my sohal has it and it looks pretty bad and im going to get him in the hospital tank today and then i need some help deciding on what im going to do to treat it, i hear that the hypo salinity way is a good way to stop it, but does anyone have any other tips on what i can do to get him healthy again? i hear protein skimming and using treatments like Rx-P work pretty well, i do have a bottle of Rx-P so should i use that along with the hypo salinity method to stop it?
Anyone have tips they can give me for treating ich
- Thread starter mattyice
- Start date
Steelslinger75
New member
Ok I am going to give you the same information that was given to me by a very experienced reefer. I followed the following information and my tank has been ich free for over a year.
1. Remove ALL fish from your reef and place them in QT. All fish have to be removed in order to remove the parasite completly from your system. Ich needs a fish and a fish only to host in. The parasite will go through three stages and during its free swimming stage it must have a host or it will die. The tank must remain fishless for at least 8 weeks.
2. Tangs are very sensitive to chemicals. I currently have 6 tangs and was up to 8 at one time. Treating the fish with hypo-salinity works great. Start lowering the salinity of the tank gradually each day until you reach a salinity of 1.009.
3. Monitor the salinity and pH very closly and perform a 5-10% water change daily.
4. After the last parasite is no longer visible on the fish the clock begins to tick. I leftt my fish in hypo for 8 weeks.
5. After 8 weeks slowly bring the salinity up to you display tank level and aclimate the fish back into the tank.
I hope this helps. I followed those steps and got rid of that damn parasite once and for all. Remember that anything you intoduce into your system (rocks, coral, fish) has the potential to carry ich to your tank in some form. Play it safe and QT all new livestock for tank. I am speaking from experience.
John
1. Remove ALL fish from your reef and place them in QT. All fish have to be removed in order to remove the parasite completly from your system. Ich needs a fish and a fish only to host in. The parasite will go through three stages and during its free swimming stage it must have a host or it will die. The tank must remain fishless for at least 8 weeks.
2. Tangs are very sensitive to chemicals. I currently have 6 tangs and was up to 8 at one time. Treating the fish with hypo-salinity works great. Start lowering the salinity of the tank gradually each day until you reach a salinity of 1.009.
3. Monitor the salinity and pH very closly and perform a 5-10% water change daily.
4. After the last parasite is no longer visible on the fish the clock begins to tick. I leftt my fish in hypo for 8 weeks.
5. After 8 weeks slowly bring the salinity up to you display tank level and aclimate the fish back into the tank.
I hope this helps. I followed those steps and got rid of that damn parasite once and for all. Remember that anything you intoduce into your system (rocks, coral, fish) has the potential to carry ich to your tank in some form. Play it safe and QT all new livestock for tank. I am speaking from experience.
John
cowcio
New member
My Dad has had success from raising his temperature, very slowly, to 86 degrees Fahrenheit (go higher if you're comfortable...but he wasn't). Every 3-4 hours or so he raised it 1 degree. He has done this with both fresh and saltwater fish in the past.
Strands of ich cannot (to my knowledge) reproduce over 85 degrees fahrenheit. The heat also helps to get rid of the disease.
He did this in a QT tank... I'm not sure of the adverse side effects that this would have on LR and corals.
Personally, I would invest in a QT tank that can hold all of your fish! Then, I would use the a medication. But, I've never dealt with ich myself.
Anyways, do more research, I'm only trying to pass on a technique that my Dad has used successfully.
Strands of ich cannot (to my knowledge) reproduce over 85 degrees fahrenheit. The heat also helps to get rid of the disease.
He did this in a QT tank... I'm not sure of the adverse side effects that this would have on LR and corals.
Personally, I would invest in a QT tank that can hold all of your fish! Then, I would use the a medication. But, I've never dealt with ich myself.
Anyways, do more research, I'm only trying to pass on a technique that my Dad has used successfully.
Steelslinger75
New member
If you do not treat all of your fish you will never get rid of the ich. Ich doesn't jump from fish to fish. It goest through three stages
1. Egg form - living in substrate
2. Free swimming form
3. Gestation period on fish
4.repeat
Everytime this cycle repeats the ich will get worse.
I had to build a trap to get all of my fish out and lured them into the trap with live brine shrimp.
If you need some help building a trap, I can explain what I did and send you some pictures.
Johm
1. Egg form - living in substrate
2. Free swimming form
3. Gestation period on fish
4.repeat
Everytime this cycle repeats the ich will get worse.
I had to build a trap to get all of my fish out and lured them into the trap with live brine shrimp.
If you need some help building a trap, I can explain what I did and send you some pictures.
