Ich? What to do?

[ShawnM]

I have a clown fish I believe has ich. I bought a fish from river city aquatics when I got home noticed whit dots on him. Found him in my power head this morning and now my percula has it. I have benn feeding brine and mysis shrimp soaked in menaced garlic juice for two days now wondering if anyone has a remedy for it he is the only fish in tank. I have some corals and inverts and that is it

[jestep]

Do you have the ability to setup a QT tank? Not a whole lot of reliable options if there's coral and inverts in the tank.

[ShawnM]

I have an empty 10 gal in the garage. What all would I need to set one up never used qt tank before

Don't know where I would set it up at though

[Juiceman]

I never worry when I see ich. I keep my fish fat and load them up with garlic and aminos. They'll beat it every time

[ShawnM]

what garlic and aminos do you use. I have been trying to find garlic extract but have not been succesful

[Timfish]

A UV sterilizer is the only thing I would use on a reef system to deal with ich. There are various options if you set up a quarintine system, the easiest being a hyposaline system but beware it will kill most inverts. There have been several good threads on both qurantine tanks and UV sterilizers you might search and read through. Here's a good link to a research paper on the "Ich" life cycle. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fa164

I have to disagree with the approach of just using garlic or other immune system boosting supplements. I have seen spontaneous "cures" in reef systems with good coral growth even without feeding garlic or other supplements. Far more frequently a single fish brings in the parasite which kills a significant percentage of the fish already established. Another scenario I've seen is a group of fish survive an outbreak and develop a resistance but the parasite is not irradicated and whenever new fish are added they come down with it and often die. A less common scenario I've seen is a fish that was quarantined and added to a tank which had fish resistant to the parasite but the parasite was present in small numbers and the new fish not only died from the parasite but facilitated the parasite to reach population levels that were able to overcome the established fish's resistance and additional deaths were experienced. When you also add the issue of different strains having different degrees of virulence treating an outbreak for a week or so with just a food supplement may very well allow a particularly virulent strain which population and infestation levels that no treatment is going to work.

[mrshall1027]

I use Garlic Extreme and Zoe. I put a mix of frozen food in a small glass container and put about 4 drops of Garlic Extreme on all cubes and then another 6 or so of the Zoe. I store it in the fridge in another plastic container and it lasts about a week and half. Much easier then soaking a small amount of food every night for feeding the next day.

I would also recommend getting a UV sterilizer. A lot of people swear by them and from personal experience, I wish I would have had one set up before adding fish. I added a tiny blue tang with ich and it died along with one of my clowns. If I had the UV sterilizer up and running, I think those two would have had a better chance at surviving as they were the two smallest fish in the tank. I've had the sterilizer up for about a month now and haven't had any other losses and haven't seen any new spots come up on the surviving fish.

[ClarkiiCircus]

If you're not going to set up a QT (which I would seriously recommend- while some people say its stressful, if done properly, can and WILL WORK...I've treated a clownfish, 2 clown triggers, a powder blue, a purple, and a blue hippo, with only 1 clown trigger dying, due to an internal gas disorder exacerbated by the treatment), I would recommend feeding "DR. G'S ANTI-PARASITIC" food. It works wonders.

If you do choose to set up a QT, here are a few resources:

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/23132-marine-ich-myths-facts.html (an overview, plus the myths associated w/ ich)

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/23130-copper-treatment-use-problems.html (how to perform a GOOD copper treat)

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/23131-hyposalinity-treatment-process.html (how to perform a hypo QT tank- I always personally opt for copper, with occasional hypo dips on the side. NEVER use hypo and copper together!)

Good luck, I know it's rough!

And +1 on the UV- I put a UV on the DT for 2 months while I had my fish out in treat for 1 month and QT for another. I've NEVER had ich since, but I also make sure to properly QT before adding now after learning the lesson the hard way :\

[ckyuv]

ive battled ich plenty of time as i do not have a qt system. I would just get a uv sterilizer, kent marine garlic and feed every day, he will shake it soon enough as long as he keeps eating. also cleaner shrimp help although i havent seen it go on my clown ever

[wesreyn]

I never worry when I see ich. I keep my fish fat and load them up with garlic and aminos. They'll beat it every time

This is exactly what I do and doesn't add stress to make it worse.

[mFrame]

You'll get tons of opinions on how to combat ich, but having just gone through another round of it in my tank and losing two strong, healthy fish who continued to eat throughout the battle I'll say that no fish is ever completely safe or immune. Any illness or parasite that persists long enough can wear down the toughest fish. The key seems to be keeping the infected fish eating and in as stress-free of an environment as possible. If it's a new fish that probably means QT'ing it so that it isn't simultaneously fighting off an illness and trying to establish a territory in the tank, which is stressful to both it and the other fish.

Regardless, I wouldn't just ignore it. In my experience, garlic based foods or adding finely crushed minced garlic (just a tiny bit) to food does seem to stimulate fish appetites.

