PDA

View Full Version : best way to treat ich


fishguy29
04-06-2009, 01:37 AM
Hi there. I have 2 clowns and a regal tang. The clowns i have had for 3 weeks with no issues and the tang 1.5 weeks. The tang showed signs of ich alittle then went away and now its pretty bad. One of the clowns is now sticking his mouth out of the top as if he is trying to get air. I'm adding an airstone to try and add more oxygen and the top is open now. I'm curious should i take the 2 clowns and regal tang out and qt them? i just setup the qt tank and didn't want to add more stress but what do you all think is my best option.

Danny
04-06-2009, 01:47 AM
If you have a QT than use it, you can treat with copper based meds but otherwise (like myself) I let it run it's course. Tangs are ich magnets.

fishguy29
04-06-2009, 03:16 AM
well the tang and the smaller clown are still eating and acting pretty normal. I'm concerned about the bigger clown as she stopped eating and is always at the top of the tank. i just put in an airstone thinking it was oxygen levels but doesn't seem to be helping. The tank i just setup which i will use for qt how long will it be before i could use it? i have no live rock or sand in it

fishguy29
04-06-2009, 03:21 AM
if i let it run it course is that usually the best option? also, will my tank always have ich if i don't take care of it by running fish free for awhile? if qt do you run the carbon in the filter or no because it will absorb the copper?

Trigger Man
04-06-2009, 04:35 AM
You do not run Carbon in your qt tank if you are using copper as it will absorb some of it. If you have a skimmer in there you should turn it off as well.

heyfredyourhat
04-06-2009, 04:45 AM
I cured my tang with 8 wks of hyposalinity. Heres my thread on RC. Started out as HLLE and then went in display and immediatly showed signs of ich.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1498336&highlight=white+cheek

my2rotties
04-06-2009, 04:49 AM
I just let mine fight it off and have seen no sign of ich in my tank for at least three months now. I added garlic to their food as well as selcon and feed heavily a few times a day to keep them eating. I have had no losses.

i have crabs
04-06-2009, 01:00 PM
I just let mine fight it off and have seen no sign of ich in my tank for at least three months now. I added garlic to their food as well as selcon and feed heavily a few times a day to keep them eating. I have had no losses.

time bomb waiting to wipe out the tank if you ask me, ick is a parasite and dosent just go away, it can and will continue to live in the tank and eventually will kill fish.
hypo works but i thinks is harder for most people and bigger risk of things going wrong,i would recommend seachem clupramine in a qt tank

naesco
04-10-2009, 10:17 PM
I have seen a very mild ich settle itself but have never seen a bad infest ion result in anything but the death of the fish.
In the QT treat with formalin or greenex. In both cases follow the directions closely and put the bubbler in the QT. Time is of the essence.
The problem with copper is that it is very difficult to test. Too little does nothing and too much can kill.
If you can't get at your fish, buy some garlic extract or garlic extreme. Soak dry foods or nori in the garlic and feed. The idea is to get as much garlic extract in the fish as possible and feed very often.
In addition buy a couple of cleaner shrimp (not cleaner wrasse) and they will help if you do not use the QT.
Good Luck
Wayne

fishoholic
04-11-2009, 06:34 PM
time bomb waiting to wipe out the tank if you ask me, ick is a parasite and dosent just go away, it can and will continue to live in the tank and eventually will kill fish.
hypo works but i thinks is harder for most people and bigger risk of things going wrong,i would recommend seachem clupramine in a qt tank

I have ich living in my tank, most of my fish seem to have a natural built up immunity to it. What they don't fight off themselves my cleaner wrasse picks off.

I have seen a very mild ich settle itself but have never seen a bad infest ion result in anything but the death of the fish.
In the QT treat with formalin or greenex. In both cases follow the directions closely and put the bubbler in the QT. Time is of the essence.
The problem with copper is that it is very difficult to test. Too little does nothing and too much can kill.
If you can't get at your fish, buy some garlic extract or garlic extreme. Soak dry foods or nori in the garlic and feed. The idea is to get as much garlic extract in the fish as possible and feed very often.
In addition buy a couple of cleaner shrimp (not cleaner wrasse) and they will help if you do not use the QT.
Good Luck
Wayne

FYI fish with extremely bad infestations can get healthy again without QT. My yellow tang was very covered in ich about a year ago, so much so that you could not see the yellow colour on him. Took the lavender tang out, which was the stresser causing the other fish to get ich, added a cleaner wrasse and now you would never know the yellow tang ever had ich in the first place. Cleaner wrasses can be hit or miss but I know several people who have had a lot of success with them, the trick is to find a healthy one, if you can they are worth it. I've tried neon gobies before but have not had any luck with them (both dove into the rock never to be seen again, guessing they died/or got eaten) cleaner wrasses are a better way to go IMO.

i have crabs
04-11-2009, 06:59 PM
i think people should start treating ich like having lice either you have it or you dont and if you do have it you can either leave it alone and hope your frends dont see it or you can treat it properly and end the madness.

do you have lice? i dont

fishoholic
04-11-2009, 07:19 PM
i think people should start treating ich like having lice either you have it or you dont and if you do have it you can either leave it alone and hope your frends dont see it or you can treat it properly and end the madness.

do you have lice? i dont

Lice and ich aren't really alike and while I've never had lice, I work in a daycare, were in the past children who have gone there have gotten it. Trust me if I ever got lice I would do the treatment for it, lice won't just go away on it's own without ever showing any signs or symptoms again, whereas ich can.

