treating ich without- chemicals?

[jbishop]

There's no miracle cure.

+1 its hypo or leaving the tank fallow. Or dealing with the white spots. My Powder brown has had the spots for 3 months now. Not getting worse getting slowly better no signs of being unhealthy.

 

[gobie1313]

I will never use kick ich again. I used it at the first signs of ich, and everything started dying ( not from ich). I'm going to continue the garlic feeding and the cleaner shrimp, hopefully they will fight it off.
Jared, that's good to know that your fish has had it for several months, i was wondering about that, because i know the parasite is always present,
but not necessarily deadly.

 

[NateHanson]

I think you've got the right idea gobie. Keep a very close eye on things, feed food fortified with selcon and garlic, keep everything as pristine as possible in the tank, and do anything you can to disrupt harrassment due to territoriality (mirror on tank, move some rocks, even perhaps trap the offending fish to the sump for a few days).

If the ick doesn't get worse, and the fish appears otherwise healthy, I'd just see if he can get over it as he relaxes into his new home.

Good luck.
Nate

 

[RayD]

I experienced the same problem with my 120 reef tank. Had a powder brown tang that was in the tank only a week when it got ich. Spread to my hippo tang (of course) and my purple dottyback...the rest were ok.
This may not go over big with other reefers here but it worked for me. I hooked up my uv sterilizer and ran it about a week and the ich cleared up ( I did lose the pbt but only q/t him would have helped in that case and I think it was too far gone). Once the ich cleared up I shut off the sterilizer so the good bacteria could flourish again. I also use garlic in their food all the time.
I never had success with additives like 'kick ich' or 'ich attack' and would definitely not recommend them.

No arguments from this reefer. UV sterilizer is on my system 24/7/365.

Works awesome.

 

[gobie1313]

Nate,
What does a mirror do?

 

[NateHanson]

Apparently, if you have a fish who is being very aggressive to a newcomer, they can be distracted by placing a mirror against the tank. The theory is that they spend more time displaying and fighting with that other new fish which looks EXACTLY like them, and don't bother your new fish so much.

Not sure if it's a totally bogus idea or not, but it seems plausible.

 

[gobie1313]

I should have done that with my X-wife ahahahah

very interesting

 

[jebar777]

i agree i have had awsome results with garlic....stupidly, a couple years ago i had bought a couple fish from a big chain pet store, and was infected with ich. i attribute them still being alive to the garlic. also none of my other fish ever caught it from them, cause they were already eating the garlic.

garlic is a verry powerful antioxidant for us and them.


on the flip side dont go crazy feeding them garlic and over feed the tank, cause then you will run into a whole other set of problems.....lol

good luck

 

[dupont603]

I have had minor ich spots on a few of my fish in the past.What i was told is the garlic or vitamin treatment thing and it worked for me.You also might want to try and boost up on your feeding.This is just stuff that has worked for me.

 

[Aquadan88]

At work, we make sure the fish keep eating. Suppliment with garlic. Add pest control stock (cleaner wrasse, skunk shrimp...etc). The seaweed is a great idea. Sounds like you're doin the right thing. I've never once had to use an ich med on a marine tank.

 

[gobie1313]

Update on treatment. I added the cleaner shrimp tonight, but the cream angel stopped eating. The yellow tang is fine, he will probably be able to fight the ich, especially since he's still eating like a pig. The cream angel is in a far off corner, the prognosis doesnt look good.

 

[jbishop]

Sorry to hear.

 

[deuceb]

use some vitamins also with that garlic dump some directly in water as well .come on am i the only one that has a little nitrate, every one with a problem always say 0 nitrate in my opinion thats ALMOST impossible

 

[LosingSleep]

Update on treatment. I added the cleaner shrimp tonight, but the cream angel stopped eating. The yellow tang is fine, he will probably be able to fight the ich, especially since he's still eating like a pig. The cream angel is in a far off corner, the prognosis doesnt look good.

Do you have anyone in your area that can take the angel off your hands and give it proper treatment, ...before it dies?

Maybe giving it away will save it's life.

 

[gobie1313]

I dont think i can catch it. I'm going to try tonight, the i have an old 10 gallon i can keep him in.
Deuce said to dumo garlic into the water, will that work .

 

[TheBigBadReefer]

couple things i have done:

lower the s.g. to about 1.020 - 1.022 this usually reduces stress on the fish

i've used an all natural, 100% organic treatment from chem-marin called "stop parasites" smells like tabasco sauce but works wonders

also a auto top off system is a good investment bc it keeps the tanks s.g. from fluctuating .

good luck hope this helps

 

[Matt L.]

The only way to truly eradicate ich is to remove all the fish to a hospital tank for treatment and leave the display fishless or(fallow) for 6-8 weeks.
I know it's a pain and I had to do through it about a year ago.

There is no miracle cure for Ich.

The only cure, as stated above, is to remove all the fish from your display tank and treat them with copper or hyposalinity in a separate hospital system that is large enough to hold them.

Quarantine, quarantine, quarantine.

I am a big advocate of hyposalinity because it works well for me, although copper is more effective.

Once Ich has become established to the point where you feel a fish's life is in jeopardy, copper and hypo are really your only options.

Garlic, Kick Ich, Cleaner Shrimp, and UV are not miracle cures. Success may be possible with some of these or a combination thereof, but they do not eradicate Ich. They only help keep it in check. If a fish is far gone with Ich, I have found they do not work fast enough.

I do run UV on my hospital tank continuously.

Matt

 

[stingythingy45]

I dont think i can catch it. I'm going to try tonight, the i have an old 10 gallon i can keep him in.
Deuce said to dumo garlic into the water, will that work .

Yikes,please don't dump garlic in your water.::
If you are going to manage Ich and not cure it go with reduced salinity and if you can swing the cost a UV sterilizer,go for it.Feed good quality foods maybe soaked in Selcon.And keep your water parameters in check.
But there is only 3 known cures.I would think there's actually 4.

1.)hypo treatment at 1.008 Sg for at least 4 weeks.
2.)copper
3.)tank switch method
4.)Formalin/malachite green (This is my 4th cure)

You could put 20 Skunk cleaners in that tank and they could pick the fish to death.And when it's all over it would still have Ich.
There's many a fish that's been flushed that had the sweet aroma of garlic on it's breath.
Garlic definitely helps stimulate a fish's appetite,no doubt.I think many fish eat well and eventually become immune to ich over time.But rest assured,if you add a fish to that tank that's weak from captivity in the future,you'll have ich again.
I wish you the best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[gobie1313]

Thanks everyone, I keep y'all posted.

 

[gobie1313]

update: the yellow tang is eating plenty of nori buttered with mashed garlic and loving it. He has no signs of parasites, except 1 eye is cloudy. The cream angel is still staying in seclusion and still not eating. ( i tried catching him tonight, too many rocks). I cant even get a good look at him. I raised the tank temp from 77 to 80 over several hours (only at 79 now) and i lowered the salinity 1.22.