No worries about you giving me ick,none of the other tanks that I put the MA in are showing any signs of ick(nock on wood :biggrin: )As for the hydrometer,its one of the glass one that doubles as a thermometer.

Oh crap! I just realised I use the same cleaning magnet in all the tanks :cry: (well,I guess time will tell)

Jim

I just got my first damsel a few days ago. I believe he had the ick as well. He had some white spots on him. I'm not sure if it was the shock of going into my tank. Anyhoo, I soaked some of the fish food I have in some fresh garlic, and put some in the tank. He doesn't really eat a lot, at least when i'm not there, just runs around the food and stuff. Only once I say him take some food in. However today I noticed that the white spots are declining which is good. I've only had the guy since Friday.

One dose of garlic is not going to cure your new damsel of ick. That the spots have started to go away is the sign they have gone into the reproductive stage and will appear again in several days.

Here are links about ick posted at the beginning of this thread:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...2003/mini1.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...2003/mini2.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...2004/mini3.htm


HTH.

Thanks for the info. I did mix up a bit of the food and some garlic in a small container, so I will continue to feed him over the next week at least. I also added a airstone to my tank temporary.

I read those articles, very informative. The only thing is that he still doesn't seem to be eating the food when I put it in the tank. Maybe he eats it later, but not when I'm there. Is that normal?

The garlic gets into the slime coat of the fish and the parasite doesn't like to attatch to a fish that .. has BO... keep feeding garlic..

Doug

If the fish isn't eating the food you are feeding it, I suspect it was eating something else at the lfs. Find out what it was eating there and feed it the same food, without the garlic at first. Once it gets used to eating the food it was eating at the lfs, add a small amount of garlic to the food. Then increase the amount so that the garlic is overwhelming.

I still don't have faith in the garlic method, but since my H-tank has not yet cycled, I'm giving it an honest, thorough try. I feed my ick fish, which are two 2" fairy wrasses and a 3" angelfish, PE mysis. For one tablespoon of food, I use 10-12 drops of Garlic Xtreme and a about half teaspoon of Kent Zoe. Half the food is consumed in the morning feeding, the other half is refridgerated until the afternoon feeding. The pm feeding mysis must be REALLY saturated with garlic by then :eek:

I will continue feeding this garlic/mysis concoction for the next six weeks, or until the H-tank has cycled. If the ick does not affect the fish for six weeks in the display tank, I will deem the garlic method a success..... but not until then.

I bought the same food the lfs was feeding him. He wasn't eating it at all, so yesterday after I added some garlic, he had a few bites of it. This morning I gave him more, but he didn't eat. About 1 hour ago, I gave him some of the food (without garlic) and he gulped it all up in a few seconds. Maybe he's just getting use to the tank?

The fish would be hungry whether it is getting used to the tank or not, proved by the fish gulping down the non-garlic food. JMO, but I would add just a bit of garlic to the fish's food for the next few days until it gets used to the garlic smell. I'm sure the fish will come around to eating once it knows that garlic is part of his new food. Again, jmo.