Wow, within one night

[SadaAesix]

Alright, I am pegging this desease as non related to the weird sea pineapple thingie but a case of saltwater ich. There are white spots all over this poor fella. I do not want to add any copper to this aquarium, I am thinking of taking the guys back to PS and leaving the tank completely empty for like 2 months to break the host cycle. Is this a good idea? Also can the inverts stay or will they help maintain the ich in tank? Appreciate all information regarding treatment. Thanks

[jagal]

The "pineapple" thing sounds like a Scypha Sponge.

http://melevsreef.com/id/scypha.jpg

Is that it?

Also, from what I understand, if you leave the tank "fishless" for about 6 weeks the ICH will go away. The inverts are supposed to be ok during that time.

HTH

jagal

[SadaAesix]

Thats the culprit! thanks for the ID.

[sb1227]

I'm gonna try this post again

If you like the fish, why not use a quarantine tank for treatment? Leave them out of the tank for a number of weeks and then you should hopefully have a fully cycled, much more stable system to put them in.
Stress is a nasty thing. It weakens the immune system and really makes fish more prone to diseases.

It really is a good idea to have a quarantine tank around for those emergencies anyway.

Whatever you do, good luck.

[GermanShepherdGirl]

I had a few cases in the past where I had some fish with ich. I didn't have a quarantine tank. I read online about someone putting fresh garlic in the tank and turning the temp up to about 80 degrees and lowering the salinity. Well I didn't have any fresh garlic but I had some garlic powder in my pantry. So I put a dash or two of garlic powder in my tank, turned my heater up to 80-82 degrees, and lowered the salinity. And what do you know it worked. I've tried it twice. And it also helps to have a a cleaner shrimp.

[Amphiprion]

Hi there. I am not a big fan of medications myself. For a reliable, medicine-free ich treatment, I recommend an extended hyposalinity bath (at least several weeks). Over the course of a week or so, you lower the specific gravity to 1.009. However, one caveat is that you MUST have an accurate means of measuring the salinity/specific gravity--such as a refractometer, conductivity meter, or lab-grade hydrometer. Because of the low salinity, it has to be done in a quarantine tank.

[sb1227]

I read some article about using higher temps with the lower salinity. They were saying temps in the mid 80's, I have to wonder if this would just be some kind of redundancy or if it has it's own merit. It seems an extra stress factor if it's just for redundancy. I always heard the low salinity method worked just fine. I haven't had to do it though, thankfully.
Ever heard of it?

[Amphiprion]

Sure. The increased temperature will actually speed up the life cycle of saltwater 'ich', sort of speeding up the entire process of killing it off. The problem with allowing temps that high for prolonged periods of time, as you said, is that it is another stress factor. It lowers dissolved oxygen, necessitating very good circulation/aeration.