Clownfish Ich Question

[Asher]

Hey Guys!

I'm pretty new to this whole Saltwater Aquarium world (I've been a freshwater guy for a while) but I was curious if anyone had any experience with this one:

I have an ocellaris clown with ich. Would a host anemone clean the ich from him? I'm trying to avoid a hospital tank at the moment. I've heard that anemones can help and that cleaner shrimp could too. Any info or experience?

Also, the ich seems to only be on this one fish. I also have a blenny and he has been in the tank with the clown for 2 weeks with no ich signs...can ich be contained to one fish like this? Lots of questions, hopefully you all have some answers :) Thanks!

,Asher

[jojo22]

Well to start let me be the first to say HI!!!


We will need a little more info on your tank. Age, size, lighting,stock and inhabitants. I would as a general statement say a cleaner shrimp and some garlic would definitly help.

[graphixx]

ich is not centralized to one fish. what happens is the parasite attaches to the fish and then incubates eggs and then drops off the host fish and encysts and falls to the bottom of the tank and then hatches releasing hundreds of little nasties into the water colum where they float and then attach to passing fish. a cleaner shrimp will help but will not eradicate the problem. I would qt the 2 fish and medicate them. it will pay off in the long run and you wont be dealing witht he loss of fish

[lReef lKeeper]

the medication i would recommend would either be "kick ich" or a copper based medication. as Graphixx22 said, "a cleaner shrimp will not eradicate the problem" !! i would quarantine BOTH fish. i just lost a B-E-A-Utiful powder brown tang to ich, because i didn't QT the fish in my reef tank. i didn't want to remove 300lbs of LR to catch them all so i treated the whole tank with a reef safe ich med.(kick ich), it worked but not fast enough. i would QT them, treat with meds. AND add garlic to thier food. this is what i WILL do if this happens again.

[Asher]

How big does a QT tank need to be? I have some spare 2 gallon tanks, but that's about it...

[lReef lKeeper]

that should do for a while, but i would suggest getting a 10 gallon tank for this very reason.

[Asher]

can it be a pretty petty set-up? i mean like a standard little 10-15gal whisper filter with a heater and a light?

[graphixx]

you can use a cheap ten gallon tank, a floss corner charcol filter and a little heater and that will work fine, you could probably do the whole thilng for like 30 bucks

[Asher]

do you need to let the QT tank cycle for 3-4 weeks like a normal tank?

[graphixx]

nope your fine just mix some water and your good to go.

[Asher]

how long do i have to keep my fish in the QT for? after how long is it safe to put them back in my main tank?

[graphixx]

I bieleve you want to put them in there for approx 4 weeks to make sure that a COMPLETE ich cycle has ran so you dont risk putting them back in the main tank with ich still on them. you want the ich to attach,detach encyst,hatch while in the QT tank. that will kill the whole cycle of them. and also the existing ones in the tank will die off also cause they will starve because there are no fish in the tank for them to feed off of.

[Asher]

4 weeks...dang...in a "i need it right now society" 4 weeks might as well be an eternity...haha...thanks alot man, i let you guys know how it turns out!

[graphixx]

yeah keep us posted on their recovery, also in the future I would QT all new fish for at least a week before introducing them into the main tank. you dont want to risk this happening again!!!! GOOD LUCK BUDDY

[lReef lKeeper]

sorry for the late reply, i had to reboot the PC !! piece of junk i threw together in a hurry. cuz i missed this place !! lol

i agree with Graphixx22 (you know i sure am glad we see eye to eye on most things) ... BUT i would QT for 45-50 days. they (some people) say ich can survive that long with no host.

BTW ... welcome to CR !!

[playa0069u]

do u need LR in a qt tank? how often do you do water changes?

[lReef lKeeper]

you don't NEED the LR in the QT tank, but it won't hurt anything either. i am doing about 5 gallon a week water changes, but you could probably get away with 3-4 gallons every couple of weeks.
i also run a emperor 350 and 200 on my 29gal. QT tank with fairly heavy carbon (unless i am treating, then the carbon comes out so it doesn't counter act the meds.). but these are more for flow and carbon, and are not really ness. on a 10gal. tank.