ICK, Coming out of Hypo treatment question

[JohnK]

MY question,

when you treat a tank with hypo, do any cysts or other stages of ick remain dormant in the tank. In other words, after 3 weeks of hypo treatment, if I rasie the salinity back to normal slowly, is there a chance that some stage of the Ick will still be alive and able to come back. Do I need to break down the hospital tank and move the fish to a second hospital tank before bringing the salinity back up?

My plan was to treat the fish with hypo for 3-4 weeks and keep the display (120 SPS) fishless for 8 weeks. The fish will be done with their treatment 5 weeks before the display. Is there a risk to simply bringing the salinity back up in the hospital tank, or do I need to worry about dormant cysts or something like that, that could become viable when the salinity increases?

I've been treating my fish in a hospital tank (75) with hypo for the past three weeks. The hospital tank cycled in right away (with the help of some bio balls and filter floss seeded in an established tank) and hasn't needed water changes to maintain good water quality. The fish (purple tang, perc pair, 6 line, sm copperband) are all eating well and looking great. No signs of Ick sincce the hypo treatment began.

Thanks for any input
JK

 

[nunofs]

If you'll be keeping the fish in that hospital tank for the remaining 5 weeks, why not go on with the hyposalinity treatment for more than just 3 weeks? You could do 7 weeks, and then slowly raise the salinity during the last week.

That said, I don't think after 4 weeks of hyposalinity there's a risk of dormant ick, but since you're keeping the fish there anyway, might as well do a longer treatment.

Nuno

 

[Nocturnal]

Treat with hypo for 10 weeks and nothing will be in your tank unless you re-introduce something into it.
I've treated with hypo before, unwillingly, and it was the best thing. Fish, unaffected and no chance of ich unless, like I said, re-introduced.

 

[wrassefan]

I know people with FO that have kept there fish in hypo permanently. No ill effects for 2yrs....his fish are eating like pigs and getting huge.

 

[Nocturnal]

Kept mine in Hypo for 6 months. They did fantastic! Wouldn't recommend it if you have live rock though. You could lose inverts and other cool life

 

[wrassefan]

Kept mine in Hypo for 6 months. They did fantastic! Wouldn't recommend it if you have live rock though. You could lose inverts and other cool life

Agreed, he didn't have inverts but did have LR.

 

[starrfish]

I agree with the above - just keep them in hypo until you're ready to put them in the display tank. Make sure you bring them out of hypo slowly - they can handle a relatively quick drop, but they can't handle a quick return. Here's a good article on ick and how to treat via hypo:

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

 

[JohnK]

My question is more about the transition back to normal salinity. If I bring the salinity back to normal in the hospital tank is there a chance that there will be some dormant stage of the ICK that could come back. It makes sense to extend the hypo treatment up to 6-8 weeks, but I still have to transition the fish back to normal salinity. The main SPS display tank needs to stay at normal salinity throughout. If the salinity in the hospital tank is gradually rasied will there be a chance of the ICK coming back? I saw an article somewhere on RC that said Ick can live dormant for up to 3 months at hypo.

Do I need to do a tank change into a second hospital before raising the salinity back to normal?

I got an interesting response on RC in the disesase and treatment fourm, basicially said YES, the ICK can easily live dormant through the Hypo treatment.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=557989&goto=newpost

Any input about this ?

jk

 

[Nocturnal]

Fact of the matter is, the fish will be fine regardelss of how quick or slow you bring them back. A study was done over (if I remember correctly) 3 years with one of the major salt water suppliers. They had two seperate systems running. One on hypo, the other normal salinity. Any fish the caught or received were separated into both systems NO ACCLIMATION TO HYPO...just dropped right in. Conclusions over this 3 year period were: fish in the hypo unit never came down with any bacteria or disease such as ich, fungs, flukes whatever. Fish in the "regular" system periodically had some problems.

Three years, no acclimation, no problems. Do a seach on RC in the fish only and aggressive board and you will read some good info. I posed the same question when I had the problem.

Now, on to your question. If you do hypo for 10-11 weeks, if not a little more, there is no chance of a dormant "ich" hanging around. Like a catterpillar, they have a life cycle. Hypo prevent ich from hatching out of it's "pods" after it drops and reproduces on the sand from it's main food supply, the fish itself. Once that is all taken care of, you're problem now lies in your main tank. The fish in your hopital tank may be clean, but who is to say your main tank is? There very well could be ich in the tank. Fact is, some fish are able to fight it off better than others, like a common cold, and from there the ich drops to the sand reproduces then attaches to another fish, who, then again may be able to fight it off and the cycle repeats.

Jimmy, I don't think I've addressed your latest post, but after reading the link you posted it states after 3-4 weeks there may be eggs of ich, for lack of better terms, still in the tank. Well of course there is. For one to completely rid the tank of ich you need to understand it's lifecycle. 11 weeks minimum and it's gone...not 3-4

I hope I helped to answer at least one question, lol