Ich on my flame angel. Please help I've never had ich before

[MPevine11]

Please help, have never had ich before. I have a 40 breeder with 2 clowns, one orchid dottieback and a flame angel

The flame angel has ich and I have no idea the best way to treat it. I have some coral (zoas,mushrooms, tree, torch candy ane) and 2 anemones.


What should I do I just noticed the fish had it, and it doesn't appear any other fish do.

 

[sfb911]

Lots of people will have ideas on this. What has worked for me is heavy feeding with quality frozen food. I typically dip it in selcon or a mix of vitamin c, amino acid and garlic. I have controlled a couple of minor outbreaks with this method.

 

[Overlook reef]

Good water quality and good food with garlic additive. Most fish can fight it off by themselves if they are strong and have good food and water.

 

[MPevine11]

I feed instant ocean marine chips, frozen brine shrimp, and frozen ocean nutrition formula one and two

 

[PSU4ME]

Having good water quality and feeding it quality food (what you listed wouldn't be my choice) can help the fish fight it but it won't cure it. And while you gamble with that option, the rest of your tank can catch it. The best thing to do is to set up a hospital tank and treat with cupramine.

A better (IMO) food selection would include mysis, krill and/or live worms. Adding the selcon and vitamins as mentioned above is also a great way to enhance the good although that should be added every 3-4 days versus only when they are sick.

 

[mnavick]

There is no quick cure for ich!
It is hospital tank with copper or a tank transfer method then back into a hospital tank.
Then your display must stay fallow for at least 70+days and even then there is evidence of different strains lasting longer.
TRUST ME I just went through this!
Garlic has been proven to increase appetite but long term can harm the fish.

 

[reefstarter]

I had started to have some ICH in my tank and through the advice of a couple of the LFS in the area I started adding some vitamin C and amino acids , they seemed to pull through quickly and haven't seen any signs of it since . ( watch now that I say that ) lol good advice here from these guys good luck !!!

 

[Overlook reef]

Hospital tanks and keeping your tank fallow are the best solution, but I believe it is pretty difficult to keep ich out of your tank. IMO keeping stress down (good water quality and good food and vitamins) will help your fish fight off Ich. I have had it in several tanks and the fish have fought it off and never got it again.

 

[PSU4ME]

While I stated above to use the hospital tank, I agree with the above that it is hard to ensure an ich free tank. Keeping the fish healthy is the best defense. But it's just that, a defense and not a treatment. If you wanna treat a fish, out it goes into some copper!

How bad of a case do you have?

 

[sfb911]

Ich happens. For most reefers, its almost impossible to keep out of your tank, while balancing this being a hobby vs a full time job (My opinion, no need to flame). As a bunch of folks mentioned, good water chemistry, high quality food, and some supplements and most healthy fish can keep it in check on their own.

I had a pretty bad ich outbreak when I started and didn't recognize it quick enough, lost about half my fish, since then, I've added a UV filter (questionable if this helps but it makes me feel better), made sure my water has stayed in check and done supplementation, as I mentioned. What I do for feeding on a weekly basis:

3 days x Frozen Mysis (1 day soaked in selcon, 1 day soaked in vitamin c, amino acids and garlic, 1 day plain mysis) - with the selcon I dump it right in, with the vitamin cocktail, I drain the excess water through a coffee filter and then feed the mysis after a quick rinse.
2 days x Larry's Reef Frenzy
2 days x Specialty food made by my LFS

I try to mix it up so its not the same food the same day every week, and I do feed pretty sparingly so I haven't had any algae blooms due to the high nutrient diet.

Since I started this regimen, I've seen one maybe two instances where a fish showed some signs (in both cases it was a orchid dottyback and the other fish were un-effected). Both times, within about 3-4 days it cleared up completely and the fish has been fine since. I've not had any other losses in the tank except for a cardinal that was bullied by its mate.

Maybe won't work for you since every tank is different but it worked well enough for me.

