia which allow them to bore through the cyst wall and emerge into the water. These free-swimming cells are the infective form of the parasite called theronts. They are very small and not easily seen by the naked eye at this stage, and survive for only a few hours unless they find a host. When the theronts encounter a fish, they burrow into skin and gill tissue where they begin to grow, thus completing the life cycle.

The metabolic activity of Cryptocaryon is affected by the ambient temperature of the water. The warmer the water, the faster the parasite grows, thus speeding up all stages of the life cycle.

 

I had an ich outbreak a long time ago and I added my cleaner shrimp. They took care of it. It's according to whether or not your fish will let the shrimp clean them though.