my clown has ich, question.

My clown has had ich for the past couple days now. How effective is a freshwater dip? I've heard that the ph of the freshwater has to be exactly the same as the ph in your tank. Has anyone tried the freshwater dip? Does it work? Also how long do i keep it in the freshwater for?

 

Freshwater dip has varied results. I have used freshwater dips myself. I have never heard that PH should be the same but others may have input on this. Length of dip depends on who you are talking to but generally 4 or 5 minutes. If the fish stops swimming just give it a little nudge. I like to do freshwater dip early on when ich is first noticed. Once it gets into an advanced stage it does not seem to work as well for me.

People will say use kick ich or other chemicals but make sure they do not contain copper as this will kill your corals. Even if you do not have corals I would never use copper based medication.

Others have QT tanks which they will put the fish in so as to not contaminate the rest of the fish in the DT tank.

What has worked best for me is to use Garlic Xtreme with feedings(I use this all the time) not just when ich was noticed. Since I have a FOWLER tank where the majority of my fish are and ich has popped up I just basically will cut my light cycle down to feeding time only and maybe and hour or so after that. This seems to help reduce the fishes stress and within a couple weeks the ich has cleared up. Some fish which are not very hardy to begin with with succumb to ich unfortunately.

 

i just set up a qt and put two of my fish in there (my clown and my six line wrasse) who are infected. I am using a copper based medication (copper safe). Hopefully this works. I also use garlic extreme when i feed them.

 

I would say the qt would be better because in my experience no matter how I done it a fish that I have fresh water dipped always died.

 

I have done the dips and the quarentining with meds and lost a hippo and a baby clown. Lfs replaced the clown and within a week it had spots as well. I went a different route this time and left him be because he was still eating well so I started using the garlic soak and pellets and within a week no more spots. IMO the dips and meds just stress them out too much.

 

The best ICH treatment I have found for my aquatic friends has been Hyposalinity. It has some great features that you just can't get with medications. First its good to know that ICH will not effect Corals or inverts. So if its possible to remove all fish to a QT tank and treat it using this method, and the advantages begin to show really quick IMHO:

Pros

1. It reduces stress on the fish
2. Kills the ich parasites when they are in their free floating stage.
3. Kills off any parasites that may be living in your DT due to the fact there is no food
for them to eat while your fish are in a QT.
4. Its practically free as all you need to do is supply the saltwater.
5. Once the ich is killed over the period of six weeks, the parasite must be reintroduced
for outbreaks to happen (ie. once this treatment is done, ich is gone period)

Cons

1. Means your fish aren't in your DT for a period of about six weeks
2. Needs more time to monitor the Water Quality in the QT than a DT
3. Kill inverts and corals, and certain animals off liverock (so if you use this method for LR
featherdusters and such that you wanted will die)

Now this isn't to say that the other ways descibed above aren't effective, as I've seen it be very effective first hand. But the Hyposalinity described above will eliminate the parasites completely, so the problem wont reoccur. Just my 2 cents.

-Gavin

 

Save the freshwater and put him in QT, the freshwater dip only will stress a fish, I am surprised people really use such a method.

 

I do freshwater dips prior to introducing into a QT tank. It can kill free floating ich and also other flukes, parasites, etc, but probably won't get rid of it if it's in the gills or embedded on the fish (for ich). I use Methylene Blue and also match pH, as well as temp. I've done between 10-30min (yes, 30min!) and have not had a lost yet doing a fw dip. There's a great article on all the specific details of performing freshwater dips, but not sure if I can post the link, so PM me and I'll send the link to those interested. But, I think the best thing to do is to remove the fish and place in a QT tank for med or hypo treatment. I've tried Copper treatment (Cupramine) before, but think Hypo is the way to go.