So got ich

[lenver]

So I got a bad case of ich, and lost a few small fish from it, since my tank is almost new, about 4-5 months, and is easier to take out my coral and have those in a quarantine tank for the 72 day cycle, and just treat my display tank, I have a few questions.

What medication should I use in my display tank?, only fish will be there

Would 72 days be good on the coral to make sure no ich survided?

[jestep]

Do not treat the display tank. Get fish out for about 6 weeks and treat them in a QT tank. The chemicals used to treat ich will render any rock and possibly the tank itself unusable for coral or marine inverts.

[lenver]

OK, then.

Anyone has a fish trap?

[wizardx322]

You can't avoid ich if you had a break out just wait 4 to 6 weeks to add new and maybe run a UV to get any floating ich

To me you pulling the fish out and qt will stress them more ich is within all fish and just appears when they are stressed so its hard to avoid

[ckyuv]

Uv sterilizer and garlic always help!

[lenver]

I've always feed them Garlic Guard from Seachem, most of the fish look fine, it's just a few with ich, so you think I should just let Darwinism take over?

I do have a uv, never really hooked it up.

[nvandewa]

I had a hippo tang get ich after I pulled it out of qt and put it in main tank, but the fire shrimp took care of it. Highly recomend a cleaner shrimp of some sort.

[Sascha D.]

I've tried Ich Attack. It's supposed to be "reef safe" but I wouldn't recommend it. It didn't work even after three weeks of treatment.

When I managed the fish store, we used Methylene Blue. Its great for ich and velvet, but it will turn the seals on your tank blue for a little while. It generally goes away.

I've tried to buy a cleaner shrimp to take care of an ich problem before. Didn't work.

Some people on this site use low salinity. I've never done it but it's a valid option.

[prettyfishy76]

When I had fish that weren't doing so well because of ich, I would place them in a hospital tank with LOW salinity (1.009) and Copper (Cupramine). I lowered the salinity over a 2-3 day period, having added the Cupramine from the beginning. The pairing knocked the physical signs of ich out fairly quickly. However, I made sure to leave the fish in this environment for a month, changing the water daily and adding more Cupramine to make up what I was taking out. Make sure to slowly raise the salinity in the HT before you add them back to the DT. The fish that I treated survived.

For the fish of mine that had ich but were acting normally and eating, I would just stuff them with more food and they would be able to fight off the parasite. Those fish seem to be the most resistant afterwards to further ich infestations.

[FarmerTy]

Like most have stated already, healthy fish that were eating just fine before will survive it... some say better with garlic-soaked food. Purely anecdotal regarding the garlic soak as it hasn't been studied yet but but I soak in garlic as well just in case. I figure why not.

Cleaner shrimp may help alleviate irritants on the infected fishes skin which may indirectly help with ich but I remember reading a study that examined stomach contents of cleaner shrimp that were cleaning ich infected fish and they never found any remains of ich parasites within the stomachs of the shrimp. I think that's just one of those old wives tales that perpetuates in the reefing world.