Six line wrasse eats ich off other fish????

[fishoholic]

I was reading up on six line wrasses and I read a few posts (from other sites) on how their six line wrasse ate the ich off of their other fish. Has anyone ever heard of this or seen it done?

I'm asking because my lavender tang has ich. The ich doesn't spread to the other fish and other then the white spots on her my lavender tang looks and acts perfectly healthy. She's nice and fat (eats lots) and doesn't try to scratch or itch herself on any of the rocks or sand bed. It's really annoying to see white spots all over her, if a six line could help that would be fantastic!

I have thought about QT but it's to hard to catch her in our 230g and if we take her out we won't be able to put her back in without the other tangs trying to kill her.

If anyone knows if this is possible please let me know :biggrin:

[Kabong]

Can't say I've heard of 6 lines eating Ich myself, But even if yours does.
I doubt it would be able to eliminate ich from your tank.
Also taking the tang out to treat wouldn't solve your problem either.
Part of ich life cycle is an off the fish, So you take the fish out cure him of ich, put him back in the tank and hes got ich again.
Just because you cant see ich doesn't mean its not there I'm afraid.
Basically your option's are QT and treat all your fish for over a month.
Or live with the fact that you have Ich in your tank and try to solve what the tangs issue is.

[fishoholic]

Can't say I've heard of 6 lines eating Ich myself, But even if yours does.
I doubt it would be able to eliminate ich from your tank.
Also taking the tang out to treat wouldn't solve your problem either.
Part of ich life cycle is an off the fish, So you take the fish out cure him of ich, put him back in the tank and hes got ich again.
Just because you cant see ich doesn't mean its not there I'm afraid.
Basically your option's are QT and treat all your fish for over a month.
Or live with the fact that you have Ich in your tank and try to solve what the tangs issue is.

Good points. The bizarre thing is, is that the tang doesn't seem to have any issues. She got white spots on her after we added a clown tang to our tank. The clown tang picked on her for a little bit for the first few days, after that they have been fine with each other. That was six months ago and my Lavender tang still has spots on her. We've feed garlic and selcon with mysis which seemed to help a bit but didn't get rid of the spots. None of the other fish have spots on them and the lavender acts like nothing is wrong with her. The white spots look like ich but maybe they're not?

I guess I was hoping that if something could pick off the white spots (can't keep a cleaner shrimp because my angels will eat it) my Lavender would now be healthy/less stressed enough to keep the spots from coming back. I believe the white spots annoy me more then they annoy her :twised:

[Johnny Reefer]

Try a Cleaner Wrasse.

[wickedfrags]

ich is an internal parasite, not an external one. Cleaner shrimp, cleaner wrasses ect. do not help with ick but will clean other parasites.

[christyf5]

I swear by neon gobies. They're captive bred and easy to feed if theres nothing to pick at. :biggrin:

I was under the impression that ick (Cryptocaryon irritans) was an external parasite. It adheres to the skin of the fish, makes its way into the mucous layer and into the epithelium. While at this point anything attempting to "eat" the parasite off of the fish would be ineffective, the initial "spots" found on the fish as tiny salt grains would be halted from completing the life cycle.

[justinl]

+1 for christy's suggestion. while neon gobies aren't quite the parasite eating machines that cleaner wrasses are, they aren't completely dependent on parasites as food; in fact they take to prepared foods quite well. cleaner wrasses die probabl 99% of the time in captivity because they are so damn picky... and even if they do eat prepared foods (rare, but not unheard of) they still die well before their time. It seems that they can only get the right diet from a steady diet of parasites.

cleaner shrimp are sort of hit or miss (more often the latter) it seems. might just depend how well fed it is and how complying the fish feels.

I could see a sixline eating external parasites if it were hungry enough but it certainly isn't anywhere near conclusive... if i were you i wouldn't bother with that route.

[Johnny Reefer]

FWIW, I had a Cleaner Wrasse that ate small Silverside bits like they were it's last meal. Not sayin' all CW's will do this, but one could get lucky. I guess I was a lucky one. Recommend observing a store feeding. And for the record, yes the CW I had died, but that was during a crosstown move. I had the little guy for a year and a half prior to that.