[ShawnM]

Today when I woke up I started to feed twice a day. she did not eat so I decided to do a freshwater bath. there was a stringy film coming off her when I did the bath I could see all this gunk and whit dots fall off her. I put her back in the main display tank and she went to a spot on the sand in the middle of the tank and just stayed there. I fed again later that night and she did not eat. So we will see tomorrow when I get home if she is alive and I will keep trying to get her to eat.

[ShawnM]

Well both r dead now have a fish less tank. I am not going to add another fish for 2 months this should rid the tank of ich correct?

[mrshall1027]

I'm sorry for your loss I've heard anywhere from 6 weeks to 3 months. I would probably hold off the longer period, just to be 100% sure.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[ClarkiiCircus]

Yes, a MINIMUM of 2 months is what I would recommend. Add a UV sterilizer during this time and you will be good to go.

Also, there's a really good chance if your fish died that quickly that it wasn't ich, but brooklynella; with this disease you can have ich like spots, but it also causes their mucous to slough off, and death within 12 hours of the protozoa releasing their toxins. It's ironically enough known as the "clownfish disease".

[+Mlaw]

Clarkii,

where do you get the "DR. G'S ANTI-PARASITIC" food?

I just had a coral beauty die of what I thought was ich but looking into it I'm afraid it might have been brooklynella. Any thoughts on treatment?

[George Monnat Jr]

I never worry when I see ich. I keep my fish fat and load them up with garlic and aminos. They'll beat it every time

This is what I've done. Only my tangs have had it the first week I have them, so I feed them Ocean Nutrition Marine Seaweed Selects with Natural Garlic Extract. They have all recovered, and it hasn't come back.

[ClarkiiCircus]

The anti-parasitic food covers both brooklynella and ich, so its always a good option for anything suspicious looking in an in-tank treatment. I got mine at MACNA but RCA has it now!

[George Monnat Jr]

The anti-parasitic food covers both brooklynella and ich, so its always a good option for anything suspicious looking in an in-tank treatment. I got mine at MACNA but RCA has it now!

What's the name?

[+Mlaw]

Looks like my coral beauty isn't the only one I'm going to lose. One of my clowns was covered in white dust looking spots and having trouble last night. Woke up this morning and he is dead. I have one clown left in that tank. Guess I'll head over to RCA and see if they have the medicated food this morning. Unfortunately a QT tank isn't an option at this point.

[mrshall1027]

Looks like my coral beauty isn't the only one I'm going to lose. One of my clowns was covered in white dust looking spots and having trouble last night. Woke up this morning and he is dead. I have one clown left in that tank. Guess I'll head over to RCA and see if they have the medicated food this morning. Unfortunately a QT tank isn't an option at this point.

Sorry for your loss, sucks to loose fish. If I were you, I would try to give your last clown to RCA (maybe they'll give you credit) and just let your tank sit fish free for a couple of months to get rid of the parasite. If you can't set up a QT, then you may want to purchase your next fish from a website like Live Aquaria where they quarantine and treat their fish before sale and come with a healthy arrival guarantee.

[George Monnat Jr]

The fish-free idea is a good one, "if you want 99.7% chance [of being ich free], you will leave the tank fallow for 9 weeks."

[+Mlaw]

Looks like my coral beauty isn't the only one I'm going to lose. One of my clowns was covered in white dust looking spots and having trouble last night. Woke up this morning and he is dead. I have one clown left in that tank. Guess I'll head over to RCA and see if they have the medicated food this morning. Unfortunately a QT tank isn't an option at this point.

Sorry for your loss, sucks to loose fish. If I were you, I would try to give your last clown to RCA (maybe they'll give you credit) and just let your tank sit fish free for a couple of months to get rid of the parasite. If you can't set up a QT, then you may want to purchase your next fish from a website like Live Aquaria where they quarantine and treat their fish before sale and come with a healthy arrival guarantee.

I just got back from RCA and they sold me some stuff to treat the tank with. We'll see how it goes. If he starts to show signs I'll pull him out and take him to RCA.

They don't have the Dr. G's in stock right now. They carry it but can't seem to keep it on the shelves.

[DerrickH]

Ive had ich 3 times in three different systems. I tried garlic and all that other stuff....no success. I installed a UV on each one, about a week later fish showed no signs of ich and stayed that way till I sold them (months later). They were yellow and blue hippo tangs from Petco (ich factory in most cases).

If you run UV, I'd put it on a timer. Run during daylight and off at night unless you have inverted sump light schedule. Also, slow turn over rate on a UV is best. Gives more contact with lamp to kill free floating parasites.

[+Mlaw]

just ordered the UV designed to fit into the bio cube. Hooks into the return pump. Can't really put it on a timer or slow the flow down but I figure it is better than nothing and hides nicely in the back of the tank. Don't have a fuge on the cube so that isn't an option.