Hippo Recovering

My Hippo and Mandarin just got over a serious case of ick. The Mandarin is doing fine but the Hippo looks a bit thin compared to before. He is in good spirits, eats great and all but I would like him to fill out a bit better. I know that ick more or less feeds on the blood and tissue of the fish, is there any type of food that would help regenerate tissue and blood loss? His diet right now is of chaeto bout 2 times a week, formula two once a day and the occasional couple of mysis shrimp that he readily takes, but he will not touch seaweed. Any other foods out there to help boost his metab? Besides garlic...lol

Also im thinking of getting a couple of cleaner gobys. Will they eat the ick off the fish?

 

Selcon might help, it is vitamins basically.

 

Cleaner shrimp/fish etc. can only eat whats external, such as damaged scales and dead/damaged flesh and external parasites. Ich is internal so no.
IMO they are still a good addition to your captive ecosystem.

 

I have a skunk cleaner he does his best but he seems preoccupied most of the time....pays little attention to the Tang but when the damsels swim by he more or less chases them to try to get on them...lol I just want something thats going to solve the problem before it starts.

 

A healthy fish can fight off ich successfully but the issue is that it weakens the fish and then if anything happens to stress the fish the ich can flare and then cause secondary infections. I lived with ich for years until one day most of my fish broke out with a severe case. Lost a couple of fish and almost lost my hippo tang. He got popeye and looked horrible. From that point I decided I didn't want ich in my system any more. Never did figure out what caused it. Even if it's not showing ich is like having a constant cold. It may not kill you but it certainly doesn't feel good.

I put all my fish through hyposalinity and now I QT and treat all new additions. I would highly recommend that you consider the same to get and keep your tank clear of ich. It is possible. You don't have to live with ich and your fish will be more colorful, healthier, and will live longer.

Watch for secondary infections. You can treat with something like melafix and pimafix which is reef safe and it will help. Just turn off your protein skimmer or it will go nuts.

Try feeding frozen foods rather than flake. They are more appealing to the fish and have far less phosphate in them. You can also try making your own. Makes the house smell a bit but it's the best food you can feed to your fish. Plenty of recipes on the internet.

 

when you say just got over a case of ich what does that mean? did you treat for it or did the spots just go away?

 

I done dips, two different types. One was Formalin-3, Formaldehyde more or less, with tank water. Dips with this where about 30-45 minutes with a air stone running in the bag. I also did Freshwater dips with stress coat with them lasting 5 minutes at the max. I alternated the dips fresh then formalin, for about 2 weeks every four days. Lost a Kole tang but the Hippo seems to be on the rebound. Params are good so he shouldn't be stressed from that and he is the boss of the tank so no worrys about fish bothering him. Also during the dips I treated the whole tank with "Microbe-Lift" Its a immune system booster, says all natural. Didnt hurt my corals or inverts either.

 

cool. too many think that when the spots are gone the ich is gone too.

formalin and freshwater are pretty harsh treatment options. They do work but they are down my list of options. Note that freshwater dips are only effective during 1 of the 4 stages of the ich lifecycle so they aren't supposed to be very effective.

My order of preference is hyposalinity, copper, then formalin. Hypo is less stressful to the fish when you have the time for the treatment but it is not what you'd call easy. Copper is far easier and is usually very effective but you have to have the right test kit for the form of copper you are using. I keep formalin on hand but haven't had to use it yet.

 

Mandarin's do not contract Ich as they secrete an oily substance on their bodies. Secondly, Ick is under the skin. What you see as white spots is the result of a cyst under the skin.

 

Generally speaking Ich is always present in our systems just like we have bqcteria and viruses always present on our skkin in in our bodies...the problem lies in when the fish is stressed to the point of being vulnerable to the organism.

If you add an appropriate UV sterilizer (running at the correct rate of flow) to your system you can kill off the waterborn stage of the Ich parasite. Her's a chart Proper Aquarium Water Quality: UV Sterilizers: Which one is right for you?
Note the minimum wattage to kill parasites is 15watts with a maximum flow of 75gph.

The UV will also kill of algae and bacteria which could cause primary and/or secondary infections to already stresed/sick fish.