Help! I think I have ich!

[Larry Grenier]

Actually, it's my fish that has it. I just added a midas blenny. He has little white spots. No other fish have it yet. I've never experienced SW ich before. I've had it in FW tanks.

 

I have 1 cleaner shrimp but the blenny is shy and likely won't let the cleaner do his thing. The tang has allowed a little contact so the cleaner is willing.

 

Other fish include 1 yello tang and 4 green chromis.

 

This is a reef with corals. Catching the fish would be very difficult.

 

It it as contagious in SW as it is in FW?

 

Advice?

[dzekunoi]

Too bad you did not QT.

I had good luck with garlic treatment. I just soak food with freshly minced garlic for 1/2 hour and fed it to fish. It's good for mild cases though. Seems like Kick Ich is a good product but it made my Devils hand sick. Other corals vere fine.

The best - still try to catch it (in a vase or a fish trap maybe), separate, treat with copper, QT and then add to the tank. Your tang most probably will get it shortly if - they are ich magnets.

[Larry Grenier]

I may be mistaken, possible false alarm

[Caribbean Jake]

funny title do.... you have an ick

[Larry Grenier]

funny title do.... you have an ick

 

Must be dandruff

[discordja]

The answer to your question is ... maybe. Depends on the types of fish you have really. Surgeons and such seem to catch ich at the drop of a hat. Some other species seem to be completely resistent to it. If the Midas had ich comin it, you'll likely see a surge of ich in a few days from now, after it falls off and gestates in the sand bed and live rock. I just came off of my blue tang being completely covered in ich and it looks like I've finally got it out of control.

[flowerseller]

Three letters....

 

UV

[Larry Grenier]

I'm keeping an eye on the fish. This is an African Midas blenny with a different color pattern. He seems to have little specs in his coloration which I mistook for ich. Tang has been with him for almost a week with no ich. I'm feeding food with Garlic Extreme just in case.

 

1 U

2 V

3 ?

[GaryL]

Three letters....

 

UV

AH! the comedy of chip. "thank you folks i'll be here all week"

 

Larry if you have ich i recommend aveeno oatmeal bath. and possibly some epsom salts.

 

as far as the garlic extreme use the garlic powder in the spice isle, its probly cheaper, sometimes i feed real garlic too. i think the fish are smater because of it. all my ich seemed to go away in a day or too if i got the fish already with it.

[londonloco]

I'm late on this but I'll give my 2cents anyway. Years ago I had ich wipe out my FOWLR 55 gallon in 24 hours. But I was ignorant (not stupid, ignorant as in lack of knowledge) and didn't realize marine ich was so fact acting. I packed up the 55, put my live rock in a 20 long, and eventually sold the live rock.

 

Fast forward 5 years. I started my reef experience again, and everytime I saw a spot on one of my fish I FREAKED OUT. Everytime it turned out to be a piece of detrious (do we not have spell check here?) from swimming thru my live rock. In the past 18 mths, I've read..a lot..forums., books, etc....I've watched my cleaner AND blood shrimp set up cleaning stations and clean my fish. I use seclor and garlic several times a week. I've never had a problem with ich..UNTIL recently. My ignorant (and this time I mean DUMB, just PLAIN STUPID) purchase of an Achilles tang. I knew it was trouble when I bought it. I knew I'd have feeding problems, dominance problems, and ich problems. But I bought it anyway

 

I purchased the tang mid February. The first two weeks went fine, while not eatting anything but nori, he seemed to be fitting in. The third week I saw a few spots. After a few hours, I was positive it was ich. I ran out and bought some kick ich, but on my return, my blood shrimp was "cleaning" the tang. So I waited to add the kick ich (which I've read works 1/2 the time, or so...). Well, from the end of February, until a week ago, I had several days of ich, several days ICH FREE. Only the tang, I've not seen spots on any other fish. I never used the kick ich. I used garlic and my blood shrimp. I have just past my first week of an ICH free Achilles tang. Now, I'm not saying he won't show signs again tomorrow. What I am saying is sometimes, we get lucky, and nature takes it's course. Hope for once, Larry, I helped you! Loco

[Larry Grenier]

Actually Loco you can't get much dumber than saying I have ich only to find-out the fish slight speckled pattern naturally. Made for an interesting thread anyway.