Help - I've Got Ick

[howdy20012002]

I buy a new fish and a week later, my whole tank now has ick.
Sprung up fast and hard over the last day.
I have a cleaner shrimp...but not doing his job
any suggestions on treatment
hear bad things bout the copper sulfate.
Please any remedies would be appreciated before i lose a couple of hundred bucks worth of fish
thanks
Neal

[muck]

Do a search on Hyposalinity.

[KrazyKuch]

Mix Garlic extract with their food and it will go away in about a day or so......when my tang or clown fish get ich I just feed them the garlic with their food and it's gone the next day!

[nano-man]

My brother tells me in his tank that he just turns up the heat? could it work?

[rayyue]

use uv can help, much safer than copper but cost you more
and feed them the food with garlic can help them don't get ick on their body
make sure the water flow to uv don't higher than 400 gph, the best is 200 to 300 gph, good luck

[GobiGurl]

Definetly a UV sterilizier saved my fish in the past. Works instantaniously. Ick is a parasite and they can't live with the UV rays. I also did what the others suggested as well, the garlic and the cleaner shrimp really helped a lot. Maybe you should get a different cleaner shrimp. If he's not doing his job, eat him. LOL

Good Luck Neal

Lynn

[deep6er]

yes uv would help but not if its on the fish already. Copper sulfate would kill it, but also all your inverts. I would say turn up the heat. good luck

[DiscusZ]

Ya use Garlic. my tank had ICk a short while ago but only my tangs had it (my unicorn and my brown tang didnt have it as bad as my Hippo he was covered)

I grabbed a fresh glove. mashed it up spread it on some nori anmd then wrapped it on the PVC I have in the tank with the garlic on the inside (I made sure there wasnt alot of garlic bits but a few) within 24 hours ick was gone.

I know there has been talk about this working or not working.. I have used garlic in my fish food for a long time a friend of mine in New Jersey who used to breed Discus used it all the time in is food to help with internal parasites and worms.

If worse came to worse your fish were already seasoned for the fry pan (KIDDING ONLY KIDDING ) :)


Jim

[rayyue]

in my experience, even the fish already get the ick on the body, uv still can kill them because after few days, the ick will fall off from the fish body, just make sure the uv light is big enough for your tank

[i have crabs]

garlic and the cleaner shrimp will only help control the problem it CANNOT get rid of ich it will only get them through the break out at best at wich time they will probably fight it off and seem healthy,hypo will and does work however its not a good choice in a main tank as it will kill your live rock and any inverts, copper will also kill the rock and inverts and will make the tank no good for inverts ever again, so ive tryed all 3 ways and moving all you fish into a qt tank and using copper for 1 month is the only way i will ever do it again the hypo caused a bacterial outbreak and kill more fish than the ich did wile the copper had no bad effects that i have seen other than wrecking the tank.

[howdy20012002]

would a low pH level cause ick?
thanks

[fkshiu]

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php

The garlic/UV/cleaner shrimp only suppressing the ich problem temporarily is right according to the article. To eliminate for sure you've gotta separate and use hypo or copper.

[i have crabs]

low ph cannot cause ich but mabey start an outbreak if you already have the paricite in your system