Ich with my Achillies

[joejoe6357]

Here is the scenario:

New achillies got ich in my DT. Put him into QT (w/ no sand at 82 degrees) and treated with ParaGuard... he's been there for 6 days and has no more spots. But he recently lost his appetite, I'm thinking if I put him back in the display he will be more comfortable and start eating again.

My DT is also at 82 degrees.


Let me know what you think..

 

[wrassefan]

key is to get it to eat....I would. Your display already has ick. Keep lights out for a day and feed tank well with garlic soaked food a few times a day and have nori available in the tank. Get it to eat..

 

[wdebenedettojr]

I would leave it alone. Moving the fish back and forth stresses it out even more. How long has it been since he won't eat.

 

[JohnK]

What size tanks are we talking about here?

I agree, get it eating then worry about everything else.

 

[Marshall O]

Also lower the temp. Raising the temp will only speed up the life cycle of Ich, but do nothing to kill it. Raising the temp decreases the oxygen in the water, as well as the metabolism of fish, neither of which is a good thing.

 

[joejoe6357]

I put him back in the display and he seems much happier and starting eating right away. I'm just hoping I don't wake up tomorrow and find spots back on him. I'm going to keep the DT at 82 degrees and keep soaking food in garlic and adding garlic to the water. Has anyone ever added ParaGuard to your display for the necessary 3 weeks? I have inverts so I can't use copper treatments... any other ideas would be helpful, thanks!

 

[JohnK]

Second to what Marshall said, there is no reason to keep the temp that high (unless you have halides or something driving the temp up and you would need a chiller to bring it down). The ick is in the tank, but raising the temp will do nothing to help the fish live with it.

There are two ways to approach Ick. One is to eradicate it. The other is managment; to feed well, keep stress low, and hope that the fish can tolerate it / fight it off. Some people feel that managment is the only practical option for them, others tend to feel that managing ick is basically just keeping a ticking time bomb and hoping it doesn't blow. Your call on what camp you're going to be in.

I'd suggest reading this, and then the rest of the Stickies in the RC fish disease forum;
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1992196

 

[joe0813]

Why would you put a fish with ich in back into your DT? Your tank will always have ich until its fishless for 12you weeks. I would have left it in your qt and treat it with cupramine for 14 days then leave it in your qt foe 10 weeks

 

[JohnK]

It was already in the DT, that's where it started showing spots as per the initial post.

 

[wrassefan]

if the fish is healthy, it should be able to battle off ick...feed with garlic soaked and vitamin soaked foods (selcon). I know alot of folks don't believe in cleaner fish or shrimp. I do believe the help with the ick cyst and make the fish feel better. At this point, I think eating fish in DT is better than not eating fish in QT. Just my 2 cents..

 

[wrassefan]

Why would you put a fish with ich in back into your DT? Your tank will always have ich until its fishless for 12you weeks. I would have left it in your qt and treat it with cupramine for 14 days then leave it in your qt foe 10 weeks

alot of species of fish can't survive a copper treatment (not sure about the achilles). I prob would have done a hypo salinity treatment if it was already in QT. It was prob pretty stressed from the Paraguard treatment to stop eating tho. I've also heard of folks doing the fallow DT to only have the fish get ick again once reintroduced.

 

[JohnK]

It seems he's in a tough spot if he were to go for eradication. The infection is already in the display, and at least the achillies was stressed enough in the QT that it wouldn't eat. I'm an eradication guy, but eradication isn't much good if you kill the fish in the process

JoJo, you haven't said. What size tanks are you working with? Also what other fish do you have?

 

[JoelA]

Impossible to eradicate ick. Unscientific but ntl observations are that getting a fish into a great environment helps a lot. QT tanks are usually not unless you can keep it up and running

 

[wrassefan]

how's the fish doing? Need to see a pic

 

[Flame Angel]

Some of this was actually covered by our speaker yesterday... Everything from Ich to Jaw/Facelift surgery. Too bad as you could have gotten some good advice and asked a few questions directly to Christine Williams.

 

[Marshall O]

Impossible to eradicate ick. Unscientific but ntl observations are that getting a fish into a great environment helps a lot. QT tanks are usually not unless you can keep it up and running

Not impossible actually, just difficult and requires a hobbyist to be extremely dedicated. For an existing tank, pull all fish and treat for Ich using your favorite method. Leave the display tank fallow for 10-12 weeks. For all future adds, prophylactically treat all new fish for Ich. Keep any new non-fish adds (inverts, corals, macro, even pods!) in a fishless QT for the same 10-12 weeks before putting into your DT.

Obviously not something most hobbyists are going to do, but just pointing it out that it is not impossible.

 

[bdaley]

I am currently running my DT fallow, my lovely wife helped my neighbor with a cracked tank and put some fish in MY tank. I come home and see new fish and their gift to my tank ich. Moved all the fish to 55 loaded with a ton PVC and copper treat while I wait the 10 plus weeks. I can tell you that doesn't always work. So I think in the future I will just leave them in the tank and just try to make them fat dumb and happy so they can fight it off.

 

[Spaceman]

if the fish is healthy, it should be able to battle off ick...feed with garlic soaked and vitamin soaked foods (selcon). I know alot of folks don't believe in cleaner fish or shrimp. I do believe the help with the ick cyst and make the fish feel better. At this point, I think eating fish in DT is better than not eating fish in QT. Just my 2 cents..

ick is never gone imo
i would not want to try but i bet with a fish free cycled system 12 weeks min and a qt copper trated fish.. i could stess the tank to still get ich...

 

[JohnK]

ick is never gone imo
i would not want to try but i bet with a fish free cycled system 12 weeks min and a qt copper trated fish.. i could stess the tank to still get ich...

What are you talking about?

 

[Dashiki]

Garlic has been scientifically proven to do nothing for fish and does nothing for ich either.

It's an old wives tale.

Two choices. Leave tank fallow for 3 months and qt the fish.

Or live with the ich and manage the stress.

Acantharus tangs with ich are easy to stress so that can be difficult.

What size tank is the dt?