We have Ich- oh the fun...

[reefer.madness]

I noticed 2 spots on my Hippo and within 2 days the Purple Tang was covered with it!! I have set up QT and am doing the hyposalinity for ALL fish and will remain in the QT for 6 weeks. Here is a link to the treatment I am doing.( The only difference is I am not treating with copper. )

IchArt2Mar

[reefcrazy8587]

that sucks-when my purple got it-i didnt use any chemicals-and it was too darn fast to catch==but I LOADED it with garlic! Get the garlic seaweed and feed them that..it worked for me.

[pogodzib]

I treat almost all of my new fish as if they have ich and immediately start hypo treatment after purchasing them. The only fish that I don't do this with are fish like as mandarins that need live pods to survive or certain bottom dwellers that are ich resistant and don't handle hypo treatment very well. I haven't had ich in my tank since I started doing this several years ago. My lastest fish acquisition is also a hippo tang and I am just finishing up my hypo treatment on it. I'm glad to hear that your choosing to treat your fish right away. Just be patient and give the treatment time to work. Once your done with the hypo portion of the treatment, raise the salinity up slowly over several (3-4 minimum) days or the fish may end up dying from shock.

BTW - I like to refer to the following link to read up on ich treatment. http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/hyposalinity.html

[jumpman420]

+1 on the garlic. When I got my sailfin it was fine for a few days, then started getting ich bad, started using the Kent Marine Garlic Extreme which is a 99% garlic juice extract. I soaked my Rods food and frozen with 2 drops and added a drop/10 gallons to the main tank. Within 3 days all but one spot was gone, and I discontinued after a week. I added my hippo a two weeks after that, started doing the garlic again, and never did get a spot on the hippo, but then again, he thinks he's a clownfish.........that's another story.....

[tangmang23]

ive been lucky enough were i havnt had to deal with any disease yet. I also agree that hypo is a good method of treatment. Think about it this way, we dont want copper in our main tanks, and if your using nets and whatnot its just that small amount that is getting transferred. Plus when you go to put the fish back in the main tank, you need him in water, and you could be pulling some copper from your treatment tank to the DT, which is something i always avoid doing. let us know how it goes.

[cutietwo]

good luck!!

[Jrmass]

I guess that the garlic in treating ich is something that I am not familiar with and I in knowing and some-what understanding the life cycle of the ich parasite realize that the larve live both in the sand bed and in the fish's skin. So, if someone could post something to prove or disprove garlic I would honestly like to read it. Because the life cycle of the ich cyst is four to six weeks thus the six week QT that everyone follows is what most perform before adding new specimens to the DT. So, with that said and knowing very much so next to nothing about the garlic method I seriously have to doubt the validity of a week OR LESS of garlic food or even garlic additive being a long-term solution to the ich problem. Then again I have been wrong plenty of times in the past and maybe this is one of those advancement in our hobby things that very few of us know yet.

With that said though Kristie... I would continue with the hyposalinity treatment as this I know for 100% sure is a tried and true method of removing the pest from your specimen. The only problem is....... How are you going to get rid of the ich from your DT? Have you removed all of the fish from your DT??? If not you will need to do so as the other fish even if they may not be showing signs will have the possibility of being carriers and keeping the ich alive in your tank.

btw... For all that do/did the garlic method from what I am reading it does seems to work... But, not in the means that I believe that everyone did it for. What I am saying is that garlic does NOT KILL ICH... It mearly boosts the fish's immune system to help build up an immunity to the ich parasite. This is fine as long as you are going to treat the tank with garlic for what I've read 11-12 months (as this is about how long a tank can support an active ich outbreak w/out the introduction of a new cyst line) *quoting this from http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/marineich.html* but, when you go to add new fish into the tank they are going to have a very hard time entering your tank as they will not have the immunity to the ich built up and the outbreak may and from the sounds of it will come back. Again, this is just from what I was reading... and by no means is it scientificially backed... I'm just trying to bring out some of the things that I've READ w/ no personal experience to back it up.
http://www.reefland.com/forum/marine...ths-facts.html

http://www.reefland.com/forum/reef-a...26954-ich.html

http://www.reefland.com/forum/reef-a...ut-garlic.html

http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/marineich.html

Hope this works.

Jason

[reefer.madness]

All the fish have been moved to the QT to remove the food source/host for the ich in the DT. That and the fact that they can carry it their gills with no sign of illness. Once the 6 weeks are up and they get moved back, I will be getting 2 more fish and QT for them as well. Once the 2 new are added, there will be no more fish added. Hopefully this will be the end of the ich issue.

[reefcrazy8587]

Originally Posted by Jrmass

I guess that the garlic in treating ich is something that I am not familiar with and I in knowing and some-what understanding the life cycle of the ich parasite realize that the larve live both in the sand bed and in the fish's skin. So, if someone could post something to prove or disprove garlic I would honestly like to read it. Because the life cycle of the ich cyst is four to six weeks thus the six week QT that everyone follows is what most perform before adding new specimens to the DT. So, with that said and knowing very much so next to nothing about the garlic method I seriously have to doubt the validity of a week OR LESS of garlic food or even garlic additive being a long-term solution to the ich problem. Then again I have been wrong plenty of times in the past and maybe this is one of those advancement in our hobby things that very few of us know yet.

