Marine itch... Help required.

[101010]

Hi,
When I started my tank almost an year and half ago I let it run without any fish for initial 6 months, and the all the fish I added were quarantined for 4 weeks before adding to this tank. also the last fish added was almost 6 months back and and never had any problem. Buy yesterday I noticed a white spot in and of fish( a damsel) and I suspect that it's an itch. I am unable to understand how the tank got infected.

I'm planning to go with hyposalinity to treat this but since this is the first time I would require you valuable suggestions on how the process works.
Also the only tank mates are :
1 blenny,
1 carpenter wrasse
and 1 leopard wrasse
Along with a cleaner skunk shrimp.

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[Uncle99]

Make sure you have ich before treatment. There's never just one, should be covered.
Treatment is done in a separate tank, fish only, holding salinity at 1.009.
In about 7-10 days the spots will disappear, then continue for 14 more days after the last spot seen. Then, over a week, raise salinity back to normal,levels.

DT must go fishless for 76 days.

[101010]

Since I wasn't sure if it really was ich, I left the fish in the DT itself and was closely monitoring if the condition detoriates. But luckily the spots are no more visible, and the fish looks much better now.

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[Uncle99]

Nice ending!

[Rover88]

Originally Posted by 101010

Since I wasn't sure if it really was ich, I left the fish in the DT itself and was closely monitoring if the condition detoriates. But luckily the spots are no more visible, and the fish looks much better now.

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The life cycle of Ich comes and goes and blossoms and blooms. Its only really bad infections that are an all-the-time covering of the fish.

HOPEFULLY you are in the clear and its nothing! But be vigilant and keep checking for the next few weeks, as the spots disappear when the ich falls off to cyst in the sand, but then it multiples to hundreds.

[101010]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll surely keep an eye on it.

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[Louis Z]

I don’t want to sound pessimistic but they could have dropped off and laid the next wave of infective stages . When you say you quarantined did you medicate at all to begin with. I would continue to treat. Are there any invertebrates in the tank. Ick does seem to come and go . The cyst stages can last a long time and hatch out later

[101010]

I have my fingers crossed, this is the first time i have encountered any SW fish disease and i am not confident enough to handle marine ich.

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[101010]

Originally Posted by Louis Z

I don’t want to sound pessimistic but they could have dropped off and laid the next wave of infective stages . When you say you quarantined did you medicate at all to begin with. I would continue to treat. Are there any invertebrates in the tank. Ick does seem to come and go . The cyst stages can last a long time and hatch out later

The tank does have a shrimp and few soft corals,lps and a bird nest. The fish were never medicated, but were in quarantined for 4 weeks and didn't showed any sign of sickness.

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[Louis Z]

101010, I can only speculate but in a month a cyst could have hatched and infected the fish . Now how that happened I can’t tell you . But you should try the tank transfer method with all fish and then Qt . This way you try to minimize either infective stages or the cysts by leaving them behind after each new transfer to a fresh tank. That’s done every third early morning . There are extensive write ups in the sticky section of this fish disease forum on how to do the TTM . I assume all fish are infected with ick even if not showing symptoms. You tend to see th3 symptoms of white spots when many of them have attached to the fish. You may have missed seeing a white spot then it probably dropped and then hatched later and then you see the symptoms.

[101010]

So finally u can see one of my fish with a couple of white spot and I my planning to go for hypo.

I am planning to remove the corals to a temporary tank and drop the salinity gradually in the DT, as catching all the fish from my tank would be PITA. This will also allow me an opportunity to reorganize the rock work( was planning for this) once the treatment is completed. Hope i have not missed something and thinking on the correct line? What could be the challenge with this method.

I currently have 1 flasher wrasse, 1 redtail damsel, 1 matted file fish and a leopard wrasse. Will it be ok to go for hypo with these fish.


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[lagatbezan]

are you certain that its ich and not lympho? what was your qt procedure that you used before adding them to the DT?
Personally I would suggest you treat them all in a qt and go copper route if it is ich/velvet. The shrimp can stay in the main tank which should stay fishless for a min 76 days.
if you go hypo, you would need to make sure that the salinity in the DT stay constant and stable at 1.009 SG the entire time. Even a slight increase (caused by evaporation) and you will have to restart the treatment clock. you will need to make sure you are using a correctly calibrated refractometer as well. using a ATO would be ideal in keeping the salinity stable.
Also keep in mind that there are strain of ich that are known to be resistant to hypo which would make this whole process pointless if thats the strain you are dealing with.
You might get a ammonia spike by doing hypo so make sure you keep an eye on it and have freshly mixed salt water available for water changes. Ammonia badge in the tank would be great at monitoring ammonia.