Main Tank has Ich

[sslarison]

OK, I had an out break of ich in my tank and Ive been treating the tank with this med that the LFS gave me also Ive been feeding garlic extreme on brine shrimp,flakes and Sea weed. My purple tang has recovered completely but my two clowns are still scratching. Is it possible for me to beat the ich with this treatment or do i Have to remove them from the tank? Also ive quarentined my percula clown for 3 weeks now with copper(looks great), But if i add him to the tank hes just gonna get sick again right? Any reccomendations?

 

[Anonymous]

i'm a believer that ich is always present, but healthy fish dont show signs.

Keep feeding heavy, I also believe people that have good luck by excessive feeding garlic food, really have good luck simply because they are feeding at a rate that's more natural, I have yet to see a control that could test this theory either way, too hard to make it a clean test.

Personally I would be more worried about the damage the copper is doing, than the damage from ich, healthy fish recover from ich.

Were you able to find the root cause of the outbreak?

You dont say tanksize, but your not expecting a war when you add another clown?

 

[jeffsdesigns]

A guy here in town that owns a LFS and does alot of coral frags told me.
Cleaner Shrimp help keep and clean the tanks clear of Ich and other parasites.
Best defense to them.

I also fed garlic extract with my food and I have no problem with ich now.
Plus, i was on top of it with water changes.

Copper is way too hard on corals.

 

[reefNewbie]

if its always present, why is there an ich cycle? why cant you just add fish to tanks with ich and have them stay healthy and not contract it if they are stong. I guess i just dont understand the need for QT if ich is always present. Im not disagree of agreeing with you in anyway, just curious.

 

[Terry B]

You can believe anything that you like but I will say this. Saying that ich is always present in a marine aquarium is contrary to scientific evidence. Practicing proper quarantine will prevent the vast majority of ich infections in your display. If you do get ich in your tank it can be eliminated in a couple of ways. First, you can treat the tank with hyposalinity if it does not contain inverts or live rock. If you do have inverts or live rock then removing ALL the fish to another tank for treatment and leaving the display fishless for 30 days with starve the parasite out. After that quarantine all new fish for a minimum of three weeks and you will probably never have a problem with ich in your display tank again.
Terry B

 

[SCIronMike]

All my fish are currently in a QT tank for the ich to die off in my main tank. I asked one of the microbiology and infectious disease docs here about protozoa and if their life cycles adhere strongly to certain "maximum life extents" without a host. His answer was that just cause ich has a lifespan of 3 to 28 days theoretically without a host does not mean that SOME ich won't pull through. Somehow some will probably persist.

 

[Expos Forever]

Here is some anecdotal evidence: I recently broke apart my tank to put in a DSB. I had not added any livestock at all for a year and a half. I had not seen ANY signs of ich during this time and I observe my fish almost obsessively. One day after the move my Yellow Tang had black ich. He is fine now and no other fish ever showed any signs. Take this for what it's worth.

Copper is way too hard on corals.

Gets my vote for understatement of the week :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

More than likely there was a stresser that caused latent disease to break out, like a nitrogen cycle blossum, etc...

The disease your tang has is probably not the same disease the clowns have.

If possible, remove the clowns and treat in a QT with malachite green, and a little copper.

 

[Expos Forever]

Uhhh.... Snapper, I think your avatar might be a wee bit too big :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

>why cant you just add fish to tanks with ich and have them stay healthy

I have done this, my wifes tank crashed, I threw all the fish into my tank, all covered with ich, they all recovered quickly, none of my fish ever showed any signs of ich

 

[Anonymous]

Terry, I wouldnt argue the lifecycle at all, I realize that's a scientific fact.


I also know that I had ich show up because of a stressor, in a tank that had no new additions for over 180 days, I believe all fish carry just enough, so when there is a problem the ich are able to captialize on it.

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't add the clown till the ich in the main tank has been gone for 3 weeks. It just is not worth it and it is easy to keep the clown in the q tank. Maybe pull the other fish out and treat them with copper as well.

There really is no good way to treat ich in a reef tank - medications will either kill your inverts or are snake oil.

Also, IIUC, cleaner shrimp cannot control ich. Ich is microscopic and cleaner shirmp eat macroscopic stuff. The white spots you see are not the ich itself, rather, the fishes reaction to the ich.

 

[Anonymous]

I should have put a disclaimer on my last post, I'm not advocating doign what I did (adding infected fish to main display), I had no choice.

I wouldnt ever use copper on anything, copper kills more than ich does!

I also wont use hyposalinity, it's far easier to find the stressor and fix it, rather than stress the fish even more trying to remove them from the tank, no I have never lost a fish to ich, and yes I've had it in my tank several times over the years.

And I also dont use a q tank, I dont believe it will help when dealing with ich, it would with other things, but I dont believe a q-tank will do anything for ich, unless you dose the tank with copper, and there's NO way I would do that to a fish

I realize some people wont agree with me, but that's just life....