HTH and cheers,

[SATELLITE]

when i noticed that my fish had ich, i used selcon and garlic guard on all food and let it soak. did this for 1 week and for me this works very well

[fishoholic]

when i noticed that my fish had ich, i used selcon and garlic guard on all food and let it soak. did this for 1 week and for me this works very well

I have been using both for the last 4 months, it helped a bit but the fish still has spots.

I didn't want to get a cleaner wrasse because of their low survival rate.

A neon goby? I saw some at the LFS today maybe I'll go back.

I realize that my tank will always have ich in it and I know that the only sure fire way to get rid off it is to do what Kabong suggested. Since the other fish do not seem to be affected by the ich and since I don't have that large of a QT tank, I feel like I have three options.

1) Pull out 200 pounds of LR and corals (PITA) and catch the Lavender tang QT her and after she has healed and gotten rid of the ich sell her :sad:

2) Buy a fish to help her fight off the ich and mabye she'll heal on her own

or 3) I can do what I have been doing which is nothing (other then garlic and selcon which isn't really helping) and learn to live with the fact that after a year and 1/2 of having her (ich free) my lavender tang now has ich :bad-word:

So a neon goby you say....

[christyf5]

Ya know, for the $14.99 or whatever that you'll spend on the neon goby I'd just try it anyways. Depending on how far advanced the ich is, it may not help but will probly help slow the life cycle if nothing else. And if it doesn't work you've got a new fun little fish in your tank :biggrin: It beats tearing the tank down for a first try anyways.

[fishoholic]

Ya know, for the $14.99 or whatever that you'll spend on the neon goby I'd just try it anyways. Depending on how far advanced the ich is, it may not help but will probly help slow the life cycle if nothing else. And if it doesn't work you've got a new fun little fish in your tank :biggrin: It beats tearing the tank down for a first try anyways.

That's what I'm thinking :biggrin: Thanks Christy!

[fishoholic]

So I went to buy a neon goby and I ended up coming home with a very healthy looking mysis nibbling cleaner wrasse! I ended up buying him because he was 1/2 the price of the neon goby. So far he's doing great :biggrin:

[Johnny Reefer]

Is he cleaning the Tang yet?

[fishoholic]

Is he cleaning the Tang yet?

Yes he is :biggrin:

[christyf5]

Woohoo!:mrgreen:

[naesco]

I would continue with the garlic extract treatment. It is keeping the ich in check. Don't stop the feeding.
As you know, the chances that the clearner wrasse you bought lasting more than a few weeks are remote.

I have had luck with the very small angel and neons also performing cleaning duties.

If I were you I would have a QT ready to go. Keep greenex, formalin and a good size air pump on hand.

Ich is an external parasite.

[fishoholic]

I would continue with the garlic extract treatment. It is keeping the ich in check. Don't stop the feeding.
As you know, the chances that the clearner wrasse you bought lasting more than a few weeks are remote.



I plan on continuing to soak the food still with garlic extract and selcon.

The wrasse I bought had been performing cleaning duties for about a month on other fish at the LFS. The wrasse is plump and very healthy looking, he is eating chopped up mysis and has been cleaning the other fish in the tank. He is usually out in the open swimming along with everyone and all the fish seem get along well each other.

I think the problems with about 95% of cleaner wrasses are:

It's almost impossible to find a healthy one, never mind one that eats frozen foods.

If you find one semi-healthy they might last a little while, but if they are only eating parasites off other fish, that will not be enough to sustain them for the long run.

From what I understand most cleaner wrasses (best case scenario) will live for about 2 years. Most die within a couple of weeks.

I think that because my cleaner wrasse seems healthy, is swimming out in the open, and eats mysis, I have a good chance of having him around for awhile.

