Argh I have Ich

[thebulkhimself]

My Blue tang has developed Ich and now my Bi-color blennie is showing symptoms of Ich as well.

I am in the process of dropping the salinity in the tank and slowly getting the temperature up to about 82-84'F.

A friend has loaned me his cleaner wrasse (He has a massive tank) to help with the problem.

I would really like to fix the Ich without the use of a Quarantine tank as its quite hard for me to achieve but I would be able to do it if I had to

Is it possible for me to rid the tank of Ich without the use of a quarantine tank???

I have besides some trocon snails only a bubble tip anenome - no corals.

Can I medicate the main tank??? - My LFS gave me Sulfur tablets, I'm not sure he knows what he is doing though!!!!

Please help with any ideas

Andrew

[fish.freak]

I would hold off on the sulfur tabs for now...
Most people have been letting ich run its course and just keeping the water pristine and the fish fat and happy with food and garlic.
How much were you planning on dropping your salinity with you anemone? I dont suggest dropping it below 1.019.

[thebulkhimself]

yeah i was going to drop it to 1.020 and heating the tank to 82'F

I just gave it a 10 % water change and will do another one tomorrow.

Fingers crossed

How good are the cleaner wrasses in this sort of scenario??? does anybody know??

[thebulkhimself]

question - how do i feed with garlic???

[tims]

you want to use the garlic juice and soak your flakes in it

[loubee]

Hello Andrew,

Cleaner shrimp are an excellent natural way of controlling white spot. I would use medication as the very last resort (not yet) & if possible not at all.

Have you checked your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH & KH levels using reliable test kits like Salifert profi test? If so how are they? Also are you checking your SG using a refractometer because its surprising how unaccurate hydromters can become. If any of these things are slightly out the fish can become stressed and so loose some of their natural slime coating allowing any free swimming parasite to latch onto the fish.

It would be really worth while investing in a uv steriliser if you don't already have one too. This would kill free swimming white spot parasites in the water and so make it far easier to get rid of the problem.

Hope your fish recover soon!

Lou

[loubee]

Oh sorry I've just noticed you said cleaner wrasse not shrimp!

Cleaner wrasse will do a good job too but I think can be more annoying to the fish than the cleaner shrimp. Maybe buy a cleaner shrimp or two to help (especially useful after you return your friend's wrasse) shrimps are also hardier than cleaner wrasse.

Lou

[Geoff]

take it easy!! it is better to get the tank stable then to try multiple things at once and stress the fish out more.

G~

[thebulkhimself]

Good call Geoff.

Sounds like a plan to me - I realised my UV sterilser globe is no longer working so I have ordered a few globes off ebay and besides turning up the heat on my tank to 79'F and reducing the salinity to 1.020 i think I'll just sit on my hands and see what happens.

Thanks for the info and thoughts also Lou.

See how it goes

[reefermike1]

a cleaner shrimp or 2 and garlic soaked food, then just let it run its course imo. if u ever want the tank to be a reef tank dont use any copper based meds.