Anyone else have really good results treating ich with Herbtana?

[Alex733mhz]

So I was recently pretty excited to see a reef safe medication actually clear up my Ich/parasite problem. I've tried Kordon, Ruby reef, and Polyp labs over the past year to treat ich and parasites all to avoid copper and a tank tear down.. nothing was working.. I was getting so frustrated and I even lost a strawberry basslet I had for a year and a few other sensitive fish like neon gobies to ich... My Blue tang and sail fin were always battling it more so the blue tang. I felt awful this fish looked like the walking dead fish for a year also having a bad case of HLLE (hole in the head) and lots of scratching on rocks. My tank condition is mostly my fault being a newbie to saltwater and just adding petco live rock and fish directly to an aged tank.. Anyhow someone at wetpets recommend Herbtana to me before I went ahead with quarantine and copper. I've never been so impressed or seen such instant results from a reef safe medication.. I started seeing improvements after 2-3 days especially on my blue tang.. the white spots were disappearing and after day 7 of the 10 day treatment that I followed my Blue tangs HLLE was drastically improving his flesh was growing back rapidly!! I feel like I am advertising for this stuff but I am just excited and relived to see this med actually work and improve my fishes health. If you don't believe me just look at the before and after picture of Dory during day 7 of the treatment. My only complaint with this stuff is that it bothers my green star polyps a little but not too bad, I have a mixed 75G softies tank and it looks virtually unaffected by the Hebrtana. Now done with the treatment and trying to get my skimmer settled down, Dory looks like a show fish now along with my clowns and other fish assortment.. If it comes back I will put this stuff back in without a second thought. Has anyone else had good luck using this stuff?

 

[eastlake]

I'm glad that it you've seen positive results using the product. My experience with it however was not a positive one, and I'm sure that in time someone will post saying that tank transfer, copper, and hyposalinity are the only proven ways to get rid of ich. I used it for something on the order of 2-3 months because I thought it was keeping the parasite at bay. Not only was that false but it was also slowly killing my anemones, at that point I had 18 rainbow bubble tips, not to mention my zoas/palys were also dying back slowly. When I noticed this I stopped treatment, the zoas and palys bounced back but the anemones never recovered, and I still have ich in the tank the fish are just used to it now. So, if it helps to keep the parasite at bay while you work on a solution to rid the system of ich that's a step in the right direction but the product is most definitely not reef safe. And to repeat so I don't sound like to much of a jerk, I'm very happy your fish are doing better

 

[teddyzaper]

We use herbtana at the lfs I work and it works great for 95% of the customers ( and the 5% it doesn't, I think they don't follow instructions). If you follow the dosing instructions it is completely safe. I've used it in huge sps systems, nem tanks, tanks with clams, and tank with tons of inverts. Never bothers anything and at least helps the ich problem. Sometimes it doesn't fully remove ich, but I've never seen it do nothing.

You should really only use it for the 10 days as it says on the bottle. It's certainly not made for extended usage.

 

[sde1500]

Not to be too negative, because I truly hope this worked for you. But, you really should have listened to some of the advice in your other post. Rather than set up a QT for your fish, you allowed them to suffer for a year using "reef safe" treatments. Including a treatment that may have killed one of your clownfish, and allowed another one of your fish to die due to the outbreak. You have two tangs in a 75, neither tang is suited for that size tank. Some struggles with ich can be overcome with nothing more than good husbandry, there are those here that don't treat for ich, just make sure their fish are well fed. I don't want to be overly critical because you admit to being newer, but your tank care could use a bit of a rework. It would probably be best to rehome the tangs.

 

[Sk8r]

The company at least is reputable, but there is no generally accepted in-tank 'cure'. What I suspect it's doing is stimulating the fishes' slime coats, which repel parasites naturally, not a bad thing, but more preventative than cure. And you should know that it's part of ich's natural cycle to break free of the pimples and infest the sandbed, so it's very normal to see it go and come back. The fatal flaw in many novice setups is inattention to alkalinity, which should be kept at 8.3 or thereabouts to enable fish to keep up a healthy slime coat: this can have the effect of making fish more resistant to bacteria and parasites. If more people would start out being sure their alkalinity is as steady as their salinity, there would be fewer dead fish.

 

[trembz]

I've used it on two difference occasions and each time it actually killed some of my corals

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

 

[d2mini]

The fatal flaw in many novice setups is inattention to alkalinity, which should be kept at 8.3 or thereabouts to enable fish to keep up a healthy slime coat: this can have the effect of making fish more resistant to bacteria and parasites. If more people would start out being sure their alkalinity is as steady as their salinity, there would be fewer dead fish.

