ICH and hypo salinty

This has been a hot topic on a forum i use in the UK, we are lucky to have a guy on the forum that has, amongst other things, a phd in fish health, roughly put, he said that hyposalinity does work, BUT don't try it in your reef tank, it can and usually will, kill your inverts, so the up shot is, while you have your affected fish in a quarantine tank, you might just as well treat with copper, it is more effective.
 
i have a FO setup, as far as i gather only the cleaner shrimp will be affected negatively ? the hermits and snails should/will be fine ? this seems to me to be a more permanent solution than the copper treatment ?
 
No all inverts, snails, shrimps and starfish are all very susceptible to changes in salinity/conditions, all the pods in your liverock etc would also be at risk, simply put, there is no reefsafe method of treating "ich" quarantine and copper treatment is normally the only effective method
 
no, all my fish will be subject to a minimum of 6 weeks, 10 is better, of qt before they go in my tank
 
I will have (when i finally set my new tank up) a simple trops tank with canister filter, the plan is to dump some filter sponges in my sump for a week to seed them, then add them to the cannister, this will give the bacterial filtration required to keep the tank healthy, that and the usual water change regime, if you do see any whitespot, then treat with copper and finally don't put the sponges back into your tank, chuck them and buy more.
 
good idea bad idea ?

is it a good idea to treat a new fish in a qaurintine tank (even seemingly healthy fish) with hypo salinity for 3 - 4 weeks before adding it to the main display, could this result in an totaly ich free system ?


ps. thanks for the link wee-man, was very helpful
 
the best method is to QT in a tank with copper in it, no other treatment is as successful at removing the parasites.
 
Another good idea is RO dipping all new fish, I have done it once or twice.
 
Was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with this method

ATJ's Marine Aquarium Site - Reference - Hyposalinity Treatment

Yes, I have used it on the odd occasion when my fish had white spot (cryptocarion irritans). It works very well, and is my preferred method of treatment.

Just be aware that fish don't acclimatise very well from a low salinity to the normal 'full strength' sea water - you need to do this over a period of a week or two. I normally just replace RO water with salt water to make up for evaporation, until the salinity is back to normal.

Hennie
 
thanks hennie

was also wondering is it possible to have a completely ich free system ?

Yes it is, you need to qt all you new fish for a minimum of 6 weeks (10 is better) and treat with copper if they show signs of ws.
 
was also wondering is it possible to have a completely ich free system ?

According to the fish disease experts (amongs others a world renown professor I spoke with in depth) marine ich parasites are obligate parasites, meaning that they cannot live without a host fish in their reproductive cycle. This would thus imply that: YES, it is possible to have a completely ich free system = in fact, all tanks in which there has not been an ich outbreak during the past 3 months would be considered ich free.

Through personal experience I must respectfully disagree with this theory - Through the years I have witnessed tanks which have been ich free for more than a year or two, with NO new fish additions, suddenly develop an ich outbreak after a power outage or other stress event. My theory (which I cannot prove, and thus remains only a theory...) is that all fish remain infected with a 'background' level of ich, and that, as with the human flu, it can become a disease if the particular fish has been stressed for some reason, and/or it's immune system becomes compromised.

Hennie
 
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