Help Tang has ich

[mandown123]

Hi

My tang has developed ich after I added a school of green chromis. My fault, and now my poor guy is sick.

I am setting up a 10 gallon hospital tank and I have a few questions.

1 - What is the best med to run right now on the hospital tank?
2 - Should I take water out of the tank and add to the hospital tank or make a whole new 10 gallons?
3 - SHould I also take out the chromis and place them together in the 10 gallon and treat?

I added a green coris wrasse at the same time, but that fish I think is disease resistant and wouldn't have brought in the disease. I think it was the chromis, so should they be hospitalized as well?

Tang is eating like a pig and no signs of stress other than the obvious appearance of the parasites on his skin.

Thanks all.

 

[Salty Dog]

I dont belive in meds, good water quality will rid the fish of ick. I would do weekly water changes and use good salt, reef crystals or coral life. Dont move the fish he might stress out. Dont worry or rush, take your time mix good RO water heat it to the same tepm as your display and do a change. Make sure you contiune to make new waater for your next change no earlier than 3 days apart and only 25-30%

 

[saltwaterman112]

I wouldnt worry to much my tang got it as well when i moved my tank i feed some garlic extreme so to help out might want to give it a shoot.

 

[Brian65901]

Diatom Filter

I have had success ridding my tank of Ich over the years I run the filter for a month changing media every other day. Remember the quarantine tank may help the fish but the Ich can still be in the tank. The Diatom filter will not let the Ich out of it once its captured. I use the XL4 model filter if you look hard its $99 on line. I get the media at a pool store.

 

[mandown123]

OK your guys posts changed my outlook. Should I just leave everything as is right now? Someone PMed me and said use ich attack which he said was reef safe.

Do you think it wil just go away if I feed well, keep water qual good, and use garlic? I do use garlic xtract, but I have been adding it much more dosing to the water snce noticing the parasites.

I am confident about the water qual in the new tank, using coralife and my corals are looking great right now. my tang is eating and is fat as hell for a juveline scopas.

 

[Kaz289]

I have gotten ich 2 or 3 times when I first started in the hobby. I have used the fresh water dip with success. I used a quarentine with low salinity and dipped my tang in fresh rodi water for 45 sec to a min then put him back in the quarentine tank for a day after that no more ich and I was able to reintroduce him.

 

[h2o]

Reef safe meds dont work on ich dont waste your time . if your water quality is good and the fish is eating the ich will go away in no time. garlic what do u mean by " dosing to the water " . u just soak the food in the garlic 4 couple of minutes and then u feed the fish also try seeweed by ocean nutrition the one with a stamp on the box -Garlic Added, Tangs love that stuff

 

[saltwaterman112]

ich attack does not work so dont waste your money...

 

[Salty Dog]

I have gotten ich 2 or 3 times when I first started in the hobby. I have used the fresh water dip with success. I used a quarentine with low salinity and dipped my tang in fresh rodi water for 45 sec to a min then put him back in the quarentine tank for a day after that no more ich and I was able to reintroduce him.

this will work to but its more extreme, I had bad ick 3 fish, blue hippo, naso, and val tang. I kept doing water changes and after 5 days it started to disapper. I kept doing water changes and never came back again. its been a yr. Never put chemicals in your water dude

 

[mandown123]

OK so I won't put up the hospital tank. Honestly, the parasites this morning look to have gone away slightly. By that I mean I see less dots on him.

The garlic I have been adding 8 drops daily to the water directly. I also soak my food usually in garlic and selcon alternating daily.

I will do the water changes and watch and wait. If he declines I will I guess have to move him into a hospital?

My other fish are:
4 line wrasse
green coris
5 chromis
2 tank bred clowns, VERY hardy.

I think they will be ok as the wrasse dont get ich and the clowns are harty as all heck.

Is this a correct assumption?

Thanks all! I appreciate the help mucho.

- Tommy

 

[18oreefer]

Two words, one big help.......Cleaner Shrimp. Hungry for ich and fun to watch. I had ich in the early days of my tank, and i added 1 he would clean my hippo of it every night till he no longer got it. Good luck

 

[mandown123]

thanks i have a cleaner and i havent observed him cleaning at all, who knows what is going on with the lights off, though.

 

[vangoghfish]

Yes, use only garlic extreme, seems better than the rest of garlic products, much cheaper online, than the lfs, plus Zoe, also helps the immune system.

 

[Yen]

Don't be deceived by seeing less dots on the fish, the parasites just simply dropped off the fish and entered into another stage of their life cycle on the substrate.

This is an excellent article about Marine Ich and its treatment.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php

According to this article and a few more sources, garlic, good water may help the fish fight off the parasites temporarily, but the source of the problem is still present in your tank. As soon as the fish is stressed, weakened by whatever reason, it'll get it again.

If I were you, I'd set up a hospital tank. If you only have a couple of small fish, a 10 G should be good, and easy for the treatment (Cupramint, copper) because that's the amount of water used in reference dose. Use the existing tank wate as that water is already cycled. Keep the bottom bared, put in some pieces of pvc for the fish to hide. Keep the fish in the hospital tank for at least 6 weeks. Watch the ammonia/nitrite in the hospital tank closely.

After the 6+ weeks treatment, all the parasites in the display tank will be eradicated, move the fish back. Utilize a quarantine routine when introducing fish. You won't ever have to worry about ich.

Yen

OK so I won't put up the hospital tank. Honestly, the parasites this morning look to have gone away slightly. By that I mean I see less dots on him.

The garlic I have been adding 8 drops daily to the water directly. I also soak my food usually in garlic and selcon alternating daily.

I will do the water changes and watch and wait. If he declines I will I guess have to move him into a hospital?

My other fish are:
4 line wrasse
green coris
5 chromis
2 tank bred clowns, VERY hardy.

I think they will be ok as the wrasse dont get ich and the clowns are harty as all heck.

Is this a correct assumption?

Thanks all! I appreciate the help mucho.

- Tommy

 

[h2o]

Cleaner wrasse also helps it pics the ich off the fish . I was told ones that by adding drops of garlic extrime directly in to the water doesn't help u are just polluting the water u want the garlic to be inside the fishes stomach not in the water ... may be someone else can explain that better.

 

[mandown123]

should I get a cleaner wrasse? Poor tang stil has it, and he is flicking himself a little bit like hes itchy. I feel terrible. I am going on vacation in a week and I couldnt have the hospital tank under my attention, so I am even more nervous. I could set it up then but it may be waiting way too long. Water changes + garlic aren't eradicating it for sure.

 

[Yen]

Update

How is your fish doing?

Yen

 

[mandown123]

Tang is cleaned up and shows no signs of infection. water change and grlic was the name of the game... thanks all!