Feeling very discuraged

UV does kill ick to MY understanding.... isolation of fish and time is another.
A diatom filter will remove the parasites from the water, but the fish will still be infected.

Best not to get it.....

But most who have had a tank or 2 have experienced it....usually a new added fish brings it in....

Scoffer

 

Do you have room for a hospital tank somewhere? I bought a used 55 with a home made w/d for $50 from a friend a few years ago and just keep it cycling in the basement for emergencies. It lets me isolate a sick fish quickly and easily. It saved my tail when my 130 decided to spring a leak. In short, it has paid for itself many times over and allows me to be more aggressive in my maintainance. It might be worth looking into if you have room.

Oh, no one ever said keeping Marine is easy. I personally think it's more rewarding than fresh, so I like the trade off. We all go through cycles. The last few weeks have been brutal and rather expensive for me too and I've clearly wondered what I was doing, but that is a 24/7 question with me. Keep you chin up. This too will pass.

 

madman...what other problems (beside ick) where you having?

Mike

 

Madman,

I tried to answer your PM, but the system crashed and and won't let me reply or create a new PM. Plus it ate your original note. I took me till now to figure out who's avatar matched up with the PM. Let's catch up on track talk later or hop over to www.chicagolandsportbikes.com and look me up there. BTW, the avatar was taken coming out of #1 at Gratten. I love that track.

 

OK.

 

MM,

If you have lost all of your fish it is a bummer and blessing in disguise.  

If that is the case, then let your tank be fish free for 8 weeks as the life cycle of ich with no host is about 6 weeks.

First, select your livestock so that it is a serene and non-aggresive fish community, as this will minimize stress that weakens the fish immuno response. Secondly, get a pair of Red Skunk Cleaner shrimp that will clean the ich parasite off the fish should it sneak into your tank. Then add fish, one every three to four weeks, that have been quarantined and treated with copper as this is the safest way to avoid reinfestation.

I hope that this info. helps and that by mid-2005 you have a successfuly stocked and happy tank. Remember to go slow and let it grow, eh?

 

I still have all of the original fish.. no signs of ICK on any of them!

 

Oops was editing my post when you replied!

 

Don't get discouraged, I'm in the same boat you are. From what I've been told by the guys here at 3 reef, all fish need to be QT because they are all infected whether they show the signs of it or not. They are immune if they don't show the signs. They have to be treated for the parasites and there are several methods. The easiest probably being that of hyposalinity. JohnO has an excellent article about that. I'll try to find it for you . It describes the cyle and treatment s. Once the fish show no signs of Ich for, I think a couple of weeks, then you wait out another 4-6 weeks. 6 weeks to be safe before you return them to your main tank.  Meanwhile the main tank will have sat there for 6 weeks fish free which would have given the parasite a chance to cylcle and die out making it safe to return your fish to the main tank. The parasite has to have fish flesh in order to survive, and then never introduce a new fish with out QTing it first.  

I'm not looking forward to doing this either, especially with so many fish.

I got pretty discouraged with it all to and wanted to quit but I've invested so much that I'm determined I'm going to see it through.  I hope you will too.

Good luck with yours and keep us posted.

Cindy