Cleaner wrasse eats Ick?

[rfny75]

Hi, my powder blue and hippo tangs have been having ick for a few days now, my other fishes are ok though. The question is, would a cleaner wrasse eat the ick off of these fish? if so, what kind of cleaner wrasse would it be?
I'm just trying to find a way to treat this without medicating the tank. Opinions anyone?

 

[ZANYMASTER]

That's if the fish let's it.I had a orange shoulder tang riddled in it and it didn't like the cleaner wrasse.Better off getting a cleaner shrimp or your best bet is to Qt it with copper.

 

[KathyC]

You'll need to treat the fish in a QT tank.
Cleaner wrasses may pick parasites somewhat, but keep in mind..they can get ich too. Unfortunately they are not a solution.

The longer you delay treating your fish, the less chance they have of successfully recovering.

and btw..the ich you see on the fishes body is not what is doing the major damage to the fish..it is the ich that is in their gills that is killing them.


Are you aware of how to properly treat ich?

 

[ZANYMASTER]

I've heard from F&S that they're illegal due to the eco system and the need for fish in the sea who depend on these fish.

 

[rfny75]

The problem that it'll be near to imposible to catch these fish, I have a lot of caves in my live rock, so I'd rather do a natural treatment,if any, than medicating them in a QT tank.
I already have cleaner shrimp but they're not coming close to these fish.
Would it be just stress? since my other fish don't have it?

 

[Deanos]

The problem that it'll be near to imposible to catch these fish, I have a lot of caves in my live rock, so I'd rather do a natural treatment,if any, than medicating them in a QT tank.

They'll be easy to catch once they're dead.

If you value those fish, the headache of removing live rock to capture them outweighs them dying or infecting other fish because you continue to search for a natural treatment.

 

[rfny75]

Deanos, my 95+ lbs of live rock are all epoxied together, there's no way on earth I'll be able to move these!! I have a UV sterilizer running to help kill the free swimming ick. I heard that trying catching them will make them even more stressed!

 

[marrone]

Get a fish trap. A number of people on the board can lend you one or can tell you how to make one.

As for stress, well if the fish are infected with ich than they're under a lot of stress right now. You need to remove them and start to treat before they get worst and possible die.

 

[fritz]

As was mentioned the only way to cure ick is to starve them to death. Period.
You have to remove every fish from the tank (be they alive or dead) so that there is nothing left but inverts. The tank must stay without any fish for 8 weeks. During that time treat your fish in another tank. After 8 weeks all the ick will be dead and you can reintroduce your fish.

 

[h20 freak]

How many cleaner shrimp do you have?Are they scarlet skunks?Those are the best cleaners. And how big are they?Their confidence grows with size and numbers I'm guessing by the fish that you have a 100+ gal tank so 5 of these guys would be good,at least 3 though and yes,some clean and some don't feel like it.I have one who chases my tang around the tank just to clean(my hand and algea scraper to:bigeyesShe's pretty big and she's spawned once and theres another batch on the way.


Cleaner wrasse are available,I saw some in my lfs 2 weeks ago,but their survival rate isn't worth it,and yes they can get ich unlike shrimp


But treating it Is so much better then having shrimp/wrasse.

 

[rfny75]

I have 2 cleaner shrimp and 2 blood shrimp in a 72g

 

[h20 freak]

Blood shrimp are known to be very timid,they basically hide in the caves all day right?Get two or three more Scarlet skunk cleaners,these are the only kind I would trust to clean.

 

[latino277]

dude... you should really get those fish out of that tank and QT them. Anything other than that is a death sentence for the fish... Sorry...