 

[MPevine11]

It's not that bad. Just a hand full of white spots. I'll head to the pet store after work and pick up some better food. Water seems to be fine....

It's weird no other fish pick on him, he bullies the dottieback from time to time.

 

[ro_nicu]

that's how it always starts, "a couple of spots on jut this fish", next thing you know half the fish a dead ....

I've heard it all and while I do have my own opinion on what certain people say I'll keep the flame out of here.
I'll tell you what other people that deal with 100+$ fish do (discus breeders); they quarantine for at least 30 days, that's considered not even a quarantine my most of them, they treat at first sign of ich, full treatment course regardless if the spots go away sooner.
the water quality is kept up to par, none of them would even consider putting those fish in anything less that perfect.
they disinfect all the equipment from time to time, they keep separate equipment for separate tanks.

what you do is your choice but if you want to possibly wake up with "my fish started disappearing one by one" than just feed them better, don't treat and hope for the best, statistically speaking the first time you cause any stress in the tank you will see some more signs of ich or even worse.

P.S. indiscreet question: where did the fish come from?

 

[Nanoreef15]

can you bring it back to the store or to wherever you bought it from?

 

[JohnK]

can you bring it back to the store or to wherever you bought it from?

That would be pointless, the tank is already infected.

 

[MPevine11]

@ro got it from fish mikes aquaics in Manchester NH

 

[Pinkskunk]

i have had battles with ick and i did everything people suggested, feeed heavy, this and that...... the only thing that actually work is Tank Transfer. and the maine tank has to have no fish for 8 weeks. not the most practical method but it worked. luckily i have multiple tanks so i can do this.

 

[ReeferSutherland]

I had a minor outbreak as well. What worked for me was to figure out the reason for the outbreak and solve it. The reason ich breaks out is stress on the fish. What caused the stress to my fish was the royal blue tang I had was way too big for my 40 long. So I rehomed him and fed the rest of the fish very well every 4 or so hours. The ich went away for my tank and the royal blue was fine when I went to see him a couple weeks later.

 

[JohnK]

Ick is like a cold, stress makes us/fish more suceptible but the virus/parisite needs to be there in the first place. No virus/parisite, then no amount of stress will cause an infection/outbreak.

 

[ro_nicu]

I'll say something that will probably cause an avalanche of flame from people that believe in "ich control".

From the point of view of disease progression a human disease that is similar to ich is tuberculosis. A perfectly healthy individual might thrive in a tuberculosis environment for a long while, until one day his a little off and becomes a carrier, and then on another day he's a little off he gets ill, and than you can treat him a little and ask him to exercise and eat healthy and stay dry and warm and he'll be fine for a while until he relapses and it starts all over, and at every relapse he gets worse and worse until one day he dies regardless of what you do, his lungs are just gone and even if you eradicate the tuberculosis he's not capable of in-taking enough oxygen to sustain his existence.

same with ich.

same goes for the treatment approach, you can try to contain and risk infection of other individuals and almost certain death at some point or you can TREAT and eradicate.

I personally quarantine for at LEAST 30 days, I know, pain in the neck, double duty, wife breathing down your neck, etc. That's one of the reasons I prefer to get my livestock all at once and in the same place, I know they are all through quarantine at the same time and I know where all of them came from and who passed on his issues to me. I also avoid places I suspect of "ich control" unless I have NO OTHER OPTION.

 

[jonros]

The last time my tank got infested with ich I set up a 20 gal and put what corals (mainly softies - torches, leathers, mushrooms and frogspawn colonies) and CUC into it. And as much live rock / sand as possible.

The display tank then went thru hypo-salinity. Ten painful weeks later the contents from the 20g was transferred over - effectively 'seeding' the display tank.
Understand that I could not go the way of a hospital tank - I would have needed a good-sized tank as my fish are relatively big (arguably my 125g is overstocked.)

FWIW my Achilles tang showed no ill effects from hypo. I considered her my most sensitive fish and she was fine throughout.