Best Treatment for Ich

[Reef_Angel]

This garlic remedy is interesting. Whoyah has a good question there. Doe's the garlic work on all types of fish is ich? I have to say, I like the natural remedy. I also think that if you have a tang of any kind, you should get a cleaner shrimp. They beg and annoy all the other shrimp in the tank to clean them, and the other shrimp just look at them like their stupid. lol I have to add that to my list that seems to be forever growing!

[peregrinus]

the garlic is the drop kind garlic extract you can get at GNC or health food stores. if you make your own food just put a few drops in the mix and freeze it. reg garlic will work if you crush it up and mix it with the food. garlic flavored fish.. mmmm j/k :D i personal don't like seafood.

[peregrinus]

ok and www.brineshrimpdirect.com has a garlic flake food you can buy. just some info.

[Reef_Angel]

Great food for thought. Well now I know what to do if we get any ich in our tank. Thanks!

[davejnz]

I just took a fresh clove from the pantry,chopped it up,and placed it in a container of flake.

[Whoyah]

Well Dory and Marlin have been laid to rest. Yes, they died. Dory has been struggling with the Ich since I first posted this. The Ich spots would come and go but there would always be one or two. I using the garlic as suggested which seems to help but never really cured it. Marlin picked it up after I had a big swing in pH do to some problems sump return pump and subsequently my top off system.

On Saturday I decided that I would quarantine them and treat them with the Greenx I had. Both seemed to be doing OK but not reallying overcoming it. I thought maybe by killing the Ich on them it would allow them to heal up totally. I used a 4 gallon bucket and did a small water change to fill it. I scooped both up with out a problem. I treated the QT and went to bed. Everything looked OK on Sunday. Dory was hiding but I kind of excepted that. Yesterday morning both were out and about but by lunch Dory was died. Marlin looked pretty good but was not eating. Right before bed I looked in on him and he was died as well.

I am very bummed. In my hast to add Dory to the main tank I infected both of the fish. Marlin I had for quite a while, maybe a year and half. I had been really excited to get a regal tang and Dory was just the right size. I guess at this point the best to do is learn from my mistakes.

[peregrinus]

thats to bad.

[dakar]

Well here we go now... Angel's Auriga Butterfly started showing signs of ich, Garlic seemed to be helping for a while and started coming around, think the bugs were just waiting to attack again, but she crashed last night really bad and we lost her this morning. We decided to treat all remaining fish and to rid every possible chance of any ich parasites that could be left in the 55, all fish were removed (what a job, had to tear the whole reef up to get them) they are now not quite so happily relocated to the 29G tank, now the process of dropping the salinty over the next couple days then maintaining water params as stable as possible for at least the next 6 weeks and we'll see how everyone fairs. Baby Dory is looking a bit shell shocked, Clarkii is going nuts without his Sabae, the blennies and goby aren't too thrilled either but just a little heavy beathing, I drip acclimated them for over an hour hoping that would help ease the transition from 1.025 to 1.023 SG. We'll see what the morning brings.

The poor 55 looks kinda barren being minus the fish, but with no hosts present for them the dirty little bugs should be dead in a single life cycle, but they'll get at least two months worth of no fish to infect just for good measure.

You can bet this will be the LAST time a fish makes into any display tank without spending at least a month in a new QT. Except for the pair of Clarkii's weds, but they will have the entire 180 to themselves for a while as I get the new lighting, more rock and all that good stuff, cleaning crew, so I guess that'll server as a BIG QT.

One question for ya'll, can you think of anything else besides weekly or more 10-15% water changes once the Sg is down to 1.009. Skimmer will be useless, afraid nitrates may get out of control and stir up more issues.

[jerryc]

Ich thank i have been lucky i have naiver had it" But thine i keep vary few fish
i usual just have 3 in my 55 and all put in at the same time. I lost 3 whine i set
up the 29 a few years ago but that was from poor water. But again i thank i have
just been Lucky.

[Buiryn]

One question for ya'll, can you think of anything else besides weekly or more 10-15% water changes once the Sg is down to 1.009. Skimmer will be useless, afraid nitrates may get out of control and stir up more issues.

I do hypo-salinity on all new fish for at least a month. I let the fish settle in the Q-Tank for about a week (or two) to make sure they're eating before starting the hypo. If they have any signs of ick, I'll go longer in the treatment.

To drop the sg in the QT, I remove 10% of the tank water, then have fresh RODI water in a bucket above the QT. I then start a drip from the fresh water into the QT near a water movement source. This takes several hours and gives them a nice slow acclimation to the new sg. I repeat once a day until the sg is at 1.009.

What I do while doing a hypo is check ph, nitrites, nitrates, and ammonia daily for the first week and do 10% water changes as needed. Basically, if any of the levels start getting out of control, do a small water change. After the first week, you should get a feel for how fast the levels are going up and can adjust the frequency of testing/water changes.

Hope this helps.

Matt