Copper Sulfate

My fish never got to the full blown stage of ich. He had what I believed to be the early stages of ich, as I had seen in my other fish six months earlier when they died of ich. Thank you for your inputs and stopping me from jumping to fast to my back-up plan of copper.

He had a couple of small white dots on him that looked like ich and they have since gone away with no external signs of a parasite. Additionally, he is more active, eats real well, and gets around the rocks like a "fish ninja".

I'm still sure he had some kind of parasite working on him, cause last night he was scratching himself a little on a rock.

I wanted to post that he was clear of ich last night, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to turn. Now, the fish appears totally cured of any kind of ich without ever using copper sulfate. I will also continue to let him adapt to the tank with minimal changes and hopefully he will be able to thrive more.

Some of the things that I would like to think helped were:
1. A cleaner shrimp.
2. Raising the salinity from 1.021 up to 1.023.
3. Minimal changes to the tank. No matter how bad I wanted to do a water change or move things to see if he was doing alright, I just left it go.
4. A constant temperature. I bought a fan for $15 from the store before I got the tang. I set the fan on my timer with my lights and it blows a lot of air past the T-1 lights, giving the water a constant 76 degrees.

This forum has also given me serious consideration for getting a plastic tub and creating a hospital tank for new fish. I can safely treat that tub with copper before introducing them to my show tank.

Thanks for everyone's inputs.

Kermit

 

As to the things that you think helped, I personally don't think cleaner shrimp eat Ich directly, but I do think they eat other parasites making the fish happier and healthier and better able to fight off Ich on their own. The SG raising probably didn't do much as Ich can thrive in just about any salinity that fish can. Not moving things is good as it will keep minimal stress on the fish and when fish are stressed they are more susceptible to disease. The constant temperature wont kill it itself, but it will definitely make the fish happier. The only thing I would have done would have been continuing regular water changes. Pristine water quality is one of the best cures for anything IMO. If you do get a QT tank, don't treat all your fish with copper just to be safe. To be honest that is a bit irresponsible as it's very stressful for the fish and it can have bad effects on the gills and other organs, but treat them by all means if you see Ich on the fish in the QT. BTW, the Ich probably isn't gone for good. It's probably in it's next life stage. It will likely come back, but each time it comes back it will get weaker until it is gone. If you don't add any more Ich via new sand, rock, fish, etc, it will probably be fully gone in a few months to a year. A UV would definitely help, but it wouldn't be a full cure. Good Luck,

LCP

 

Basically true, however hyposalinity (lower salt conc.) interferes with the reproductive process of the parasite. The adults can survive but eventually will drop off the fish as that is part of the life cycle. After that the cycle cannot persist because larval ich does not survive in hyposalinity.

As an aside, freshwater dips are one of the suggested ich treatments. I have seen different ideas about whether the Ich can survive for amount of time you can leave a marine fish in FW. At some point, the parasite would die because it lacks a mechanism to combat osmosis. Eventually it would lyse as too much FW would force its way into the Ich's cells.

 

My fish never got to the full blown stage of ich. He had what I believed to be the early stages of ich, as I had seen in my other fish six months earlier when they died of ich. Thank you for your inputs and stopping me from jumping to fast to my back-up plan of copper.

He had a couple of small white dots on him that looked like ich and they have since gone away with no external signs of a parasite. Additionally, he is more active, eats real well, and gets around the rocks like a "fish ninja".

I'm still sure he had some kind of parasite working on him, cause last night he was scratching himself a little on a rock.

I wanted to post that he was clear of ich last night, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to turn. Now, the fish appears totally cured of any kind of ich without ever using copper sulfate. I will also continue to let him adapt to the tank with minimal changes and hopefully he will be able to thrive more.

Some of the things that I would like to think helped were:
1. A cleaner shrimp.
2. Raising the salinity from 1.021 up to 1.023.
3. Minimal changes to the tank. No matter how bad I wanted to do a water change or move things to see if he was doing alright, I just left it go.
4. A constant temperature. I bought a fan for $15 from the store before I got the tang. I set the fan on my timer with my lights and it blows a lot of air past the T-1 lights, giving the water a constant 76 degrees.

This forum has also given me serious consideration for getting a plastic tub and creating a hospital tank for new fish. I can safely treat that tub with copper before introducing them to my show tank.

Thanks for everyone's inputs!

Kermit