I never new this!
I learned something new today. Time to go home. :lol2:

 

[ca1ore]

I'd be very skeptical. There's another thread on here about 'the best innovation in reef-keeping since the protein skimmer', or something like that. An ich treatment that could be applied to a display tank would be that indeed. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - so if many people see permanent eradication I'd perk up the old ears. Until then I call bull$hit!

 

[eastlake]

We use herbtana at the lfs I work and it works great for 95% of the customers ( and the 5% it doesn't, I think they don't follow instructions). If you follow the dosing instructions it is completely safe. I've used it in huge sps systems, nem tanks, tanks with clams, and tank with tons of inverts. Never bothers anything and at least helps the ich problem. Sometimes it doesn't fully remove ich, but I've never seen it do nothing.

You should really only use it for the 10 days as it says on the bottle. It's certainly not made for extended usage.

I'm not trying to start an argument, rather just pointing out, that on the bottle it does indeed state to treat for 10 days. Immediately after that it says a longer treatment may be required for more severe infestations, it doesn't give a "do not exceed x amount of days of treatment". I'm not trying to put the product or the company down, just sharing the experience I had using the product.

 

[teddyzaper]

I'm not trying to start an argument, rather just pointing out, that on the bottle it does indeed state to treat for 10 days. Immediately after that it says a longer treatment may be required for more severe infestations, it doesn't give a "do not exceed x amount of days of treatment". I'm not trying to put the product or the company down, just sharing the experience I had using the product.

Yea, if ich persists I wait 10 days then do the 10 day treatment again. Using it for an extended period of time seems like a bad idea to me.

 

[Alex733mhz]

ok so almost reef safe I guess.

ok so almost reef safe I guess.

Not to be too negative, because I truly hope this worked for you. But, you really should have listened to some of the advice in your other post. Rather than set up a QT for your fish, you allowed them to suffer for a year using "reef safe" treatments. Including a treatment that may have killed one of your clownfish, and allowed another one of your fish to die due to the outbreak. You have two tangs in a 75, neither tang is suited for that size tank. Some struggles with ich can be overcome with nothing more than good husbandry, there are those here that don't treat for ich, just make sure their fish are well fed. I don't want to be overly critical because you admit to being newer, but your tank care could use a bit of a rework. It would probably be best to rehome the tangs.

Yes I have felt absolutely horrible for my fish losses and probably could have prevented some of them with dipping or quarantine.. However I have only lost a few fish out of the majority. Before I used the Herbtana I lost 3 clown fish that I had for a year and they never even showed signs of ich or illness. I put melafix in my tank to help the sailfin with the scratches all over him from flashing woke up the next morning to my 3 perfectly healthy clownfish dead but all other inhabitants unharmed no anems in my tank either.. I feel this was due to not putting more oxygenation into the tank after reading online. I do whatever I can to keep them healthy unfortunately not everyone has room for quarantine systems but I do agree quarantine is probably very effective if not the best especially if you need to treat just one fish for something. I dip my fish in hyrdoplex and corals in coralrx now. If my fish continued to get ill I probably would have gotten out of the hobby but honestly I feel great seeing the after effects of Herbtana. It was a last ditch effort before copper and it paid off. All my fish do amazing with it, and the huge bonus I didn't expect was the regrowth of the flesh of my blue tang who was already suffering with bad HLLE at petco over a year ago. I stopped the treatment about 5 days ago and my blue tang continues to improve as well as the sailfin and all other fish got rid of ich spots. Yes they could use a little more room but they are great friends and I couldn't possibly be happier with the health of my tank right now. My fish all look like show fish now and you can't ask for much better than that!

 

[Alex733mhz]

Go ahead!!

Go ahead!!

I'd be very skeptical. There's another thread on here about 'the best innovation in reef-keeping since the protein skimmer', or something like that. An ich treatment that could be applied to a display tank would be that indeed. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - so if many people see permanent eradication I'd perk up the old ears. Until then I call bull$hit!

You can call BS all day long.. but even if it didn't cure my ich which it did in only a few days, It took my blue tang from a hole in the head zombie petco fish.. to a near totally healthy tang.. Not to mention the scratches all over my salfin. GONE. That alone is worth gold to me. Not saying it will work for everyone and obviously some ppl have issues but this is the success I had maybe it was a miracle lol, But i have dunkin coral, zoanthids, favias, shrooms, xenia etc, all doing perfectly fine and even growing. only one that was slightly bothered was green star.