Here's a pic

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii53/Laurie_Morin/6-line/DSC_0852.jpg

[wickedfrags]

Give this a read if you are interested in ick. I found it to be a good read about 6 months ago and just re-read it myself. Aside from the life-cycle stuff, enjoy the info about dispelling the myths about ick, specially No. 10 below (not my words!).

http://www.txinstall.com/ich/ich.htm

No. 10 The parasite burrows into the fish, below the mucous layer and into the skin. (This is why cleaner fish/shrimp can’t get to it in order to remove them from the fish). The second dumbest thing an aquarist can think: I'll get some cleaner fish or cleaner shrimp to remove/eat the parasite. THESE MARINE LIFE DO NOT EAT THE PARASITE NOR WILL FISH OR SHRIMP REMOVE THE PARASITE FROM THE INFECTED FISHES.

[fishoholic]

Give this a read if you are interested in ick. I found it to be a good read about 6 months ago and just re-read it myself. Aside from the life-cycle stuff, enjoy the info about dispelling the myths about ick, specially No. 10 below (not my words!).

http://www.txinstall.com/ich/ich.htm

No. 10 The parasite burrows into the fish, below the mucous layer and into the skin. (This is why cleaner fish/shrimp can’t get to it in order to remove them from the fish). The second dumbest thing an aquarist can think: I'll get some cleaner fish or cleaner shrimp to remove/eat the parasite. THESE MARINE LIFE DO NOT EAT THE PARASITE NOR WILL FISH OR SHRIMP REMOVE THE PARASITE FROM THE INFECTED FISHES.

As I stated before in this thread, I know that I will still have the ich parasite in my tank until I do the proper QT hyposalinity rote. Which I will do if I notice my fish getting stressed out or acting really sick from the ich.

Since none of my fish seem to be bothered by the ich at all (other then the white spots on the Lavender tang which don't even seem to bug her) I thought I'd get a cleaner wrasse to help remove the white cysts that the ich leaves on the fish.

I realize the cleaner wrasse is not a cure. I was just hoping that he might better enable the fish to fight off some of the ich parasite by themselves, or at least help the fish feel more comfortable.

*Edit*

After reading though the link (great link BTW) #16 stands out for me

16. Spots are MI. Untrue. Probably one of the most problematic causes for rumors and myth-information in the hobby is assuming the spot is Marine Ich when it may be one of another few dozen other parasites or conditions (e.g., pimple-like reaction to infection) that look like Marine Ich. The mis-diagnosis is often the cause for claims of what cured MI, when the fish didn't have MI to start with.

I have been wondering if it's really ich or if it's something else. The fish has had the spots for over 4 months now and everyone seems fine. If it's really ich wouldn't the fish be showing signs of not being fine?

Anyone know what the few dozen other parasites or conditions that look like ich but aren't ich are? Thanks Laurie

[wickedfrags]

As the fish are in a reef (I believe) best to just keep them fat and hope for the best IMO. Also try and keep your temp as stable as possible to reduce stress as much as possible.

As I stated before in this thread, I know that I will still have the ich parasite in my tank until I do the proper QT hyposalinity rote. Which I will do if I notice my fish getting stressed out or acting really sick from the ich.

Since none of my fish seem to be bothered by the ich at all (other then the white spots on the Lavender tang which don't even seem to bug her) I thought I'd get a cleaner wrasse to help remove the white cysts that the ich leaves on the fish.

I realize the cleaner wrasse is not a cure. I was just hoping that he might better enable the fish to fight off some of the ich parasite by themselves, or at least help the fish feel more comfortable.

[fishoholic]

As the fish are in a reef (I believe) best to just keep them fat and hope for the best IMO. Also try and keep your temp as stable as possible to reduce stress as much as possible.

Hey, did you read my edit, do you happen to know what looks like ich but might not be ich?

All my fish are in a reef tank, and they are fat and eating very well, they don't act like they have a parasite (that's why I didn't want to try to QT them and end up stressing them out when they don't seem stressed right now) I do try to keep my temp as close to 80 as possible, but I do know that it sometimes goes up or down a degree. Thanks for your help.