how do I know if my fish has ich?

there are a couple of white spots on my clown, is that ich? and if so, will it go away or do we have to treat with copper? what happens to all the snails in the tank, do they all die or can they withstand copper? and what about the rock? can we treat with copper and then be okay to put corals and such in?

 

Usually white spots are a good sign of ick. Your snails will all die off as well as your rock. It would be best to use a 10 gallon tank as your treatment tank.

 

don't have that and its not feasible, maybe the LFS can treat him for us, I"ll have to find out. but isn't their still ich in the tank?

 

just to specify if you didnt get it, treating with copper in the main tank will kill snails and rock, and you cna practically never again have an invert in your tank without getting it killed (including corals). Set up a quarantine tank and treat with hyposalinity, where you lower the salinity to 1.011 for a week or 2 until the ick dies out. feed sparingly and do water changes daily to keep ammonia to check. Then afterwards dont put the clown back in, but keep the main tank empty for 6-8 weeks (i recommend 8 weeks for best results). If there are any other fish put them in the quarantine as well and treat; they most likely are infected too

 

couldn't we just do that in the main tank? only thing thats in there is snails and the clown. can the snails get ich too?

 

If you treat your main tank the copper will always be in there and you will never have corals or inverts.

A 10 gallon tank is around 20$.

 

NO! snails cant get ick, but lowering the salinity to 1.011 in the display tank kills the live rock, live sand, invertebrates, and its just not good. always treat in a quarantine tank.

 

i meant lower the salinity, couldn't we do that in the main tank? will the snails be okay with that?

 

yea, but the snails and the fish are the only thing in there and one piece of live rock, the sand is dead anyway. if the snails will survive, that seems the ideal way to go.

 

dude, no. dont try to save money on this stuff; this hobby isnt cheap, so get a quarantine.the rock provides biological filtration.