ick!!!

[davelin315]

I wouldn't add a cleaner of any sort once ick is apparent. It'll just stress the fish out to have a new cleaner in there going after it when it's already sick. Hyposalinity, by the way, does not require removal of the fish. You do it with the fish in the system as they can handle the swing in salinity done gradually. Basically, it's a slow motion freshwater dip. Corals, on the other hand, can't handle the long term effects of hyposalinity, so you would need to pull those out. By the way, even if the fish kicks it on its own, it doesn't mean that it won't come back. It just means that they're healthy enough to not show signs of an infection, but the ick is still in the system. A UV sterilizer helps to reduce the number of free floating parasites when they do become active, but won't eliminate them completely from a system. A multi-pronged approach is the good way to handle it once it's in the system if you can't treat the entire system. Good luck!

[JC Pollman]

Having fought ich a number of times over the years, and having read every bit of info on the subject I can find, I pass this info on - for what it is worth:

 

1. There are different strains of ich - including a strain that lives in brackish water. As such, some remedies work on some strains and not on others. Even hyposalinity will not work on the brackish stain.

2. If your fish survives, it develops a certain level of immunity. It is not a perfect immunity as it can get ich again, but it will likely not get it as bad. Also, I do not know how long the immunity build-up is lasts.

3. Ich does not go dormant, but once it is in your tank, it probably remains in it for as long as fish are in the tank. My SWAG (scientific wild a$$ guess) is that the ich continues to infect the fish, but the fish have enough immunity to easily fight it off and not show any indications of ich. It would be interesting to examine the gills of a fish from a tank that had ich a year ago but has not had any infestations since.

4. The magic ingredient in garlic is very unstable. It is released/created when the garlic is crushed and usually lasts less than 20 minutes. So you want to use fresh garlic, crush it and let the juices sink into the food for 5 minutes, and feed immediately. Also, the garlic must be ingested to work.

 

From my personal experience - this is just me and might not have anything to do with anyone else's aquarium or even reality B)

I had two cases of ich in fairly short order, and both times the fish responded well to the garlic treatment. Later, my better half decided to surprise me for my birthday and put a new fish in the tank for me to "find". The fish had a particularly virulent strain of ich and 8 of the 12 fish quickly died - even with the garlic. The other 4 fish were so covered in ich that you literally could not tell their regular colors - I gave them less than 24 hours to live. By chance I read on line about someone using ginger to treat ich, and having nothing to loose, mashed up some ginger, soaked the food, and threw it in. In less than 36 hours, my fish were visably 100% clean of the ich and swimming like nothing ever happened. This is the closest thing to a miracle I have had in my life. Although I still have those 4 fish, every fish I have added since, including quarenteening the new ones, have died of ich.

 

I draw 2 point from this:

1. Ich does not leave the tank even though you can not see it.

2. Fish do develop a certain level of immunity to a given strain of ich

 

I am now planning on setting up a q tank for my 4 survivors - even though they are currently quite healthy looking, and letting the tank go fallow for 6 - 8 weeks. Although I am not looking forward to this, I guess it might be a good time to remove the DSB as well :bigcry:

[Gadgets]

I wouldn't add a cleaner of any sort once ick is apparent.  It'll just stress the fish out to have a new cleaner in there going after it when it's already sick.

45991[/snapback]

 

I don't agree with this. A cleaner shrimp is a more natural approach. A wild fish knows a cleaner shrimp and is generally not afraid to go over and be picked clean. I think that a cleaner is NOT the "cure", but can definately help.

[reelsteel]

I also have battle a severe case of ich. I read everything and finally talk to Steven Pro at one of the WAMAS meetngs and got a copy of his white paper on ich. He recomended hyposalinity. I had a 25 gallon Q-tank setup and running for a couple weeks, so after 6 hours of tearing all the rock and coral out (which is a ton), I put all the fish in the Q-tank and did the hyposalinity. I had a PH and Salinity monitor which helped out alot. I did it for 8 weeks, I wanted to make sure the ich was gone from the display tank. The only fish that didn't survive was my mandrin, I think it starved to death, I tried putting pods in the Q-tank but all the other fish would get to them first. I have been ich free for a year now(knock on wood). One good thing, I got to reaquascape my display tank which I think looks better now then before!!! lol

 

HTH

Doug

[stank]

As far as a good UV unit, Aqua Ultraviolet is one of the better ones out there, the bulbs are suppose to last longer than most. Also, I dont know from experience but its said that the wiper models are a waste of money.

[fishface]

I would go with the natural approach as stated by the people above. Ich has a cycle, so if you intend to "treat the water" with a medication then you have to make sure that you are actively treating the tank completely thru the duration of the cycle so that the dormant cycsts that hatch can be killed while free swimming.

 

Neither Medication nor UV can't affect the ich while is cyst form. I had a scare with a fish that had a few spots back in May and I bought a UV sterilizer in a panic and did some last minute research before taking it out of the box and returned it instead. The UV will kill nearly everything thing that floats past it, so I decided not to follow that course - Although I might have done it on a temporary basis if the ich was worse.

 

If you do buy one, I suggest that you go with the one that spirals the water flow internally around the bulb.

 

P.S. This was stated, but theoretically all of your fish are carrying ich, and it will appear when their immune systems are depressed. So even if you quarantined them, a bare tank will still harbor the cysts somewhere so realistically you are just trying not to seed your display tank with a sick fish. You want to keep proper parms. Whenever you are in doubt, and if a fish or coral is stressed, do a water change to dilute any problem. This will help the fish to recover on it's own or to respond to treatment.

FWIW

[Lee Stearns]

JC made several comments that I whole heartedly endorse. Garlic needs to be fresh crushed as does the ginger- I have frozen it in homemade recipes but do not feel there is as much of an effect. I have a PBT and Blue Hippo that get small amounts of white spots from time to time- so I know it is in my reef system- I have two cleaner shrimp that they go to when they feel the need. Keeping the tangs fat and happy are what keeps them able to fight off these incursions. Like Chip said I would be very leery of putting any "Reef Safe" rid Ich or other chemicals in my system. A quarantine tank would be entirely different where I might be willing to try one of the chemicals- but catching tangs out of their territory in our mixed reefs is almost a futile effort and the added stress of a new bare bottom QT would likely provide the stress to put them over the edge rid ich or not. I believe the UV is additive in keeping infestation down but have no personal experience here and would not know what it could do during and infesttation other than to kill some of the free swimming stage Ich during the short period they are hunting a host. Like JC I like adding fresh ginger when I see an outbreak- the fish needs to ingest the food soaked in the juice from this- And as silly as it sounds I add very finely crushed carrots for the vitamin A that tangs need in higher proportion than most of our normal feeds at these stress times. Only proven method of fighting HLLE in Tangs- I know a different disease- but remember fat and healthy to allow thier own immune sytem to work.

[Jon Lazar]

It may be easier than you think to remove your fish to treat them. I had a foxface that decided he likes to eat polyps...but only the colorful ones. I made a simple trap out of a 2l bottle and set it in the tank, baited with some brine shrimp. Within 30 minutes the fish was caught and removed to my q-tank. I didn't have to starve the fish for days first or wait for him to get used to the trap.

 

Yet another reason to have a q-tank ready to go.

 

HTH,

Jon