Need help with ick

[Mccune]

My 72 bow front has become sick with ick. I had an outbreak 16 weeks ago and lost my only two fish. I let the tank sit empty of fish for 9 weeks. I purchased a coral beauty, yellow tang , and hippo tang who were in the tank clear of any visable signs for 7 weeks. Last night I picked up my pair of maroon clowns which seemed completely healthy they were on hold in the store for weeks. Came down to look at my tank this morning and coral beauty and hippo tang have noticeable signs of ick. Is this from the stress of the new fish, or did the clowns bring it with them.

What do you think is the best treatment for ick?
Copper?
Hyposalinity?
Or are there any in tank reef safe methods?

 

[jokersplayground]

i used garlic extreme to fight ick. you soak there food in the garlic and feed it to them it builds there imune system to help fight off parisites. and it will also kill any in your tank if you dose straight to the tank

 

[stingythingy45]

You should read through these articles:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-10/sp/feature/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

Currently there is no known effective cure for Ich that is reef safe.

 

[MrX]

i used garlic extreme to fight ick. you soak there food in the garlic and feed it to them it builds there imune system to help fight off parisites. and it will also kill any in your tank if you dose straight to the tank

1) I think all the garlic does is stimulate the fish to eat, i.e., make it more tasty to eat; sure, a full/healthy fish will have a better immune system, but I don't think it's directly related to garlic
2) In all the reading I've done and speakers I've heard I never heard anyone say dosing garlic to your tank will kill ich

As Christine Williams and others have said, the only way to be sure it's out of your DT is to leave it fallow for 2-3 months, while using copper or hypo on the fish in QT during that time.

 

[mchartier]

and it will also kill any in your tank if you dose straight to the tank

Where did you hear/read that?

Garlic is good to help attract finicky eaters to food.

The links Bob posted are a very good read on the subject

 

[Phinfan]

+1 with Mr. X and we heard it Sunday at her talk.

 

[Old Glory]

This is true..."the only way to be sure it's out of your DT is to leave it fallow for 2-3 months, while using copper or hypo on the fish in QT during that time."

What do you have for coral and inverts? If it is fish only you could hypo the display tank with the fish in it. I did this sucessfully. I felt it was better than cramming all my fish in a smaller QT tank.

The other option is to try and keep ick controlled. Use garlic; keep fish well fed; keep water quality consistent; and use a properly sized UV.

 

[higorc]

Oh man, I break out in HIVES every time i hear that dreadful "Ich" word! Second all the good advises above.

Good Luck!

Higor

 

[jokersplayground]

i read it off the back of the garlic extreme bottle.

 

[Mccune]

My tank is a mixed reef that is got a lot on corals inside I'm going to have to set up a quarintine for my fish

 

[PSU4ME]

Yes you'll need to QT the fish. Cupramine is a great copper treatment and hypo works as well but I prefer cupramine. An effective dose is .5ppm (get the test kit) and you'll need to hold that concentration there for 14 days. Then begin removing the copper via water changes, carbon or curpisorb. Since you need the DT to be fallow for at least 60 days, you can keep the fish in the QT/HT but make sure you keep up on the water quality as copper does a number on the bio filter.....it will come back around though.

Make sure not to cross contaminate anything with DT water during this period.

I used this and it worked.......also got a UV for good measure but currently no running it because all fish seem fine. You'll need to QT all fish going forward. And technically, you should QT frags and new rock additions too.

 

[Bostoreef]

I don't like QT tanks, they usually do more harm than good. Worst quarantine tank would be something like 10G !!!!
+1 for uv sterilizer and garlic. Wish you luck.

 

[PSU4ME]

Proper QT tanks are effective. You need to have size (I use a 29) and filtration (I have a seeded sponge in my sump at all times) and I feel they work. BUT poorly setup or managed QT tanks can be more stressful on the fish. Like everything in this hobby, there is a right way to do it and a wrong way.

