Marine Itch

TheRock wrote:
Before you transfer your fish to another tank, take everything out so you
can catch them......
Or you can just medicate the water with Kent Rx P Parasite Treatment or
Mardel Fresh & Salt Water Maracide or Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Erythromycin.

What fish do you have again ?


emycin won't do squat for any type of ich, AND it will crash your
biological filtration to boot!

George Patterson wrote:
Take *all* the fish out and transfer them to a hospital tank. Treat them
there with copper (I prefer "CopperSafe") and keep them there for 4
weeks to allow the parasites in the main tank to die.

Ack! It's funny as I just read about the value of a quarantine tank
about a week ago, and now that's been hit home. But, I probably picked
it up on the tang the first week that I had my tank and still a very
green newbie.

--Kurt

George Patterson wrote:
Sounds like ich (oodinimum). Has the tang been going through a cycle of
this? That is, does the tang exhibit symptoms for about a week and then
have no symptoms for about a week? And when the tang has no symptoms, do
there seem to be a bunch of very tiny white dots doing loops in the water?

Maybe. Tang does seem to go through periods when he itches furiously,
but then he doesn't seem to for awhile. Just when I think I should do
something, he seems to get better.

I only see the tiny white dots on the coral beauty. I've looked at the
yellow tang, but maybe it's obscured by the bright color because I can't
seem them.

As for the water and tiny dots, it appears so. I don't have a good
mechanical filter yet, so it's hard to say.

--Kurt

George Patterson wrote:

Sounds like ich (oodinimum).

Or it could be crypto. I have seen the two misdiagonsed as eachother
many times.

OOdinium looks more like the fish has been dipped in powdered sugar, but
you still see some distinct spots. Crypto is more distinct white spots,
with amore raised appearance.

I speak on my own experience, any similar events are pure coincedence
(disclaimer =).

When I got my Blue Tang, he got it ick very soon. I put the tank apart
just to catch him. I isolated him on a 10G with an ich reef safe medicine
(according to the LFS) and it was hard to see the stress he was going
throught. The eyes for just a little bigger but eventually he got better,
not completely but much better, wich make me feel sorry and put him back in
the tank.
Besides it make the silicon blue stained on my tank.

A few months later he got it again, very very bad to a point where he
scratched the skin out and you could see deep into the red flesh. At that
point I keep feeding him and decided to pull him out to end his suffering.
He didn't let me, kept hiding coming out only to eat. I gave up and two or
three weeks later he came out of his hiding showing all his skin back.

If you look at him now he's perfect, no scars at all.

My advice would be, feedings(frozen/good quality food), water changes and
patience. I read parasites are always present, it takes fish weakness to
be vulnerable. I wouldn't try any medication again, especially on the
whole tank.

I learned Blue tangs are very sensitive to ick, meaning they will get it
again on the next nervous crisis.

A celaner shrimp may help. Mine used to jump on top of the fish to clean
them, very cool, for some reaon I lost about 5 shrimps, no apparent
reason (I think there must be a guilty fish). I just got a coral banded and
it's still alive. I suspect he is not a nice treat with those claws.

If you find the source of stress then you find the cure, maybe the Damsel is
causing the stress...darn damsels, lol, they get so mean but they are so
cheap....=)

Good Luck,

Ruben


"KurtG" wrote in message
...

My tang has been itching itself for weeks/months, and often allows the
4-stripe damsels to "chew" on him. However, he's a nut case anyway, so
I didn't worry about it (maybe a newbie error). Now my Coral Beauty has
some bright white dots on it, and it's starting to itch as well.

Could this be marine itch? Should I isolate these two and treat with
Copper Sulfate? I read that pygmy angles don't handle Copper sulfate
very well.

--Kurt

RubenD wrote:
....
My advice would be, feedings(frozen/good quality food), water changes and
patience. I read parasites are always present, it takes fish weakness to
be vulnerable. I wouldn't try any medication again, especially on the
whole tank.

My newb thoughts exactly. I've had two minor bouts of ich both cleared
up with improved husbandry. ("Emergency" Water changes - turn over at
least 50% of the tank in a day or two.)

A celaner shrimp may help. Mine used to jump on top of the fish to clean

The first time my tank got ich I ran out and got a cleaner. He got busy
quick and it's fun to watch him now. A great addition to a reef tank in
any case.

The other other thing I did was feed flake soaked in fresh mashed
garlic. I was surprised everyone ate it, but they did. The ich cleared
up in a few days but more importantly did not come back.

-K

KurtG wrote:
My tang has been itching itself for weeks/months, and often allows the
4-stripe damsels to "chew" on him. However, he's a nut case anyway, so
I didn't worry about it (maybe a newbie error). Now my Coral Beauty has
some bright white dots on it, and it's starting to itch as well.

Could this be marine itch? Should I isolate these two and treat with
Copper Sulfate? I read that pygmy angles don't handle Copper sulfate
very well.

--Kurt

I would tend to think that it is.

Get your water in shape first, something is wrong that's allowing the
ich to take hold. (it will almost always be there in some form, whether
it has an outbreak is another thing).

I've used Ruby Reef's "Kick Ich" in the past and had success with it
treating the parasite. Also, I think a garlic additive and a good
nutritious food for the fish will help get them strong enough to fight
it off.

YMMV.

Blackheart wrote:
(it will almost always be there in some form, whether
it has an outbreak is another thing).

This is a prevalent idea which is total bull. Ick is a parasite. It has a 21 day
life cycle. After that it dies. If it cannot feed off a fish at some point in
that period, it dies earlier and does not lay eggs. If it can feed off a fish,
it lays eggs. These hatch after a few days; they do not have the capability of
lying dormant. When they hatch, they attach themselves to a fish, and the cycle
starts over.

If you have oodinium in your tank, your fish will periodically be parasitized;
that is, you *will* get outbreaks. If you don't have outbreaks, no ick is
present in any form.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

There are obviously cycles where it can survive without
notice. I think more research needs to be done on this.
One method is attaching to the gills of fish.
But the reality is that if a fish is healthy with a good
immune system, it will not die, but will recover fine.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



George Patterson wrote on 12/26/2006 3:21 PM:
Blackheart wrote:
(it will almost always be there in some form, whether
it has an outbreak is another thing).

This is a prevalent idea which is total bull. Ick is a parasite. It has
a 21 day life cycle. After that it dies. If it cannot feed off a fish at
some point in that period, it dies earlier and does not lay eggs. If it
can feed off a fish, it lays eggs. These hatch after a few days; they do
not have the capability of lying dormant. When they hatch, they attach
themselves to a fish, and the cycle starts over.

If you have oodinium in your tank, your fish will periodically be
parasitized; that is, you *will* get outbreaks. If you don't have
outbreaks, no ick is present in any form.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

Wayne Sallee wrote:

But the reality is that if a fish is healthy with a good immune system,
it will not die, but will recover fine.

Sure. But then the next cycle, there are more parasites. This population
explosion eventually kills the fish.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.