Anyone else have really good results treating ich with Herbtana?

[ca1ore]

OK, just wanted to make sure you understood.

 

[sde1500]

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).

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.

To be fair, it was you who used "caused" originally. Better I guess 'what caused the fish to be susceptible' to ich.

So as others have said, herbal vitamin supplement. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, who knows. I'd rather just not let it get in the tank to start with.

 

[teddyzaper]

To be fair, it was you who used "caused" originally. Better I guess 'what caused the fish to be susceptible' to ich.

So as others have said, herbal vitamin supplement. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't, who knows. I'd rather just not let it get in the tank to start with.

As a fish keeper I may have been the one to introduce it into my display, but I certainly didn't cause ich. For my tank is most likely came from my water which is natural sea water. Either way, herbtana was worked for me so I see no reason I'm not continuing to use it.

 

[scooter31707]

Please keep us updated so we can see how many times you say "my fish has ich again"

 

[teddyzaper]

Please keep us updated so we can see how many times you say "my fish has ich again"

Last time I used herbtana in my tank was 4 months ago. No ich since. Not saying it solved it, it's certainly not a solution. I started feeding more, added more flow, lowered the light amount per day, and raised the temp.

 

[f3honda4me]

Fish can have ich without having much for visible symptoms, since ich can and does get into the gills. It's still in the tank whether you see the normal salt grain and other such symptoms or not. Ich can live in a tank for a long time without any sign and suddenly something happens that a fish can't fight it off as well, or gets stressed, or something else changes, and it's able to thrive.

 

[ca1ore]

All true, which makes these 'remedies' or 'tonics' difficult to assess. For example, I have ich in my system and my fish are generally asymptomatic with the occasional exception of my Achilles tang. It's been there for 4 years now and I have had no fish losses attributable to the parasite. All without herbal remedies. Remember, correlation is not causation. Keep the fish well fed and the alkalinity up, and you have a fighting chance of beating the parasite. I do QT because there are lots of things worse than ich.

 

[Pmj]

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.

I understand you are trying to help people by giving some easy numbers, but the "acceptable range" is not 7.9 to 9 when natural sea water is 7. Your last sentence should be your first if you are only giving your opinion.

 

[ca1ore]

Why are you arguing with yourself? First sign of madness :lol:

 

[f3honda4me]

The answer is because our tanks are not the sea. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/5/chemistry

 

[sde1500]

I understand you are trying to help people by giving some easy numbers, but the "acceptable range" is not 7.9 to 9 when natural sea water is 7. Your last sentence should be your first if you are only giving your opinion.

Actually it is pretty well accepted to keep it above 7. Practically everyone keeping a reef tank does. Not sure why you're picking this thread to argue it, especially with sk8r of all people.

 

[Pmj]

Actually it is pretty well accepted to keep it above 7. Practically everyone keeping a reef tank does. Not sure why you're picking this thread to argue it, especially with sk8r of all people.

If Sk8r said, "keep it above 7", i wouldn't have said anything, since I do agree on that. Saying specifically 8.3 is the magic number, then saying 7.9-9 is right, is what I was disagreeing with. 7-11 and stability are the only thing I've ever read, and every tank is different but some of the best tanks I've ever seen in person are low 7s so it didn't make much sense to me.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.htm

 

[Pmj]

Why are you arguing with yourself? First sign of madness :lol:

That was Sk8r that put the answer in my comment I'm assuming.

 

[ca1ore]

I know, just struck me as funny because I do it all the time, particularly with older posts where I may have changed my mind.

 

[Alex733mhz]

Update

Update

Just doing a quick update, . A week after my fish seemed cured I added a neon goby to the tank. Which in hindsight was incredibly stupid after just having an outbreak of ich. At this point I had allready done a water change and was running chemipure in the system. The ich was obviously still in my tank because he became infested with white spots. I decided to go another ten days of treatment because the Herbtana seemed harmless to my tank and it says longer treatments are fine. He continued down a path of sickness for about 5 days until I noticed little improvements. He looked so bad at one point I had him in a net ready for quarantine. But I had already committed to the ten day treatment of herbtana and he was still eating despite looking like santa clause as my wife would say. At the end of the ten days he was much better not 100% but a week after that he is cured. I did feed live brine shrimp and the herbtana said to use artimis in conjunction so maybe that did help some. I have to say this stuff is the real deal having seen it twice heal up some pretty sick fish.