Yay, ich.

[JTrigger]

So after I returned from a week away down south, I found a few fish ridden with ich, namely my tang, royal gramma, 1 chromis, pair o clowns... and flame angel... which is most of em.. LoL... and most of these passed away since I got back... any suggestions for treatment? I don't have a q-tank setup at the moment... had one a while back, but took it down as it was taking up space in my tightly cramped apt..

JT

[Aquattro]

garlic. And make sure whatever stressed them is gone. And more garlic.

[Namscam]

so what??just mince up regular garlic and put it in tank??cuz i got ich or something like it on my tang too...I ve been trying greenex but it doesnt seem to work and got worst

[EmilyB]

You can mix the powered kyolic garlic you can get at health food stores into their food, or rub a cut clove on their nori.

[aussiefishy]

i did the kick ich thing and it work for me... althought i need to repeat the cycle... and it is not completely reef safe. shrimps and soft corals are very sensitive to this stuff... but although i loss 2 cleaner shrimp and a finger, i rid ick... that is the most impostant thing

cheers :cool:

[TANGOMAN]

Thanks to Deb's advice some time ago, I too have found garlic as the best treatment. I had tried that "kick-ich" a while back and achieved nothing beneficial other than the fact that I did not lose any of my fingers... :wink: .
I purchase garlic "gel tabs" and cut them open. It works for me and everything smells great !
I wish ya' luck with treatment. Keep the nutrition and water quality optimal and aquarium disturbances minimal, and hopefully they can "ride it out".

[monza]

I just crush a glove of garlic and soak in water with the food for an hour or so, remove garlic and feed.

Dave

[pocilipora]

I never had luck with garlic. Quarantine and medication is the only sure way to go. Some have claimed garlic to work, but I think on a tank where your loosing a few fish because of ick in a short period of time, you should act quickly. Quarantine them if you can. If you want Ive got a partial bottle of "Garlic Etreme" you can have. :rolleyes:

[chwkreefer]

I have found that garlic can be quite helpful in the early onset of ich. But if there is quite an infestation and/or the fish aren't eating, you will have to catch the fish,quarantine and start dosing copper.

Kich Ich basically just irritates the fish into producing slime, which is supposed to slough off the parasite. Apparently it works for some but I think the overall consensus is that it isn't the miracle cure that reefers want. Some fish just don't produce a lot of slime. It's pretty expensive and is a 50/50 chance of success at best.

Garlic is great in boosting immunity, but if your fish is covered in ich, garlic isn't your best bet. There are articles on line that debate whether the allicin in garlic is destroyed in the gut of the fish (digestion) and therefore isn't as great as some are boasting. It certainly is worth feeding either way.

Another thing you can try is to get some metronizadole (pet store or vet, cheaper at the vet) and mix it with some fish flake food. You can dissolve a quarter tablet in warm water and add some flake food to it and then feed your fish. Or you can mix it with some homemade frozen food. The small amounts of the drug you add to your tank will pose no problem on the reef inhabitants. Do a search on the net and you'll get more info on metronizadole.

Overall your best treatment is copper. It's a real pain to tear into your reef to catch fish, but if the fish are looking bad, you are best to make the effort. Read the instructions on dosing carefully and get a copper test kit. Copper is deadly on parasites and can be quite hard on the fish too, if dosed too high. Keeping any calcium based product (sand/decorations)out of the quarantine tank will help keep the copper in suspension longer too btw. Copper has a real affinity for calcium.

Good luck
Bill

[BCOrchidGuy]

It's expensive but the Kent Galic worked for me (not that I had ich, the fish did)

Doug

[StirCrazy]

hmm I wonder how garlic would work if you rubed it on the fish... :mrgreen:

Steve

[TNTCanada]

I have use the Kent as well, worked great for me. I use it on a regular bacsis to prevent Ich. You can also use it strait in your tank one drop per 10g if your fish are not eating.

[Aquattro]

hmm I wonder how garlic would work if you rubed it on the fish... :mrgreen:

Steve

Works awesome...just before you put it in the pan. :razz:

[sumpfinfishe]

Don't forget the lemon! :razz:

[Samw]

I didn't find anything reefsafe that was very useful to treat ich in my tank.

When some of my fish first got Ich at around the 3 month mark into the hobby (triggered by my Kalk overdose), I tried Kick Ick, Rally, Kent RXP, Garlic Extreme, chopped garlic, Cleaner Shrimp, UV Sterilizer, etc. Nothing worked and all infected fish died (some fish such as clownfish and mardarins were unaffected). As a side effect, 1 of those chemicals actually caused some of my corals to close up and eventually die as well. Replacement fish that I added would get ick and die as well.

Then, I decided to add a skimmer to my tank. After that, my fish have stopped dying from ich. My replacement fish after adding the skimmer still got lots of ich initially, but this time, instead of dying, the fishes survived and the ich just disappeared on their own after a few days and the ich reappeared in less and less numbers during the ich's lifecycles. I have lots of fish for over 18 months with ich present in the tank. There are no longer outbreaks but just a few white dots here and there. Everything seems to be under control on its own. Ich attacks the fish's respiratory system (you'll see heavy breathing) and with lots of aeration, a healthy fish should be able to fight off ick on its own. Oxygenate your tank well, and maybe add a few cleaner shrimp or gobies to help.

[Samw]

An article on Ick

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

[BCOrchidGuy]

Sam that's too bad that you lost those fish, I had a similar incident but it was entirely my fault, I bought a new tang and put it in my tank, with in a day or two the tang was dead and all my other fish were swimming facing the water return from my sump, next morning (if I remember right) all my fish were dead, Oodinium, what a mess.
I've sure learned my lesson.

Doug

[EmilyB]

I just wanted to explain that imo garlic can help with a mild case.

However, if a fish is in serious trouble with an advanced case, treatment is in order, whether that be long term hyposalinity or (yuck) copper.

[BCOrchidGuy]

I agree Emily, the garlic can be used as a preventative treatment as well, the ich doesn't like to attatch to a fish who has the garlic in it's slime coat. As far as copper goes I'm sold on Sea Chem Cuprimine, much safer than copper safe etc, much easier on the fish.

Doug

[chwkreefer]

I agree Emily, the garlic can be used as a preventative treatment as well, the ich doesn't like to attatch to a fish who has the garlic in it's slime coat. As far as copper goes I'm sold on Sea Chem Cuprimine, much safer than copper safe etc, much easier on the fish.

Doug

Totally agree with your statements Doug. Coppersafe is chelated and so I found it harder to test properly too. I have used both and I would choose Cuprimine over Coppersafe. Cuprimine is easy to test and works well. I would avoid the chelated forms of copper meds.

Bill

[Diomedes]

After using the above treatements I think the best way to treat is a Q-tank w/copper or Hyposalinity, but one additional treatment I have used with success is soaking the frozen foods in a measured dose of Metronidazole - an anti-protozoal compound that helps the fish resist a current infection. I have used M very many times in reefs, with a very good success rate.

In case you were wondering, this is not a new treatment, it has been around for a fairly long time.

Stephen