Copperband, Help!

If he is still swimming around well then you may have a chance at saving him. I would do a hypo-salinity treatment. http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...ocess.html

 

Remember you must treat all fish in the aquarium and keep the aquarium fishless for 4-6 weeks. Use a calibrated refractometer to adjust your salinity, You don't want to go to low and kill the fish or not go low enough and stop the Ich

 

+1 on hypo-salinity

 

""Please read and fully understand the process before you start"". If there is something you don't understand just ask on here or over at Reef Central in the disease forum.
You will start with water from your system...then slowly bring the salinity down to (EDITED) _1.009 then keep it there for a few weeks before mixing some new salt water to slowly bring it back up. You can bring the salinity down over a couple day without harm but take your time bringing it back up.

 

moved to correct forum

 

I changed the link a couple minutes after posting... It has the complete instructions. Here it is again http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/23131-hyposalinity-treatment-process.html

 

Is your copperband eating frozen, pellets, or any other prepared food? I ask this because mine and most others only eat out of the rockwork and will do very poorly in qt, especially after the disease is already "visible". It might be best to do a freshwater dip. I don't want to persuade you one way or another, but please take this into account. If he just "developed" ich, it's been present in your tank before and is just now showing up because of the stress lowering it's immune system. It is and will always be in your tank unless you do a 6+ week hypo quarantine with ALL of your fish and the same period of time having your tank fishless. Inverts and everything else can remain in the tank at this time, they are not hosts of ich.

Good luck!

 

It's a 10ish minute dip in ro/di water that is the same temp and pH as your tank's water. Definitely read more about it, I've never had to do it on my own tank before, but I've heard good things about it!

 

After more research, I take back advising a freshwater dip.

Freshwater dips(http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2004/mini4.htm)

Freshwater dips are largely ineffective in the treatment of Cryptocaryon irritans (Burgess, 1992). The host epidermis and thick layer of mucus form a barrier impervious to osmotic shock (Colorni, 1985). "Most of the trophonts whose hosts had undergone hyposalinity treatment, including freshwater, for at least 18 h, were still alive and occupied the same position in the host by the end of the experiment, following re-adaptation to sea water. They later dropped from the fish, encysted, and the tomonts produced tomites" (Colorni, 1985).

Note that the above quote says "most" and not all trophonts. Trophonts embed themselves completely into the epithelium under a layer of skin. This protects these trophonts from dips. As the trophonts grow in size they gradually displace the overlying epithelium. This is when they become visible as white spots or nodules. Exposed trophonts may be susceptible to freshwater dips, but trophonts that survive continue in their life cycle making this method only partially effective at best.

Freshwater dips can cause osmotic shock. Typically the fish are exposed to the air during the process of capture, handling and transfer, all of which are stressful to the fish. Freshwater dips cannot be depended on as the sole method of treatment for Cryptocaryon irritans and can be counterproductive because they are highly stressful to the fish. They should only be used in combination with other treatments that will successfully interrupt the parasite's life cycle.

 

The 40g breeder would be best to use for the quarantine... They are already stressed from the ich and putting them all in the 10g would prob just stress them more.

 

I agree with the 40 breeder and "not" doing a freshwater dip. I would also like to suggest that you feed the fish with food soaked in Garlic. The garlic will stimulate their appetites' and will have a positive effect on their immunity. Good luck!