I prefer to buy my fish from DD......they come in nice and healthy!

 

[Mccune]

I have a 40 breeder and 29 gallon sitting around I'm picking up two aqua clear 110 from a buddy and some heaters I will set up 2 qt tanks. Ill put the maroon clowns in the 29 and the other three fish in the 40 breeder. I have bio filter material laying in my sump for just this reason so there will be some biological filtration in the tanks. Can I switch to a cheaper salt for these qt tanks instead of my expensive salt for the reef? With the copper treatment I've never done it so how do you begin?

 

[PSU4ME]

This is a great resource - should answer your questions on setup and treatment.

And you can definitely use cheaper salt......I have reef crystals on had for that reason!

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...ologist-advice-ich-cryptocaryon-irritans.html

 

[JohnK]

I don't like QT tanks, they usually do more harm than good. Worst quarantine tank would be something like 10G !!!!
+1 for uv sterilizer and garlic. Wish you luck.

Yes if you are OK living with ick in your system forever. No if you actually want to get rid of it. UV and garlic will not kill ick, just annoy it a bit

 

[stingythingy45]

Yes if you are OK living with ick in your system forever. No if you actually want to get rid of it. UV and garlic will not kill ick, just annoy it a bit

+1
Never had a fish die in QT.
Had a couple die covered in ich, smelling like garlic though.

 

[Bostoreef]

Yes if you are OK living with ick in your system forever. No if you actually want to get rid of it. UV and garlic will not kill ick, just annoy it a bit

Ich is present in all tanks ... just like cold to us.

<<There are currently no drugs or chemicals that kill Ich while it resides in the fish skin or gills; they can only kill Ich when the parasite is in the water, and therefore all current therapies require a cyclical re-treatment program.>> from materials provided by University of Georgia. ---> UV work great to control Ich at this stage too. I have my UV 24/7.

Garlic will not kill ich; Garlic help the immune system function better. I use Garlic when i have cold, helps me a lot
QT must be a good size tank 29G plus. should be set in advance or so, otherwise main tank water can be use "emergency". bio-wheel filter already cycled.

In the end of the day there is no proving method to cure ich 100% ... we try to save our lovely fish :.

 

[luu78]

Ok, i dont want to start anything debate with anyone, just trying to help a fellow member using my own experience with ich on my powdered blue tang and emperor angel in the DT is that if they are eating well, feed them more, at least 3 times a day. Soaked food with Selcon and GarlicExtreme to increase/help with immune system. Change water more frequent than normal. The African cleaner wrasse was always on the fish trying to nip at ich which could help or could've increased the stress. But until this day, both fish are healthy and fat like a pig, and the cleaner wrasse is still in the tank. My opinion is, less stress is better and let the fish fight it. I'm sure there's ich in their natural environment too and they must have a way to fight it on their own. However, if you start seeing a loss of appetite (fish do not come to eat food when feeding) or ich becomes progressively worst then treatment is your next thing. I still have the pictures of how bad the PBTang was when he was infected last year. I read everything from how cleaner wrasse doesnt help with ich, ich life cycle, ...blah blah...and thought I would torture them even more with hyposalinity (least stressful method per online infos) so I said feed them more at least they have a full stomach. Also, feed live brines or live food in general to stimulate feeding..Good luck!

 

[me2003]

Stress weakens the immune system. The less stress and the better diet will allow the immune system to recover
and the fish to fight off the parasite. The improved diet not the garlic may be what cures the fish.
They are working on a vaccine.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22154774
I add a cleaner shrimp to a tank with ich. I believe the shrimp remove some of the parasites and
also reduces the stress on the fish (Helping the immune system to recover.
There is also this medicated food that people are trying.
Medicated foods deliver the medicine to the fish. I am not sure how reef safe it is or effective.
The active ingredient is Chloroquine phosphate. I would be interested in knowing if others have used this
and their results.

http://www.drgsmarineaquaculture.com/frozen-antiparasitic-detail.cfm