Marine Ich

[Newbie Fish]

Sooooo

My coral beauty came down with ich, and now it's spread to my Mccosker Wrasse. No one else in my 29 BioCube has it (yet).

All of the effective treatments I have found online are unworkable for me. I do not have the space for a quarantine tank large enough for all of my fish--not that this would matter because there is no way I'd be able to catch all of them anyway. I can't run copper or anything else in my main tank because of all my corals and other invertebrates.

My question is whether or not the ich will eventually pass. I'm not trying to sound naive; I know that it will be here for a while. I asked Robert at King Ed's and he said the best I can do now is watch all my fish die. (You know his sense of humour.) Has anyone else left their fish untreated and watch them eventually become immune or the ich eventually go away? I read online that after 11 months, the ich will go away if no new ich is introduced into the aquarium.

[Aquattro]

There are so many threads here on exactly this. You need to search and read them.
Essentially no, you can't just leave them, they will likely die. You can feed garlic, drain tank to catch and move them, etc.

[daniella3d]

It can go anywhere from having all your fish dead to having all of them fight off the ick and recover from it or anything in between.

It is most likely that at the slightest sign if stress the ick will come back with a vengance.

I know some people who did not have any problem with ick for 3 years and did not introduce anything new, yet after a major stress all fish died from ick so it was still present on them, just in low level infection on their gills.

With any parasite, it can go anywhere depending on the strength of the parasites and the resistance or stress level of the fish.



Sooooo


Has anyone else left their fish untreated and watch them eventually become immune or the ich eventually go away? I read online that after 11 months, the ich will go away if no new ich is introduced into the aquarium.

[Newbie Fish]

Can anybody vouch for the effectiveness of garlic? I'm considering picking up a bottle of Kents Garlic Xtreme.

[Aquattro]

Use fresh garlic. Extracts don't contain the allecin compound you're after (to any degree you need).
Crush the garlic and soak the food in the oil.

[Newbie Fish]

I'm going to give this a go. I'm assuming this worked for you?

Use fresh garlic. Extracts don't contain the allecin compound you're after (to any degree you need).
Crush the garlic and soak the food in the oil.

[reefgirl189]

I've used nothing but Kent marine garlic extreme and overfeeding (to ensure the fish get plenty of garlic), and it's worked great in my case.

I think the trick is to catch it and start treating with garlic before the ick gets too bad.

[troni]

dont cleaner shrimp eat parasites?
and from now on add garlic to their diet.

[Aquattro]

I'm going to give this a go. I'm assuming this worked for you?

Many times, yes :)

[Newbie Fish]

Should I give it to them every day? My other concern is how the garlic will affect everything else in the tank. Will my corals be okay if they eat it?

[Midway]

I just got the same problem myself here. Ick outbreak after introducing new fish without QT ( i know very DUMB from my part) from now I will QT everything. Do NOT wait like I did, hoping It was gonna go away on its own.... Very bad idea, after a week or so my fish were dropping like flies. I treated my tank with herbatana, i think it worked somehow but my fish kept on dying. I have a big tank, 240gals. As you can see not a easy job to tear down the tank to get all the fish out for treating. I read some people were having really good results with UV sterilizers. I had one rated for 500 gals, i just bought a new bulb to be for effective. I've been running the UV for something like a week now and the remaining fish look ok. I can say ick is retreating somehow.
I know it could come back with a vengence. If that happens i would have to other choice but to tear down the tank to get them out and treat them with hyposalinity. Oh and i have been feeding lots of garlic (fresh). That has definitely helped. Fingers CROSSED.