out-waiting ick!!!

[fresh]

Hi all,

I have a 72 gal reef with ~100lbs lr. I only have 2 clowns, 1 chromis, 1 y-tang, and 1 powderblue-tang. Which is my entire fish-wish-list.

I have had the pb-tang for over 3 months now. He was fine and healthy until I introduced the y-tang 2 months ago. The pb-tang fought with the y-tang for a week (nothing major).

I noticed that the y-tang started showing black ick! Not too much, but may be 5-10 icks on the whole body.

1 week later the pb-tang started showing white ick. Again not too much, just 5-10 icks on the whole body.

The other 3 fish are unaffected by all of this.

Every few days the ick goes away then comes back.

Both tangs are eating VERY well, and are swiming fine with the odd scratch on the rocks every once in a while.

I can't catch them and quarantine because that would mean tearing my reef down which I am most definately not going to do ;)

I am not too stressed about this, but my question to you is can ick go away by itself if you wait long enough and keep the most optimal conditions for the inhabitants??? Have you had any experience with this? I mean I have had ick on both tangs for roughly 2 months now and they don't seem to be going downhill from it. They are eating fine, and are swiming fine.

Basically, I want to know other people's experiences when it comes to waiting ick out!!! Have you had success with it or not? Also what I can do to optimise the conditions? I have heard about garlic, but should I try it if my fish are already eating lots??? Isn't it used to only intice the fish to eat??? well my tangs are PHAT as hell ;)

Thanks
fresh.

[OCDP]

I would watch closely. If they've had ick for that long.. surely they are not happy fish. They may look fine but they wont be happy..

I haven't had ick on tangs, just clownfish. I am perhaps lucky... but my clown got it fairly bad. What I did.... leave them alone! Zero stress. Do waterchanges in a manner that will not scare or spook your fish (it's not hard) Keep tank paramaters pristine. *Feeding with Garlic** This saved my fish ( I think ) I fed every day for two weeks, no ick. Ick has been gone ever since and has not made a comeback.

I think if your fish is stress free, living in great water quality.. and is being fed daily keeping his belly stuffed and immune system up... they can and will fight it off. But a lot of it depends on you.

Just my experience so far.

[TheReefGeek]

Soaking the food in garlic and/or vitamin suppliments adds nutritional value to the food you are already feeding, it doesn't mean you feed them more, so I think it would be a good idea to do so.

What are you feeding the tangs currently?

[fresh]

I am feeding nori every other day, and flakes and mysis in-between.

[OCDP]

I'd feed once or twice a day if they have ick. Soak the biggest meal in garlic as well.

[S-B]

if they're eating and swimming fine (except for the ick ) I'd leave them be .
my regal gets an outbreak now and then ,(always when I add a new addition of fish to my tank). I never have used treatment to cure it , it goes away on it's own.

moving them will put more stress on them.

[Chin_Lee]

get a cleaner shrimp. I've found them to be quite useful to help them with the ick.

[Tangman]

The cleaner shrimp is a good idea , but IMO , garlic and vitamin C will help get rid of the ick, and feed lots of nori , it also contains vitamin c

[guysmiley]

There seems to be alot of information out there about the Ich parasite. I am not a marine biologist but I have dealt with it a few times.

Check out this link.

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


I have found this information quite usefull.

I tried quarentining all my fish and that worked well completely removing the parasite. However, I did have losses due to the stress of catching all the fish and putting them in a smaller tank. If the fish are eating, I would just wait. As the article states, Ich will go away on it's own after 11 months or so assuming that no more parasites are added to the tank.

Just my 2 cents but I'd leave them and not add anything else for the 11 months. You already said that you had all the fish on your list. After that time, carfully add fish after quarentining them to be sure you don't reintroduce the parasite.

If you have any questions, send me PM.

Thanks.

Garrick.