Anyone ever use....

hondadude2k5

Awesome Dude
Has anyone ever used Garlic Extreme or Garlic Guard for treatment of ich? Can it be dosed directly intro the tank or only soaked into food? I have a tang that got ich due to my damsel. the damsel is now gone and the tang seems to be doing great. he does however still have the spots. The lessen up in the mornign and come back in the evening. He swims actively around the tank and eats very well. What are my chances of saving this fish?
 
As long as he is otherwise healthy, he should be fine...but stresses can often occur. Normally, fish can tolerate periodic outbreaks of ich and clear themselves without intervention. I think more fish are killed be overly-well-meaning keepers that dump the pharmacy at the first sign of trouble. It sounds like you are going with a more conservative route which is usually best. The garlic based foods have a lot discussed both ways. I haven't seen anything definitive done, but it won't hurt and may help. I think it is mainly supposed to be dosed into foods. If the tang begins looking seriously unhappy, it can be moved into a qt tank for about 2 weeks with half-strength seawater and given formalin dips on 3 alternating days. The good news is that fish do gain an acquired humoral immunity to ich, so if it is removed and treated back to full health, it will have developed a measure of protection against further attack, even if the tank itself is not fully cleared of ich. There was a good article on ich a few issues back in reefkeeping magazine.
Good luck with the fish, that sucks, tangs seem to be ich magnets.
 
He is a beautiful white-cheeked Tang that is otherwise very healthy and happy. He eats all day long from either food I give or from within the tank and he has this swim to him that would look as if he was merely strolling down the street.
 
I have an Achilles tang that gets ich once in a while and we started adding garlic to amost all the food that goes into the tank. He seems to get ich a lot less often now and only minor when he does. So far I'm happy with the results of garlic and while it may not "cure" ich I think it does help.
 
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