Constant Ich

[Shawn D]

Every now and then I will get tiny out breaks of ich (usually on my regal tang) and it will last a few days while I feed lots of algae soaked in selcon and various other foods. Then it goes away for a while and will pop back up again, this is the second or third time this has happened and its getting a little annoying, so how can I get rid of this completely? I really don't want to hypo my whole reef tank either.

 

[Untamed12]

I've no advice for you on how to rid your tank of this safely without removing all the fish for a period of time. (11+ weeks?)

I wanted to add that you might just be seeing the normal life cycle of ich...which for a period of it's life lives in the sand bed and not on the fish. So while you may think that you are making it go away with special feeding, it may just be going away on its own.

My fish have the same problem. It has been like that for about 18 months. While I have lost a fish or two over that time period, I wouldn't attribute any deaths to ich.

As removal of the fish is nearly impossible, I'm just having to live with it.

 

[Shawn D]

Well its been like this for about 3 months, if its not going to kill anything I will just have to stop worrying about it

 

[Recty]

You cant be guaranteed it wont kill anything... if your fish are healthy and not stressed, they can survive a little ich no problem. But if something happens to stress the fish badly and there is ich present in the system, you could be in for a big hurt.

 

[Shawn D]

Any other suggestions to get rid of it then?

 

[Berkeleyaquaman]

Do you run a UV?
Do several 30% water changes. this will remove the free-swimming stage from the water column. Also soak your food in garlic (find a brand that is low in phoshpates). also lower the salinity.

 

[Recty]

Lowering salinity on a reef tank isnt an option.

 

[Moonstream]

I would continue feeding garlic soaked foods, maybe try adding some cleaner shrimps and neon gobies (while I myself dont really believe that they really help much with ich, they can only help).

 

[Untamed12]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12955319#post12955319 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Berkeleyaquaman
Do you run a UV?
Do several 30% water changes. this will remove the free-swimming stage from the water column. Also soak your food in garlic (find a brand that is low in phoshpates). also lower the salinity.

I question the effectiveness of some of these suggestions....

30% water change would, possibly, dilute the numbers in the free swimming stage by 30%...not remove it.

 

[Berkeleyaquaman]

these are the methods that I've used and had success with.
take it or leave it

 

[wayne in norway]

Ich is really variable in it's physical appearance and virulence - there are well researched papersin the scientific literature on low saliity reisistant ich, and comparisms of big/small spot ich and so on. Looks like you're lucky enough to have an infestation of very weak ich. Guess you can use UV, or if you're determined get everything out and stick them in something like a koi display vat for a few months with copper or whatever you like to use.

Point to bear in mind for untamed 12. Cryptocaryon populations were demonstrated to die out after I think about 22, 24 months if they were not exposed to any new genetinc material to crossbreed with due to genetic senescence. So if you've been suffering it for 18 months, and haven't added any new fishes, you're gettign close to having an ich free tank. It also means it's still worth qt'ing to make sure you don't get any new genetic material in, particularly one of the 'tank wipeout' flavours that seem to have been doing the rounds this year.

 

[EnderG60]

yeah my regal gets small outbreaks every so often(usually stress related, as in add a new fish or gets in a fight or so on) never last more then a week though.

Now my small yellow tang does the same thing but with the black ich.

they are all basicly happy and well fed so I just leave it be.

I will be doing a good QT procedure when I setup the new tank though.