# Ich!!!



## Fishnewb1 (Mar 24, 2006)

I have just recently noticed white spots that look like salt on my royal gramma and my coral beauty angel...

is this ich?

what can i do to make these go away?

my heater is set at 77 and the room it is in is only at 75...the thermometer is says it is at 80...what should i do

what starts ich?


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## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

ich is a parasite, its usually in a tank, but stress cause the fish to be easily infected, i would remove all the fish, not just the ones with ich, all of them, place them in a quarantine tank, give them a ich medication from the store, and keep the tank empty of fish for at least 4 weeks, thats the life cycle of ich, so they will all die off.


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## Guest (Jul 22, 2006)

crank the temp to 86. this will help kill the free swimming form of ich.
and i hope you have a quarantine tank.


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## Reefneck (Oct 15, 2005)

Scuba Kid said:


> crank the temp to 86. this will help kill the free swimming form of ich.


BAD advice in a Saltwater tank. Do NOT do this!


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

I'd have to agree, once the fish are gone into qt, bring the temp up to 80 (speeds up the life cycle of ich)


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## Fishnewb1 (Mar 24, 2006)

i dont have a qt...

are there any reef safe cures??


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## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

Fishnewb1 said:


> i dont have a qt...
> 
> are there any reef safe cures??


there are some that claim to be, but i think your best bet would be to try to set up a temporary QT. get a 10 gallon tank, (or depending on your fish 20 or so. put some plastic caves or pvc pipe so they can hide, take water out of your display tank and fill it, all you need is a heater and a small filter or power head. not much at all, put all fish in and treat with a stronger medication.


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## Fishnewb1 (Mar 24, 2006)

well i think they are cured...

the shrimp have been on them all day and now there arent any spots on either of them...


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## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

i wouldnt trust the shrimp to get rid of them all, shrimp generally only eat the visible specs, which sometimes are just skin cells from the fish, there are many forms of ich, free swimming and such, and your tank probably still has some in it, it would still be a good idea to QT them, and treat.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

The shrimp are next to worthless. Its the parasites on the gills that kill the fish, and the shrimp aren't much help for gills.

There are no reef-safe meds that actually work. There are many products which claim the opposite, but they're junk.

ALL REEFKEEPERS ABSOLUTELY *MUST* learn about quarantine before getting very far in their hobby, or they won't succeed.


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## jenbertoni (Jul 24, 2006)

*....*

DEFINITELY DO NOT put your temp up to 86 degrees. that will only stress your fish out more and give them more ich. there are a few treatments if you dont have qt tank, but they dont work all that well. you should ask someone at the fish store you go to for reef and invert safe meds. if you do get a qt tank, which i suggest you do if you plan on keeping up the fish for a while, you can use copper treatment which works very well, but it just cant be with your inverts or live rock (which is why you need to qt tank). i had problems with this and the only way to get rid of it for good is a qt tank so it can cycle out...or your fish will most likely end up dying. also, if you end up getting the qt tank, you should put all new additions in there for a week or so to make sure they dont carry ich on them...you dont have to see it for it to be there. its a lot of work, but all worth it once you get your fish nice n healthy!


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## Fishnewb1 (Mar 24, 2006)

what all do i need in my qt for this.. i have the tank and the copper and a extra protien skimmer if needed


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

no need for the extra protien skimmer... just the tank, HOB filter, and copper med. Maybe a piece of PVC for cover. Oh and a copper test kit... always test what you dose.


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

Like I said before, quarantine it, raise the temp up pretty high, then try dosing little with meds after a while. Most ich meds only treat the free swimming larvae, not the ones already attached to the fish. The heat speeds the ich cycle up and kills a vast majority of them, then the meds in the water should take out the rest. Run a HOB power filter without carbon on the water for circulation, and possibly add an air stone or powerhead since most meds somewhat deplete the oxygen level (and saltwater tanks usually carry less dissolved oxygen then freshwater).

Btw, ich can live for more than 4 weeks, it would a take a full 1-6 months to fully kill ich, it can lay dormant in the gravel, sand, live rock, etc. until it has a suitable host. In saltwater tank though, ich isn't encountered that often and usually just dies off. When I first started I saw it once, killed one damsel, and went away. I saw it come on a new coral beauty angelfish (one spec) and it just died off and never saw a real big outbreak.

In most cases quarantine isn't needed, but when you get into the more delicate stuff, it's almost a must. With my new thirty gallon I have to quarantine everything, even sea pens. If not one outbreak could wipe out absolutely everything in my tank. Things like vibrio can wait months before it shows up, and can even be stored in copepods (copepods eat bacteria,etc. vibrio=bacteria).


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

I'd have to disagree... saltwater ich is a lot more leathal than its freshwater counterpart. Not doing anything about it would be a waste of money. And TOS correct me if I'm wrong but the life cycle of ich without a host is 5-6 weeks.


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## Fishnewb1 (Mar 24, 2006)

yea mine dont have a real outbreak just a little on the fins and head


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