Johm
What everyone has said is correct.... however, sometimes removing the fish into a QT tank once already in the main setup can sometimes cause more stress than just letting the fish fight the disease off naturally.
If he is eating good, I would add some selcon and garlic to the diet along with the anti-parsite foods sold by SC in pellet form. My tangs love the stuff. If they are healthy then their immune systems should be able to fight it off with the right diet. Add a couple cleaner shrimp and you should be all set.
Now of course the only way to truly remove ich from your main tank is to go fishless for the recommended timeframe... Even then everytime you stick a new piece of rock, coral, etc.. you have a chance at reintroducing the parasite.
The way I see it ich is a natural parasite in the oceans, cleaner shrimp, wrasses, neon gobies and the like along with a healthy diet and stress free tank can keep your tank healthy.
Just my take...but if you want truly ich free you gotta go fishless.
If he is eating good, I would add some selcon and garlic to the diet along with the anti-parsite foods sold by SC in pellet form. My tangs love the stuff. If they are healthy then their immune systems should be able to fight it off with the right diet. Add a couple cleaner shrimp and you should be all set.
Now of course the only way to truly remove ich from your main tank is to go fishless for the recommended timeframe... Even then everytime you stick a new piece of rock, coral, etc.. you have a chance at reintroducing the parasite.
The way I see it ich is a natural parasite in the oceans, cleaner shrimp, wrasses, neon gobies and the like along with a healthy diet and stress free tank can keep your tank healthy.
Just my take...but if you want truly ich free you gotta go fishless.
well this Kent Rx-P im using has already reduced it and i have left algae sheets in the tank for the tang to feed on and i have been slowly dosing my tank even with garlic, i havent seen any other signs on the fish that dont have it, that and im going to pick up a few cleaner shrim before class tonight to get them going to clean off the ich
Big E
Premium Member
The cysts disapperaing in a few days is normal........it looks like it's going away but that is the parasite cycle. They drop off producing many more. In a week or so the numbers are ten fold attacking the fish even worse.
Maybe you are lucky, but I'd keep a close watch over the next 10 days or so. As most have mentioned you have to hypo the fish to erradicate it for good.
I'd use this time to set up a QT tank.
Maybe you are lucky, but I'd keep a close watch over the next 10 days or so. As most have mentioned you have to hypo the fish to erradicate it for good.
I'd use this time to set up a QT tank.
K-ROK
New member
I got ich in my 240gal. tank from not QT'ing a new fish. (I no longer take any chances.) All my fish had ich. I fed with garlic 2 - 3 times a day, and bought a second cleaner shrimp. The fish lined up and let the shrimp eat the parasites off them. Within a month it was all gone and I haven't seen a sign of it since. (Happened many months ago.) I had a thought but don't know how accurate it is - seems like having lots of flow in the tank would discourage the little (*^)*&% from getting on the fish???
K-ROK
New member
I should have added the process I used to feed with garlic. I'd get a clove out and get the loose covering off of it. Then slice it into as thin of slices as possible. I would then use a meat tenderizer - looks kind of like a hammer I guess with serrated ends. Use the TOP of it to smash the thin slices into a pulp, letting all the juice come out. Then add your food and mix it up good - let sit for a couple minutes then feed. I read that once you cut the garlic you need to use it fairly quick because the healing chemical (alicin) will only be effective for a short while. Hope this helps.
Paul B
Premium Member
Ich is a very easy disease to treat and you can cure any fish of it in about two days with copper, but should be left in the treatment for about a week. That will of course not rid your tank of paracites, only the fish in the copper. Cleaner shrimp and cleaner fish will do nothing for ich and garlic is kind of questionable. I feed garlic to my fish sometimes only because they seem to like it.
Hypo is supposed to work on ich after a while but copper works fast and it is guaranteed. For pet shops or wholesalers I use copper with formalin. If a fish is severly infected, it is the only thing that will save the fish. If there is only a few spots then copper may not be needed and hypo can be used. To rid a tank of ich is another story. It would have to be left without fish for about 6 weeks and I would raise the temperature to about 83.
Protein skimming will also have no effect on ich.
Good luck.
Paul
Hypo is supposed to work on ich after a while but copper works fast and it is guaranteed. For pet shops or wholesalers I use copper with formalin. If a fish is severly infected, it is the only thing that will save the fish. If there is only a few spots then copper may not be needed and hypo can be used. To rid a tank of ich is another story. It would have to be left without fish for about 6 weeks and I would raise the temperature to about 83.
Protein skimming will also have no effect on ich.
Good luck.
Paul
