When my clowns had ich, my friend told me to crank the temp up to 86-ish for a couple of day then check up on it everyday. After doing that for a little over a week, my clowns got better. Oh yeah feed they garlic too...
Hi. I am certianly not an expert on all of this and perhaps not up to date on the latest techniques but when my Yellow Tang got ick a fresh water bath did the trick. 2 treatments and it was cured. The key, as I remember, was to match the temp and PH of the bath water with that of the tank water. You will need to add just a bit of salt as well. The real hard part was to net it.
Gheez, this board obviously needs more discussion on fish disease treatments. Justin, people with good intentions can give bad advice and that is never more apparent when it comes to fish disease.
There are ONLY TWO consistnetly effective treatments for ich and both of them have been verified scientifically. These treatments include copper or hyposalinity. Neither treatment can be used with live rock or inverts. The only alternative treatment worth mentioning is soaking the foods with garlic for a few weeks.
If you cure ich with any of the others it either wasn't actually ich or you have a lot of luck. UV do not cure ich, cleaners do not cure ich. a temp or 86F will cure ick as in FW but not ich as in SW. So called reef-safe medications do not cure ich. Feeding the fish vitamines or HUFA will not cure ich, water changes will not cure ich.
Quarantine all new fish for a minimum of three weeks and use a proven method that gives your fish the highest chance of survival. If you really want to dig deep into this subject or do some reading I can give you great references to check out.
Terry B
I told you the wed site it could be found at. Go to the web site, then click on search. Leave the date and forum open. Type in the word Cryptocaryon and click search. Look for part one and part two.
Terry B
[ January 16, 2002: Message edited by: Terry B ]</p>
ICH IS CAUSED BY STRESS,SO IF YOU CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT IS BOTHERING YOUR FISH MAYBE YOU CAN HELP HIM ,MAYBE ANOTHER FISH BOTHERING HIM,REMEMBER ALSO ,ALL ABOVE TREATMENTS MAY WORK BUT HONESTLY,THE MORE YOU STESS HIM THE MORE ICH YOU GET,TRY FEEDING HIM MORE TO TRY TO MAKE HIM HAPPY,AND TRY TO STAY OUT OF YOUR TANK AS MUCH AS POSSIABLE,YOU STRESS HIM TO,ALSO TEMP FLUX MAY GIVE ICH TRY TO KEEP A STEADY TEMP
Justin, how did your Purple Tang get ich?
Find out what caused the outbreak and fix it.
My purple tang suffered from ich that he caught from the introduction of a flame angel. I quarantined him (and my other damsel) for a month and treated by hypo and copper. I also raised my reef tank temp to 84-86 deg. for the 4 weeks.
One thing you must remember is that after the ich, your fish may come down with other diseases like ammodilum (sp?) which is more deadly than ich.
My recommendation would be to quarantine your fish!!! I spent $10 for a 10 gal and pulled a powerhead out of my main tank. I used room lighting and an old 150 W heater. I saved my fish and that alone was $105 for just the 2 fish. All my fish are very happy now!
A little work and $$$ now will save you much headache and $$$ later.
P.S., if you do quarantine, keep an eye on your ammonia nad nitrite's in the quarantine.
Good luck!
Say you've got a 10, or at best a 20 gallon quarantine tank. You purchase a 6"-8" naso tang. How are you going to "Q" that fish for 3, or possibly more weeks without streesing it out further?
The best way is to feed him food soaked in Selcon. My tang had it and in a few days he was ick free. A UV sterilizer will not work. Ick is allways in your tank,you can never get rid of it all. Selcon is vitamin C which builds up the fishes tolerance. This way it can battle the ick by itself. You should also find out what is causing the outbreak. Other fish picking on it..bad water conditions...If you solve that problem then it will not come down with it anymore. A cleaner shrimp is good also....JMO
Hope your tang gets better soon. FWIW garlic worked for me.
Total aside: is there any truth in the rumour that clams can remove ich in its free-swimming stage?
Liam
I agree with Marko to a point. Hyposalinity works better than copper and it is not immunosuppressive. There is no advantage to raising the temperature unless it was too low to begin with. Raising it to 84-86 degrees only causes thermal stress, which reduces mucus production by 50%.
A responsible aquarist does not buy an animal that they cannot properly take care of and that includes the ability to quarantine the animal. The cheapest way to quarantine a large fish is to use a large plastic garbage barrel (not used for garbage). Add some PVC pipe and something for biological filtration and you are on your way.
I have heard lots of protests from people that do not quarantine that it would stress the fish. I have about 10 published works on the subject of stress in fish and I understand the biological, chemical and physical aspects in great detail. Ich or any other pathogen is a stressor in and of itself. Ignoring this stress in favor of some other perceived stress is foolish at best. Stress does not cause ich a parasite called Cryptocaryon irritans does. Stress only makes fish more susceptible to infection and this plays a greatly reduced role in the aquarium. No amount of stress can cause a fish to become infected with ich unless the parasite is in the system. Ich is not present in all systems. No parasite = no ich.
Terry B
I'm not Terry, but this is what I would do:
1. Use water from main tank.
2. Add a sponge from main tank (for bacteria).
3. I'd try copper for most fish (check to see if a naso is sensitive) at recommended dosage.
4. keep lighting and feedings to a minimum (keep an eye on the ammonia nitrite)
5. raise main temp to 85º
6. keep tank well aerated
7. reintroduce after 4 weeks.
_________________ lost season 5