Marine Itch

Not if the fish has a good immune system.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



George Patterson wrote on 12/27/2006 11:01 AM:
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.

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




Sound like cryptocarion irritans (er... or somethging like that is thge
latin name). Problemn is, the parasites are likley free swimming in yer
tank...

I would do a freshwater dip for the fish (take distelled or RO watter,
add buffer to ntach tank PH, het it to tank temp) - add some methylene
blue (never hurts, and helps keep oxygen in the dip) and formalin.

WATCH THGE FISH VERY CLOSELY when you dip them. Try to keep them in for
about 15 minutes, but take them out is they start thrashing or "laying
down".

This should make the white spots go away (possibly as fast as by the end
of the dip)

If the spots go away, then come back, you have an infested tank. You
need to take all fish out for about a month or two to starve the parasites.