Is it ich?

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Iceburg98

New Member
Hello everyone,

I just came home from work today and took a look at my tank, and noticed that my clown has some tiny little white spots on its body and fins. I was just wondering if this is ich. He's not breathing heavily, and doesn't look/act stressed, just the white specks. Just curious if i should pull him out and put him in a QT tank with some copper treatment. :?

I tried getting a picture, but he wouldn't stay still long enough to get a clear enough one to see the specks.

Also, if it is ich, will it transfer to my other fish, or will is it pretty much non-contageous.

Thanks alot
 
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dragon79

New Member
ick is a deadly and yes it will spread. Ick is a living parasite, that lays eggs and when it hatches they'll be looking for something to host, that being your fish. You would need to quarantine that fish from the rest immediately. The little grains of salt you see are the cysts created from the ick parasite, it will progressively get worse until it kills your fish. Treat him immediately, and quarantine. Treat your display tank with a non-copper medication, and remove any carbon, polyfilter, or chemi-pure during that time. Although copper meds in a quarantine isn't the best, they say something that is and not harmful, but benefiical is treating the fish in quarantine tank with hyposalinity. Good luck and keep us updated, hope your fish pulls through.
 
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incysor

New Member
Ich isn't necessarily deadly. There are lots of fish that are more prone to it than others, and will have continual outbreaks of it. In most systems it's pretty much impossible to totally eradicate it from your tank, because part of the life cycle of the parasite is sand/rock dwelling. Usually a fish's own immune system is proof against ich, but if they're stressed, or if water conditions aren't acceptable, then just like us getting a cold, they'll get ich. Unless you already have a q-tank setup, and it's very easy to catch your clown I wouldn't cause it more stress by trying to catch/transfer it. I've used kick-ich before with good results, and garlic with even better results. Here's the method I use with the garlic:

http://www.nanotank.com/viewtopic.php?p ... arlic#3153

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incysor

New Member
Iceburg98 said:
you've treated with the garlic right in the main tank? doesn't harma anything else in there?
Click to expand...
Exactly. No it doesn't harm anything.

Fresh garlic is what's needed. Evidently the active compounds break down fairly quickly so the kent garlic stuff isn't particularly effective.

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dragon79

New Member
Kick ich is good, it's just in a big bottle so it's kinda pricy, but worth it. Also you should mix your food with garlic, let it soak. The garlic helps for the recovery process and heals up so they can take food better. All cases I've seen have killed fish eventually. It's hard to erradicate the pest, but to make sure most or all of them have died, you have to clear out your fish from the display and place them in quarantine for a month, so any eggs that hatch in the display, hatch, but have nothing to host or eat, so they basically starve and die. The best thing you can do is read about ick and you'll learn more of what it is, what it looks like, and what stages it goes through with your fish. Do a search, I did, I even found a useful website where there are gurus on fish recovery. Check out "marineaquariumadvice.com" Good luck and I hope your fish lives.
 
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Iceburg98

New Member
Well, i hope i did the right thing...

I went and talked to the guy at my LFS, and he told me that if i wanted to, he would take the fish and put it in his QT tank and try to cure it for me. He said that if it got better, he'd give me a credit for his store (but i might just try to get the clown back from him)

Also, he said just to keep an eye on my tank and not add any more fish for the next 3 weeks to make sure it doesn't come back.

I figured this would be easier, since i don't have a hospital tank set up yet, and at least this way, the fish is with someone who knows a little bit more about curing ich than i do...
 
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Iceburg98

New Member
my wrasse isn't showing any signs of ich, but i was wondering if it might be a good idea to QT him anyway for a couple of weeks just to make sure - that way he can get treated with copper in case he is carrying it, and that way if it's still in the tank, there won't be any fish in there for it to attach itself to and it will die off...

Does that sound like it would be a good idea, or would it be better to wait and see if it does come back at all?

thanks

BTW - the clown i brought to the LFS died this morning :( i guess he had a pretty bad case...
 
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dragon79

New Member
See what I mean....usually resorts to a fatality, that Ick, is one heck of a parasite, and hard to kill off, unless you catch it early. Well I'm sorry to hear aobut the death of the clown, but you have the right idea about quarantining your fish to make sure. You can't see ick right away until you have seen the damage, which then you see the white cysts it leaves on the body. The display tank needs about 30 days for the ick parasites to die, and any eggs that hatch to die as well. While the fish are in quarantine, should they start showing signs of ick, like I said earlier in my posts, the people of marineaquarium say that better than using an ick treatment is to use hyposalinity. I haven't used it, but I heard that it works better than ick treatment medication that contains copper or any ick treatment for that matter. It basically drops the salinity real low, like 12ppt, or something like that, and well ick itself can't survive in salinity so low, so they die off and fall off. The fish being more hardy can take that. To get an accurate reading of where you drop your salinity, you'll need to get a refractormeter if you dont have one already, and make sure to keep your PH at a stable level as it tends to drop when the salinity drops. Keep that up for a month, and your fish should pull though (future fish from now on that get sick) Hope your display tank recovers and that none of your other fish die. Watch them closely. C-ya.
 
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ExiledInfidel666

New Member
I had some white specks on my clown every once in a while, never was the ick, went away, so maybe theres a chance he was ok?, and non of my other fish ever got it and hes still in ther doing fine
 
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