My long nosed yellow butterfly has

[Booboo33062]

It has ich. I can't get it out of my 150 gallon tank so I have just been leaving it alone. It is still eating well as all the others are. I put garlic juice in the food I feed them. Is this all I can do?

[bosscrab]

You can but, the parasite is in the system now. The only way to rid it completly of Ich is to go FALLOW. So you can leave him but he will just continue to get it.

[gwaco]

yeah the ich will be in your system , but if the fish is healthy and eating well the fish will more than likely fight it off . my ich prone fish get light infestations every coulpe of months but it dissappears quickly and they don't seem bothered by it at all . if its acting normal and eating then i would leave it unless you notice some behavour change . i personally feel sometime the stress of trying to catch the fish for quarintine is worse than the ich .

[Booboo33062]

I have other fish in the tank and I do notice that my coral beauty gets some spots of it on him every once and a while. The LNB just seems to have it worst than the others. He has it on his tail and a couple spots on his side. I love this fish. He is my favorite one.

[Booboo33062]

Would a UV Sterilizer help?

[bosscrab]

Originally Posted by Booboo33062

Would a UV Sterilizer help?

Yeah ,it will help but you need a big one and it still won't kill every last one.

[Twitterbait]

please check all your parms. if it has ich there is something wrong in the tank. if the parms are good please check the tank for fighting and make sure he has a good hiding spot. look for strange behavoir too.

[Doug1]

Try adding Selcon, it will boost the fishes immune system and help it fight off the infection. LN butterlies are somewhat picky eaters as a rule

[Booboo33062]

Well I have been seeing spots on my Coral Beauty for quite a while now. They come and they go. I got these new fish and it really went wild on them. It is on the new tang too. He looks terrible, but still eats well.

What size UV should I put on the tank?

[bosscrab]

Try this link.http://www.aquaultraviolet.com/products.htm
The best place to put one is right before the skimmer. The size of you UV should match the skimmer pump you have. I'm thinking something like the 40w should be close to what you need. The longer the water is in contact w/the light the cleaner your water will be.

[Kevin1000]

You have a few basic options.

If you want an ich free tank then your going to have to bite the bullet and QT/treat all the fish and let the tank go without fish for about 5 weeks. After that your tank will be ich free unless you decide to stick more fish in the tank without QT.

Your second choice is sometimes called the "chicken soup" method ... that means trying to reduce stress (subdued lighting .. less movement around the tank) accompanies by healthy food usually supplemented with garlic, selcon etc. This approach is focused on allowing the fish to ward off the initial infestation and develop a higher level of immunity to the parasite. Depending on how healthy the fish are as well as your stocking levels you may loose some, all, or none of your fish.

The 3'rd approach is usually a combo of the second approach combined with the use of a UV device or even ozone .. in effect your trying to kill off some of the free swimming version of the parasite while accomplishing all the goals of your second alternative.

The problem with alternative 2 & 3 is that they are dependent on your fish developing immunity to ich ... unfortunately fish develop a wide range of immunity and unless all fish develop total immunity the ich parasite can continue to live at a low (unnoticeable) level. To compound the problem fish immunity doesn't last forever (not unlike the immunity shots we got as kids). The myth that ich lives in all tanks is due in large part to the ability of ich continue to live at low levels in the presence of fish with limited immunity.

A single ich parasite with the right conditions can generate 100's more within a month. That growth rate in our confined tanks is what makes ich lethal .. fish don't die of ich in the Ocean.

If you can setup a QT for all your fish .. thats my recommendation .. if not the chicken soup method combined with a UV would be a reasonable alternative.