To all the Ich experts???

[mikeguerrero]

Hey reefers,

I'm calling on all the guru's to step forward.

As most of you know, I'm finishing a second bottle of Fish Vet No-Ich. Tommorrow morning marks my last dosage.

I was dosing 6 oz every day and I'm just out of a full last dose, so 4 oz is going to have to be it.

My question is, since the stuff is biodegradable in 4-5 days; do I wait that many days after tommorrows last dosage before I fire back up my skimmer, lower temp back to 77 degrees and place my chemipure back in the filter bag?

I can see that all the fish are eating and doing better but I can still see some very minute signs of ich on some fish, but it doesn't bother them.

I don't want to get yet another bottle because my sps corals are already taking a hit for not having the skimmer running and the build up of nitrates.

When should my filtration go back online and how many water changes should I do?

Thanks,

MG

 

[aromano]

Mike,

I remember that my NO-ICH bottle finished on a Monday, and by Wednesday I started to gradually decrease the tank's temperature back to normal.

I waited until Saturday to place my ChemiPure back, and turned my skimmer back on. I'm glad I was home to be on top of it, which just like you said did go crazy skimming the excess bio-load from the water.

By the following Monday, I changed (25%) 15 gallons of water, which I carefully adjusted the temperature, salinity and pH to match the tank's water.

The product is biodegradable after 4-5 days, which means it's still active for a few days before this process takes place.
IMO if you can wait until the weekend to take advantage of the rest of medicine that's still active, do it. That way you'll also be home to monitor that skimmer.

Your SPS corals should quickly start to recover after the (Water Change + Skimmer + Ozone) three-way fight against water quality begins. ;-)

 

[mikeguerrero]

Andre,

Thank you so much for replying.... I'm going to follow your lead down to the wire....

MG

 

[mikeguerrero]

Well,

It's Friday and tommorrow morning, I'll start the decrease in water temp and start the water changes, I'm going to do 20 gallons.

What I have noticed is that during the night when the lights go off, the ich really seems to make some of my fish go crazy; my powder blue will dart around and scratch on the sand so will the kole tang, his dorsal fin is down and he never would come out at night.

But the odd thing is that during the day, they are eating like mad and don't dart around like in the night.

I think that this second strain of ich is partially immune to the No-Ich and there is nothing I can do about that.

It's time to let them run with mother nature.... I did all I could....

MG

 

[sadielynn]

Mike
Since it seems that you have most things covered the only thing I can offer is gonna be the hyposalanity...other than that I am sending my well wishes to you and your guys .........I know that you have done all you can and wish you the best ..... :sad:

 

[aromano]

Mike,

You have done everything right, and now you are on the same boat as I was a couple weeks ago, when my NO-ICH bottle finished and my blue tang was still covered with ich. At night time is when the parasites take advantage of their host, as they know the fish are not as active, and can easily attach to the sleeping fish.

I started noticing improvements once the water quality improved, which decreased their stress level and the ich became less and less evident. You are right, that this strain of ich might have partially become immune to the No-Ich medicine, just like viruses and bacteria build a tolerance to antibiotics and other methods of treatment.

It's important to keep feeding the fish several times a day, with a variety of foods soaked with garlic and selcon to keep their immune system in check. Continue to monitor all your fish closely, and if you can it might be a good idea to setup a quarantine tank just in case. Just like you said, I would avoid removing the fish from your main tank at all costs, but if it becomes extremely necessary, you have a back up plan where you can use alternative treatments.

Ohhhhhh man, I hear your pain! This is just the WORSE PEST IN THIS HOBBY!!!
Keep us posted on how things are going, and let me know if I can help in any other way.

P.S. Here is another article to add to our knowledge library about Cryptocaryon.

