Ich after bringing home feeder fish/ghost shrimp/lobster

[Texas1203]

Have you tested your water?

No

If I did not test my water...

1. ...I recognize that I will likely be asked to do a test, and that water tests are critical for solving freshwater health problems.

Do you do water changes?

Yes

What percentage of water do you change?

31-40%

How frequently do you change your water?

Every week

If I do not change my water...

1. ...I recognize that I will likely be recommended to do a water change, and water changes are critical for preventing future freshwater health problems.

I am convinced the lfs has ich in their tanks. All of these inhabitants were netted and then placed into my tank. Now my leopard bush fish, Leo, has ich all over him!!! None of the other fish in the tank show signs of ich. The pearl gouramis are fine, african butterfly fish are fine. Leo is the biggest fish, so I suspect he is an easier target for the ich parasites. I removed carbon from my fx6 filter. Did a 1/3 water change and began treating for ich with ich x. It says it is safe for invertebrates. I will monitor the crayfish to be sure it doesn’t affect him negatively. I also turned the heat up to 80. I know the crayfish may not like the jump from 78 to 80 degrees, but I do not want to loose Leo. Any other suggestions out there for treating ich?

 

[tlindsey]

other suggestions out there for treating ich?

Gravel vacuuming is critical because ich cyst will fall to the substrate and eventually attach to new host. I suggest to quarantine live food or breed them yourself.

 

[Texas1203]

Gravel vacuuming is critical because ich cyst will fall to the substrate and eventually attach to new host. I suggest to quarantine live food or breed them yourself.

This was the first time I tried feeder fish. I have done ghost shrimp in the past with no problems. I may try out breeding…. But first I must convince my significant other to allow another fish tank
Battling ich is no fun…. And the only times I have had this issue is when introducing new inhabitants. I have shopped in different stores and it seems no matter what store it is… there’s ich that follows.
Any advice on breeding feeder fish?

 

[Deadeye]

Fish size doesn’t really matter for ich - it’s mostly about slime coat thickness/toxicity and any (minor) natural immunity the fish may have.
If you’re feeding live fish, those are an easy vector for ich.
Salt and heat is best, but the cray may not handle it well. You can keep the crayfish out of the tank for 60 days (going off the marine ich lifecycle) to starve out any ich living on its shell while treating the display the old fashioned way.

 

[duanes]

Feeder fish are notorious as carriers of ick, from anywhere, not just your particular LFS.
That's why most seasoned aquarists never use feeder fish, unless they breed them at home..
.
I only use salt to treat ick at 3 lbs per 100 gallons. ( from ta big box hardware store because salt (NaCl) is salt)
And salt is the least toxic (for fish) treatment available.

The saliinity from that amount of salt is osmotically too strong for emerging ick to survive in (3ppt), but safe for fish.

I only like using the weight method (as opposed to tsps, or some other volumetric measure) because 3 lbs, is always 3 lbs.
And if you do any water changes you must replance the appropriate salt dose to keep up that salinity

I do not raise water temps for ick, because the raised temp often provides perfect opportunities for infectious bacteria to thrive, and enter in the lesions the ick parasites have left behind on the fishes skin. Bacteria thrive in temps in the 80sF .

Each ick spot allows for an entry point for bacterial infection.

The fish below were shipped , and arrived with ick, a common occurrence because the stress of shipping lowers fish immunity.

A couple weeks later, using only that 3 lbs per 100 gals salt (No extra heat) the fish looked like this.

 

[puffers4puffers]

Who are the infected fish in the pics?
so terrible
good luck with the treatment

 

[duanes]

These were Sarotherodon linnelli from Lake Barumbi mbu.
At the time I had a Lake Barumbi mbu biotope tank with the linnelli, Stomatepia pindu, and Konia eisentraudti, all only found in the single crater lake.

The pindu above, Konia eisentraudti and linnelli below,

Not the most color cichlids but fascinating no less.

When the pindu hit about 7 " and were mature, they got quite geezerly looking

 

[puffers4puffers]

Wow
fantastic fish!!
may they be long lived and produce copious fry

 

[jjohnwm]

LFS tanks are forever turning over fish in huge numbers. They come from all over, suffer varying degrees of stress in shipment, then rub elbows with others from different sources who are also going through the same thing. Sure, sometimes a tank comes down with a severe infestation of the parasite, it becomes visible, and a good store will treat that tank and hold of selling those fish for a period of time. Maybe they even try to isolate the tank...but when you have dozens of tanks stacked next to and over each other, in a busy environment like a retail store, the occasional splash or drip or re-used net or whatever makes cross contamination virtually inevitable. I don't believe for a moment that there is an LFS in existence that doesn't have Ich in at least some of its tanks.

But it's not the end of the world. Ich is, IMHO, a highly contagious disease...really a parasitic infestation rather than a "disease" per se...and it can kill fish if not addressed. But, it's generally easy to cure, by a number of methods. Heat, salt, commercial cures, they all work, and all have their own good and bad points. Choose one, do it properly, and the Ich will go away. Then stop feeding live feeders bought at the leper colony...sorry, I meant LFS...and it should stay away.

That includes ghost shrimp. They don't "catch" Ich themselves...but they live in water that likely contains the parasites, and it's not a stretch to imagine some of the nasties being brought in with/on the shrimp.

 

[Texas1203]

I am convinced the lfs has ich in their tanks. All of these inhabitants were netted and then placed into my tank. Now my leopard bush fish, Leo, has ich all over him!!! None of the other fish in the tank show signs of ich. The pearl gouramis are fine, african butterfly fish are fine. Leo is the biggest fish, so I suspect he is an easier target for the ich parasites. I removed carbon from my fx6 filter. Did a 1/3 water change and began treating for ich with ich x. It says it is safe for invertebrates. I will monitor the crayfish to be sure it doesn’t affect him negatively. I also turned the heat up to 80. I know the crayfish may not like the jump from 78 to 80 degrees, but I do not want to loose Leo. Any other suggestions out there for treating ich?

I am wondering, if Leo is suffering from ich or possibly something else?
As I stated earlier, I began treating with ich x, due to the white spots on Leo. I have been checking on him periodically and I do not know if it is ich. He did appear to have white spots and it all looked like at the end of last week (Friday). I ordered the meds and began treating today.
Now, Leo just looks like his scales are infecting. He has white completely in between his scales or you might say it appears his scales are being eaten away. I know ich is a parasite that burrow in the skin of fish, eat, fall off into cysts, merge and bam millions more waiting to feed on unsuspecting fish.
I have also battled ich before. And in those instances, no fish was safe. All fish showed white specks of salt. This time though, only Leo seems to be infected. I am attaching the best pics I can. On his face I would almost call it velvet, but its not a sprinkling if gold dust…. And to top it all off, I think the crayfish molted. I checked on him, since I am treating with meds and in his cave I swear I see a shell and him cleaning himself or something.

I am not sure if Leo is just shredded by the ich parasite and I should just keep treating. Or if I should stop since it appears Zoidberg has molted…. Ugh fish keeping and all the things that can go bad.