i just noticed my puffer Walter has ick on him... then i looked closer and my yellow tang has them all over and is beginning to look really bad... the rest have a few spots on them... i need to treat them all in my reef and have no idea the best (and safest) way to treat ick on a puffer in a reef... if anyone can suggest a specific med or technique that would be great... thanks
best saltwater ick remedy
- Thread starter puffcrusader696
- Start date
if you have a QT tank get them in there... and use hyposalinity to cure the infection. yo cant use copper based meds with scaleless fish. and most ich meds are copper based...
leave your main tank running as normal with the inverts in, but take all the fish out. aclmatize them in the QT tank which should have an SG in the region of 1.012. it may take a while for the disease to be efectively wiped out. as the method only affects the free swimming larvae of the disease not the spots. so its gotta run through its life cycle first.
after they have no more signs of the disease they should start to be brought back up to the SG of your main tank. this should be done over a few weeks. its a pain in the arse but it needs to be done over at least a month so the disease dies out in the main tank too. as it can lie in wait for up to a month in 'hibernation' till they wake up and start to seek out a new host.
i went through this with my puffer although mine was a GSP (brackish/marine) so you may have to find out if your puffer is a bony fish. as bony marine fish will live hapily in brackish conditions for a good while. i do think puffers are bony fish though...
there is another active thread here asking for info on hyposalinity. you may wanna check that out to see if i give any crap information. i try my best though
leave your main tank running as normal with the inverts in, but take all the fish out. aclmatize them in the QT tank which should have an SG in the region of 1.012. it may take a while for the disease to be efectively wiped out. as the method only affects the free swimming larvae of the disease not the spots. so its gotta run through its life cycle first.
after they have no more signs of the disease they should start to be brought back up to the SG of your main tank. this should be done over a few weeks. its a pain in the arse but it needs to be done over at least a month so the disease dies out in the main tank too. as it can lie in wait for up to a month in 'hibernation' till they wake up and start to seek out a new host.
i went through this with my puffer although mine was a GSP (brackish/marine) so you may have to find out if your puffer is a bony fish. as bony marine fish will live hapily in brackish conditions for a good while. i do think puffers are bony fish though...
there is another active thread here asking for info on hyposalinity. you may wanna check that out to see if i give any crap information. i try my best though
my puffer is a black saddled toby (canthigaster valentini) is that a bony fish? and yes, that does sound like a pain...
according to this the puffer is...
http://www.scuba-equipment-usa.com/marine/JUL04/Black_Saddled_Toby(Canthigaster_valentini).html
the tang im not sure on, but there are pleanty of pages on google that say treat them with hyposalinity if they contract ich. so it hink your fine...
and i know, it is a pain in the arse to do, but its a hell of a lot better than having to buy new fish.
http://www.scuba-equipment-usa.com/marine/JUL04/Black_Saddled_Toby(Canthigaster_valentini).html
the tang im not sure on, but there are pleanty of pages on google that say treat them with hyposalinity if they contract ich. so it hink your fine...
and i know, it is a pain in the arse to do, but its a hell of a lot better than having to buy new fish.
i went to the LFS today and when i was there i asked and the guy about it (they only hire people who know what they're doing) and he said to keep them in for about 4 or 5 days and then raise them back up to normal SG and then keep them in QT for about a month and then put them back in the DT. so im gonna do that and see how it goes. 
and that is basically what you said to do
and that is basically what you said to do
I'm currently using cupramine to treat my puffer. It's been two weeks now and the puffer is looking good and it hasn't shown any side effect from the med. From reading other forums, cupramine seems to be a lot safer than just regular copper and is ok to use with more sensitive fish like puffers. If you use the hypo method, you'll need a refractometer and keep the SG at 1.009-1.010 for at least a couple of weeks not just 4-5 days. Which ever method you decide on, you will need to get all of your fish out of the display tank and into a QT. Then you'll need to keep them in QT for at least a month to allow all the ich to die off in your DT.
hyposalinity is the best method of treatment. Even in a QT tank, id avoid using any harsh chemicals, in the event you have a tank faliure and you need to place inverts and corals or w/e in the QT tank, while the DT gets back up to par. Be smart when it comes to illness.
Hyposalinity is effective at 1.009-1.010 and should be no lower. 1.012 is okay, but the lower the better and more effective. fish have to work hard, while in full saline conditions to absorb nutrients from the water and what not, the lower the sg, the less work on the fish, IE less sress and quicker healing time.
to ensure the DT is clear of parasites, the tank should run fallow for 6 weeks minimum. This will give the parasite time to die off in all stages. Id do some reading up on the life of Irritans and this will give you a better sense of how to treat it.
Hyposalinity is effective at 1.009-1.010 and should be no lower. 1.012 is okay, but the lower the better and more effective. fish have to work hard, while in full saline conditions to absorb nutrients from the water and what not, the lower the sg, the less work on the fish, IE less sress and quicker healing time.
to ensure the DT is clear of parasites, the tank should run fallow for 6 weeks minimum. This will give the parasite time to die off in all stages. Id do some reading up on the life of Irritans and this will give you a better sense of how to treat it.
Good luck. I used some natural remedy in a bottle (not one of the "fix's) Might have been ick attack. I can't remember. I only got marine ick once. But it worked. I think it had a seahorse on the bottle.
Most medications are no good in a reef. The quarantine tank would be great... Make sure that you take um down to 1.012 easy... Ive lost some fish in pure FW dips.. Not the way to go. Drip acclimate down to 1.012 and hold um there till full recovery. Good luck. Im pullin for you.. This **** is terrible.
puffcrusader696;2909085; said:i went to the LFS today and when i was there i asked and the guy about it (they only hire people who know what they're doing) and he said to keep them in for about 4 or 5 days and then raise them back up to normal SG and then keep them in QT for about a month and then put them back in the DT. so im gonna do that and see how it goes.
and that is basically what you said to do
you gotta keep them at the low SG till they have no more white spots on their bodies. otherwise the parasites that have burrowed into the fleash of the fish will not be affected. the parasites need to hatch out into the brackish water for the treatment to be effective...
like SweetTang said, do some reading on the lifecycle of marine whitespot, and maybe push the SG lower to 1.009. the lower SG, the more effective it will be.