"There is some evidence that there are 2-3 different strains of Cryptocaryon irritans, nobody to my knowledge has yet made a definitive analysis of such, but the empirical evidence would seem to indicate this. One observation made by many observers, is that the treatment that in one case is quickly and totally successful, in another either is not, or takes much longer to have an effect. One pragmatic point that the writer has used with success is those persistent cases, that either do not appear to react to conventional treatments, or do so much more slowly, is that it seems that the parasite is in some way linked in its life cycle to the photoperiod. In order to disrupt its usual timing of division, reproduction etc, I have found it helpful on occasion to leave the lights on , for some 2 days, & then do the opposite while at the same time covering the tank with a dark blanket or such. This "manipulation" of the light seems to have a deleterious effect on the parasite, which coupled with the medication used often results in its elimination. I do not advise this however in the more usual straight forward cases."

It's hard to attempt this strategy in a reef tank where it's critical to keep the photoperiod based on the day and night cycle for keep the corals healthy, but I thought it would some how contribute to our knowledge about Cryptocaryon.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Thanks,

I actually have read up on that article and it makes sense, yet where I'm at, it probably will not work.

I need my lights on today for my corals as they have taken a hit with the high nitrates.

I'm going to the LFS to do the water changes, and purchase my AZ N03 to start the fight on nitrate.

I'll keet everyone posted on the condition of my fish as the ich is still there but just in very small proportions now.

Thanks again for the ideas Andre and Sadie it helped just knowing you guys are supportive.

MG

 

[sadielynn]

Mike
I only have one more sugesstion and that would be to add addtional cleaner/skunk shrimps they set up the cleaning stations and help keep it at bay ... the other thing would be to do a fresh water dip but in your case maybe a bit hard to net them all out .........sorry I am not of more help to you Mike

 

[dragon79]

Are you going to fish out some fish like in your picture? Even with your superb setup, I think you are just losing the war to the nitrates. Get rid of some fish, so you can not worry about Nitrates all the time, which is leading to more and likely stress and the outbreak of ich.

my friend's 40 gallon is going through the same thing at this time because of the high nitrates, then sure enough ich followed.

Hope you win some way or another. Keep us posted and good luck. Get as much done as you can, you will be down here for your birthday real soon

 

[EDGRAY]

Are you going to fish out some fish like in your picture? Even with your superb setup, I think you are just losing the war to the nitrates. Get rid of some fish, so you can not worry about Nitrates all the time, which is leading to more and likely stress and the outbreak of ich.

I think the same but i didnt have the balls to say it but that's what family is for so steve said it loud and clear maybe you can give me the clowns for my coming up 40g tank :lol:

But well im not anyone to judge cause i do have alot of fish too.....only difference not fighting with Nitrates im fighting with low PH.....


P.S: dont give up on fighting with ICK your a great daddy you will find another way of fighting ick and well i know you feed with garlic but your try garlic deep for all your tank with natural garlic.... just like Incysor always recommend for ick problem.

 

[little urchin]

sadie's idea of a cleaner shrimp or two may well work....when i had ich in my tank, the cleaner was trying his best to get hold of my gramma and give him a good clean (never did catch him)...but i've seen my brother's climbing all over his tang (i don't think the bigger fish mind as much)

good luck...my fingers are crossed

nick

 

[mikeguerrero]

Thanks for all the replys. The update is that I have connected the UV unit since yesterday and I'm running if full time 24/7.

My ich has progressed really far, two of my tangs are covered beyond belief. I haven't seen that much ich on any fish ever and I've been in reefing since 91.

Dragons two clowns remain uneffected and I hope that the UV keeps the epidemic from jumping on them.

I'f I could catch them and place them in QT I would, but that would require me to disessembe my tank.

As long as they continue to eat I might make it.

I'm reading up on Stop parasites, it's a last resort to my epidemic that I haven't tried.

Since it reads about helping the fish that already have the parasites on the body I want to try it.

What makes me mad is that I then have to shut off the UV and the ozone while I run this stuff.

I'm not getting consistency so the fight is not fair.

Like I've mentioned before the ich infested fish come out of hiding in the night since the ich disorients them.

Jennie thanks for the advice on shrimps, I have two cleaner, and one blood shrimp.

I even bought two cleaner gobies where one survived and started helping but then he started showing signs of ich and died, I haven't been able to find him.

I did get those two from PetsSmart and they came with ich.

Well, I'm off to do some more reading on reef safe meds.

I tried No-ich but never tried Stop parasites.

MG