Much easier to do a lice treatment then to set up a 500g (in my case it would have to be 500g to accommodate all my fish from both 230g tanks) QT tank. Then chance the risk of loosing fish to ammonia spikes and the hypo treatment during the 5-6 weeks the fish would be in QT for, only to find out you went through all that and it didn't work. Not worth the PITA it would be to do that. GSP tried the hypo and full QT a few times I believe and still had ich problems.

Again I have to say I swear by cleaner wrasses and garlic/selcon soaked food to help ich lay dormant in a tank.

i have crabs
04-11-2009, 08:40 PM
Lice and ich aren't really alike and while I've never had lice, I work in a daycare, were in the past children who have gone there have gotten it. Trust me if I ever got lice I would do the treatment for it, lice won't just go away on it's own without ever showing any signs or symptoms again, whereas ich can.

Much easier to do a lice treatment then to set up a 500g (in my case it would have to be 500g to accommodate all my fish from both 230g tanks) QT tank. Then chance the risk of loosing fish to ammonia spikes and the hypo treatment during the 5-6 weeks the fish would be in QT for, only to find out you went through all that and it didn't work. Not worth the PITA it would be to do that. GSP tried the hypo and full QT a few times I believe and still had ich problems.

Again I have to say I swear by cleaner wrasses and garlic/selcon soaked food to help ich lay dormant in a tank.


ofcource they arnt the same but if you qt'ed the kids in daycare the rest of them wouldnt get it in the first place. i think its a big mistake not to qt fish on the way in so that you can try to keep the display from having a population of ich if id does get in there and its not possible to remove the fish and treat it properly then you have no choice but to hope secondary things like shrimp and cleaner wrasses plus the fishes imune system can keep it at bay.. it wont go away and its a bit of a pet peeve of mine when i hear recommendations not to take steps to make shure your tank stays healthy.

without aiming anything i say at anyone, i think alot of people need to do some reading on this subject no professional that i know of recommends the add garlic buy a cleaner shrimp garbage that circulates the internet and fishstores way too often

VFX
04-11-2009, 09:27 PM
I just went through an ich infestation recently.

I had people telling me to use garlic, buy cleaner wrasses, do nothing, rip my tank apart, use UV (I already was using UV), pray to Neptune, do a rain dance, etc .etc. most of the advice I was given was based on circumstantial and anecdotal evidence, not based on hard scientific fact.

For every one person that says you HAVE to remove your fish & QT immediately, there's a another saying garlic will cure everything & also improve your chances on the stock market too. Others say that cleaner wrasses will rid your tank of ich & may or may not improve your fertility. UV will kill ich & may also harm your neighbour's annoying pet llama!

So who do you listen to? Well, personally I tried to turn to science.

The evidence I found that was based on science suggested the following:

Using Cleaner Wrasse, Cleaner Shrimp etc. & 'Letting it run it's course' will take almost a year to eliminate ich if you don't add any other potential new source of ich during that time.

Leaving your tank fish free (not an option for many) your tank should be 99.9% ich free within 60 days. 72 days being the longest time ich can survive without a host (fish).

I bought a large tank to QT my fish & treated them with copper & formaldehyde based treatments. They showed no signs of ich after 2 weeks of treatment.

I kept them in QT for around 10 weeks & my main reef tank was fish free during that time.

I'll always make sure I QT everything before it goes near my reef in the future.

One link that was sent to me by Dave (WickedFags) put most of the scientific evidence in one easy to read webpage.

Marine Ich (http://www.txinstall.com/ich/ich.htm)

.

fishoholic
04-11-2009, 11:43 PM
QT a fish that is showing signs of ich in the first place is a good idea before adding to the display.

However if you already have ich in your display (like I did) I found that my cleaner wrasse got rid of all the signs of ich on my fish in three weeks, and a year later my cleaner is still keeping my fish ich free.

0sprey
04-12-2009, 03:56 AM
I'm a bit concerned about the length of time this tank may have been running...
You said the clowns were added 3 weeks ago, and the tang 1.5 weeks ago?
How long ago did the tank finish cycling?
What are the water parameters?
Did you quarantine?
Usually a severe ich outbreak is as much related to stress as anything else. Healthy fish in healthy living conditions don't normally have any trouble fighting it off on their own.