With that said though Kristie... I would continue with the hyposalinity treatment as this I know for 100% sure is a tried and true method of removing the pest from your specimen. The only problem is....... How are you going to get rid of the ich from your DT? Have you removed all of the fish from your DT??? If not you will need to do so as the other fish even if they may not be showing signs will have the possibility of being carriers and keeping the ich alive in your tank.

btw... For all that do/did the garlic method from what I am reading it does seems to work... But, not in the means that I believe that everyone did it for. What I am saying is that garlic does NOT KILL ICH... It mearly boosts the fish's immune system to help build up an immunity to the ich parasite. This is fine as long as you are going to treat the tank with garlic for what I've read 11-12 months (as this is about how long a tank can support an active ich outbreak w/out the introduction of a new cyst line) *quoting this from http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/marineich.html* but, when you go to add new fish into the tank they are going to have a very hard time entering your tank as they will not have the immunity to the ich built up and the outbreak may and from the sounds of it will come back. Again, this is just from what I was reading... and by no means is it scientificially backed... I'm just trying to bring out some of the things that I've READ w/ no personal experience to back it up.
http://www.reefland.com/forum/marine...ths-facts.html

http://www.reefland.com/forum/reef-a...26954-ich.html

http://www.reefland.com/forum/reef-a...ut-garlic.html

http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/marineich.html

Hope this works.

Jason

boosting their immune system is the first step in making sure they survive. I am not a "chemical" person...and this was our best option--I did some research at the time (Trust me I was flipping out!) and it stated that having a healthy, active fish...would in turn help the fish fight the ich on its own... and it worked.my purple tang is alive and healthy which is great for me--especially since a few people told me they are harder to keep
kind of how humans dont NEED medicine to fight the cold, or an ear infection...it sucks to deal with but if you bump your immune system your body can fight off bugs

[ReefLuvR]

Originally Posted by reefer.madness

All the fish have been moved to the QT to remove the food source/host for the ich in the DT. That and the fact that they can carry it their gills with no sign of illness. Once the 6 weeks are up and they get moved back, I will be getting 2 more fish and QT for them as well. Once the 2 new are added, there will be no more fish added. Hopefully this will be the end of the ich issue.

Sounds like a well thought-out plan to me Kristie. I wish you and your fish the best of luck.

What fish are you planning to add once this little nightmare is over? I'm maxed out (in my opinion) so I'm living vicariously through everyone else now! LOL

[Jrmass]

Originally Posted by CoonValleyCorals LLC

boosting their immune system is the first step in making sure they survive. I am not a "chemical" person...and this was our best option--I did some research at the time (Trust me I was flipping out!) and it stated that having a healthy, active fish...would in turn help the fish fight the ich on its own... and it worked.my purple tang is alive and healthy which is great for me--especially since a few people told me they are harder to keep
kind of how humans dont NEED medicine to fight the cold, or an ear infection...it sucks to deal with but if you bump your immune system your body can fight off bugs

I didn't say that boosting their immune system was not a good idea... I just asked for some evidence that it was the garlic that did the work. Everything I've read states that treating a tank for a short time with garlic will not do anything but cause an additional outbreak at a later time as the ich parasite still remains. And any additional fish added to the tank that have not been exposed will contract the parasite when added into a tank treated as such being the ich cycle will continue upwards of 12 months or 34 cycles of life depending on how fast they reproduce.

My $0.02.

[pogodzib]

Garlic does boost a fish's immune system, but IMO, while this boost in the fish's health is a good thing, it is not the best method for treating ich since it doesn't kill the parasite. Without killing the parasite, it can reinfect your tank. Treating all of your fish in a QT using copper or hyposalinity is the only guaranteed way (as long as you do it correctly) to eliminate ich. The only time I'd recommend garlic over one of the other two methods is if the ich outbreak is very minimal (very few spots) and you have fish in your tank that can't handle either of the other two treatment methods. In that case, try garlic and see if ich comes back again. If it does, move on to one of the other methods.

[reefcrazy8587]

agreed..my ich was not too out of control-we nipped it in the butt right away- it was scary since it was a p.tang and i loved the fish to death! there were not spots everywhere-but there were more than i cared for(20+) on each side-the fish stayed healthy the whole time too...ich is the main reason I am afraid of introducing a hippo tang to my tank..I want one but I know their track record...

[pogodzib]

Originally Posted by CoonValleyCorals LLC

ich is the main reason I am afraid of introducing a hippo tang to my tank..I want one but I know their track record...

As long as you quarantine ALL incoming fish from the beginnings of the tank, you don't need to worry about ich with showing up on any fish in the main DT, even a hippo tang.

[reefer.madness]

So far, so good here. The tangs look much better.
I plan on adding 2 sand sifters and a Flame Angel. At that point, I'd say I'm maxed out with fish too. Once they are done with their qt time, they will get added. No more new fish- no more introduction of ich. I've had 1 death- the purple firefish jumped out, then managed to get himself sucked up the HOT magnum too. He didn't fare to well...