 

[ca1ore]

You can call BS all day long.. but even if it didn't cure my ich which it did in only a few days, It took my blue tang from a hole in the head zombie petco fish.. to a near totally healthy tang.. Not to mention the scratches all over my salfin. GONE.

Not going to lecture .... but without some kind of 'control' any claims as to efficacy are worthless. I'm happy your fish are looking better, but how do you know they wouldn't have improved in the absence of whatever it's called? Answer is, you don't. Do a search here on RC and you will see threads extolling all kinds of cures, herbal, garlic, ginger, even a potato. The trouble is that ich can actually exist in a tank and be asymptomatic. In fact, it has been my long-held view that many tanks deemed to be ich free are actually not. Makes assessing an ich 'cure' tricky. I'd be the first to applaud a reef-safe cure, but until its reproducible and verifiable, I'm calling BS.

 

[teddyzaper]

Not going to lecture .... but without some kind of 'control' any claims as to efficacy are worthless. I'm happy your fish are looking better, but how do you know they wouldn't have improved in the absence of whatever it's called? Answer is, you don't. Do a search here on RC and you will see threads extolling all kinds of cures, herbal, garlic, ginger, even a potato. The trouble is that ich can actually exist in a tank and be asymptomatic. In fact, it has been my long-held view that many tanks deemed to be ich free are actually not. Makes assessing an ich 'cure' tricky. I'd be the first to applaud a reef-safe cure, but until its reproducible and verifiable, I'm calling BS.

It's not an ich cure. They say that on the bottle because it's an easy way of saying it removes ich from your fish. It doesn't get rid of ich in your tank, and like you said I believe most tanks have ich in them in some form. What herbtana does is remove ich from fish. I believe the way it works is that it enhances the slime coat of the fish allowing the slime coat to get rid of the ich.

I've used this on over 30 tanks with success and my customers have reported success in their tanks. It's not a cure-all solution, but it gets ich off fish and allows you to have a second chance at fixing what caused the ich (temp swings, bad diet, stress, parameters swings, ECT).

 

[CrayolaViolence]

What are the active ingredients?

 

[CrayolaViolence]

One thing to keep in mind, most fish will/can develop a low level immunity to many parasites where they will keep them at low enough levels that it will not affect their ability to function. This is a must for survival in the wild where the water column is infested with parasites.

Considering how ineffective actual medicine can be on marine velvet and or ich, I'd have to see some hard core evidence of effectiveness. For example, the method by which this product removes the parasites, works.

All I can find is a statement that it removes parasites. Hydrogen peroxide also removes parasites with little to no affect on the fish.

 

[ca1ore]

So it's a supplement?

I agree, BTW, that keeping fish healthy and with a robust slime coat is an excellent way to resist parasites.

 

[Pmj]

The company at least is reputable, but there is no generally accepted in-tank 'cure'. What I suspect it's doing is stimulating the fishes' slime coats, which repel parasites naturally, not a bad thing, but more preventative than cure. And you should know that it's part of ich's natural cycle to break free of the pimples and infest the sandbed, so it's very normal to see it go and come back. The fatal flaw in many novice setups is inattention to alkalinity, which should be kept at 8.3 or thereabouts to enable fish to keep up a healthy slime coat: this can have the effect of making fish more resistant to bacteria and parasites. If more people would start out being sure their alkalinity is as steady as their salinity, there would be fewer dead fish.

Why should it be 8.3 when that's higher than NSW levels?

ANSWER: the acceptable range is 7.9 to 9. If you are seeking a stable balance of cal, alk, mg, it is a good thing to go 420 cal, 8.3 alk, 1350 mg, which is a reading at which most things are fine. If you add kalk to your topoff with those readings in force, the alk and cal will stay at those levels until your mg slowly declines below 1350. This is work-saving, among other virtues. I'm not saying its the only reading that will work, but that it's a useful one for somebody trying to get stable and stay there.

 

[ca1ore]

It's not a cure-all solution, but it gets ich off fish and allows you to have a second chance at fixing what caused the ich (temp swings, bad diet, stress, parameters swings, ECT).

You do know that none of these things cause ich, right? Fish get ich because the parasite is present. Adverse conditions may exacerbate ich symptoms, so perhaps this supplement helps to remedy symptoms.

 

[teddyzaper]

You do know that none of these things cause ich, right? Fish get ich because the parasite is present. Adverse conditions may exacerbate ich symptoms, so perhaps this supplement helps to remedy symptoms.

It doesn't cause ich. You can't "cause" a parasite... These things stress out a fish, causing their slime coat to thin, allowing the parasite to attack the fish. Basically it weakens the fish which makes it easier for the parasite to do harm.