# Ich AGAIN



## Mike (Jul 16, 2006)

It appears my fish only tank has ich again. It seems limited to one fish, though, our juvenile yellow box fish. He has had it for about a week, but it does not appear to have spread to any other fish.

Might it go away, or will it overtake him and spread to other fish unless I treat the tank with Copper Safe? I was told that I would have to keep the protein skimmer off for about a month after treating the tank with Copper Safe. I hate to do this because our stars and stripes puffer fish produces so much waste and leaves so much debris (pieces of food he spits out, etc.) everywhere and I really think the tank needs the benefit of the protein skimmer.

Might a cleaner wrasse simply eat the ich off of the box fish? I am afraid, though, that the puffer fish or, more likely, the Dusky Dottyback (Gold Dottyback), may eat the cleaner wrasse. 

Thanks for any advice,
Mike


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## Age of Aquariums (Apr 13, 2007)

What about a quarantine tank? So you just treat that one sick fish and not all. You can't put copper in a tank with invertebrate and corals because they are copper intolerant. So you can just put him in a quarantine tank and treat him there then when he is better, put it back in the other tank.


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## The-Wolf (Mar 15, 2007)

I'd be very very carefull using a copper based treatment in a marine tank,
the slightest overdose can wipe the entire stock out.
personally I'd use FMG (formalin and malachite green) to treat ich
and had done so in my old job to treat a panther grouper, dogfaced puffer and goatfish/boxfish for ich (different tanks, same water).
all survived the cure and the parasite.

the dosage is 1ml per 60ltr of water and treat for 5 consecutive days with uv off and protien skimmer on.

are you running a UV steraliser?
if so is it rated for your tank or larger and how long has the bulb been in it, also when did you last clean the quartz sleeve?

generally speaking a UV straliser will help prevent ich becomming a problem in the first place, provided the UV is running at full strength.


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## usmc121581 (Jul 31, 2006)

Admin the best thing you could do is get a cleaner wrasse and wait it out. Just make sure that the fish keep eating. In a marine tank I hate suggesting and meds, as it can be harmful against inverts, although you feed inverts to your puffer every now and then. I would just get a UV sterilizer and a cleaner wrasse.


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## Mike (Jul 16, 2006)

Hi guys,

Thank you for the recommendations. A quarantine tank isn't an option at the moment because that would require purchasing an entire additional saltwater setup, albeit as small one.

I am not running a UV sterilizer. I thought I heard that in addition to killing off parasites, it also kills off beneficial bacteria in the water. I may have misunderstood what I was told. Are UV sterilizers harmless and generally left on all the time as a preventative measure, or are they only turned on when there are signs of parasites?

Also, as for the cleaner wrasse, I think I recall reading somewhere that there should only be one in a tank or else they will fight and stress each other out. Is that the case?

Thanks so much,
Mike


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## usmc121581 (Jul 31, 2006)

UV sterilizer can burn off benifical bacteria, that is why you only run it during a slightly after an out break of ick, I only turn mine on like this. 


Only one cleaner wrasse per tank as they can fight or get straved by the other.


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