Dealing with Ick

[imhyder]

Hi guys,

Need some advise on urgent basis. I am new to the hobby and its my first time dealing with saltwater Ick my tank has now been running for about 6 months and everything was going great my parameters were great my fish were thriving there were no issues with bad algae and had good algae depositing on the glass and rock.

I also have live sand in my tank with about two inches of depth.

I have a saltwater 100L tank currently occupied by 3 fish, 3 hermit crabs, 3 turbo snails and a sand sifting star. There are no corals or anemones in the tank at this point.

I am pretty sure my tank has ick and currently i can see two white spots on of my small clowns and two spots on my other fish.

On doing some research I have come across a product called Polyp Lab Medic and intend to use that.

Currently the fish seems to be behaving completely normal and eating as per usual, i have increase the tank temp to 28 degree Celsius.

I also don't have a quarantine tank and that's probably the reason I am in this situation. I believe I have caught the parasite in early stage and there might just be the chance to save my fish and come out with 0 casualties, if can find the right guidance.

Please help me i need help asap

 

[Spare time]

Increasing the temp only speeds up the life cycle. Polyp lab medic doesn't work. The fish either need to be in copper or hyposalinity.

 

[imhyder]

Increasing the temp only speeds up the life cycle. Polyp lab medic doesn't work. The fish either need to be in copper or hyposalinity.

Correct me if i am wrong,

I cant add copper since it will kill the invertebrates and hypo salinity can only help for a short period as when I add the fish back to the tank they will get the ick again as the tank will still have have ick

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Pics/video under white light to help confirm the diagnosis of ich would be useful here.

Polyp Lab Medic (peroxide salts) should not be expected to cure ich - there is currently no effective reef-safe treatment for ich; the effective treatments are 1 ) copper medication (preferably chelated copper like Coppersafe or Copper Power at 2.25-2.5ppm) and 2 ) hyposalinity (1.009).

Both copper and hyposalinity would kill any inverts you have.

Saltwater ich does better at higher temps, and 28C is said to be right around its preferred temperature- so that will make it harder to get rid of the infection, as it will grow and reproduce faster.

Don't raise the temperature! That is bad advice for marine ich. It is something that works with freshwater ich, but marine ich's best temperature is 82 degrees - so raising it to that point just helps the ich parasite grow! I wish that bit of bad advice would stop, but it is too firmly entrenched to ever go away.

Polyp Lab Medic usually fails to cure moderate cases of ich like this.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Correct me if i am wrong,

I cant add copper since it will kill the invertebrates and hypo salinity can only help for a short period as when I add the fish back to the tank they will get the ick again as the tank will still have have ick

Hypo will kill the ich as well as your inverts; if you pull fish out to treat separately (with either hyposalinity or copper), then you need to run the tank fallow (fishless) for 60-76 days to eliminate the ich in the tank (with no fish to infect, the ich will die off).

 

[Idech]

Polyp Lab medic works for mild cases, taken early. If only a few spots, I would definitely try it.

 

[Spare time]

Correct me if i am wrong,

I cant add copper since it will kill the invertebrates and hypo salinity can only help for a short period as when I add the fish back to the tank they will get the ick again as the tank will still have have ick

You can put the inverts in something else and treat the tank with hypo salinity. Either you treat the tank or you treat the fish separately and leave the tank empty for about a month and a half at 81F.

 

[Lavey29]

Need pics of the sick fish

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi guys,

Need some advise on urgent basis. I am new to the hobby and its my first time dealing with saltwater Ick my tank has now been running for about 6 months and everything was going great my parameters were great my fish were thriving there were no issues with bad algae and had good algae depositing on the glass and rock.

I also have live sand in my tank with about two inches of depth.

I have a saltwater 100L tank currently occupied by 3 fish, 3 hermit crabs, 3 turbo snails and a sand sifting star. There are no corals or anemones in the tank at this point.

I am pretty sure my tank has ick and currently i can see two white spots on of my small clowns and two spots on my other fish.

On doing some research I have come across a product called Polyp Lab Medic and intend to use that.

Currently the fish seems to be behaving completely normal and eating as per usual, i have increase the tank temp to 28 degree Celsius.

I also don't have a quarantine tank and that's probably the reason I am in this situation. I believe I have caught the parasite in early stage and there might just be the chance to save my fish and come out with 0 casualties, if can find the right guidance.

Please help me i need help asap

First - if you can post some videos/pictures, we can try to confirm that this is actually ich. Then, given the relative low cost of your invertebrates, rather than moving the fish out, I would move the inverts and treat the whole tank with the fish in at at hyposalinity, and then, after 45+ days, you can move the inverts back.

Hyposalinity

Hyposalinity Jay Hemdal 2021 This term refers to a long-term bath treatment for marine fishes in which the salt content of the water is lowered and held below the point that certain parasites can survive. The salt level reached, and the time of the treatment are the two variables...

www.reef2reef.com

Another option would be to try "ich management":

"Ich Management"

Because this topic continues to come up, I wanted to create a sticky thread so that it is more easily referenced. Please understand that I am NOT presenting this as an optimum method for controlling marine ich, just putting it out there for people who want to try it. Also, do not pick and...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[Ziggy17]

Polyp Lab medic works for mild cases, taken early. If only a few spots, I would definitely try it.

What is the active ingredient in that product that kills the parasite?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

What is the active ingredient in that product that kills the parasite?

It’s a peroxide salt. Peroxides can inhibit the theront stage of parasites, but dosing is tricky - too high and you’ll harm the invertebrates, too low and the parasite survives.

 

[Idech]

It’s a peroxide salt. Peroxides can inhibit the theront stage of parasites, but dosing is tricky - too high and you’ll harm the invertebrates, too low and the parasite survives.

I follow the instructions on the bottle and I’ve never hurt anything. I’ve used it many times.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I follow the instructions on the bottle and I’ve never hurt anything. I’ve used it many times.

Their dosing is on the low side, for safety of the invertebrates that might be in the tank (especially shrimp). Most people find that it doesn't work well in controlling moderate to severe cases of ich, but it does seem to have some controlling effect on light/early cases of ich. I don't have any data on how well it works for Amyloodinium (velvet) as that issue is rarer and kills so fast, people typically don't have time to react to treat it.

I prefer to use it as an adjunct with other ich management techniques......

"Ich Management"

Because this topic continues to come up, I wanted to create a sticky thread so that it is more easily referenced. Please understand that I am NOT presenting this as an optimum method for controlling marine ich, just putting it out there for people who want to try it. Also, do not pick and...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay