Does my clown have ich?

[Mrseptember15]

I was looking at my tank today and saw that one of my clowns have small tiny tiny white dots. I'm not sure if there dots or somethin else that comes natrually. But it's too small to photograph and can only be seen under the light. Is this normal or is it ich? If its Ich what are my options for treatment? I don't have a quarantine yet but I was thinking of that garlic thing. Do you use store garlic or do you have to buy it from the LFS? Also its eating well and doesnt show any diffrent behavior, it swims around just like my other one.


Also, if I want to buy an off the shelf treatment which one is best? And if I add it to the whole tank will it harm the others?

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

One thing that may make them come down with CFD and crash is in fact treatment. I don't know anything about garlic though I see that some keepers use it regularly. Keep an eye on them; if it gets bad you'll have to treat. Copper is the standard practice, you can get this at any marine store and you'll need a test kit also. If you use copper it will kill invertabrates and contaminate sandbeds and rock, so if you can't quarentine (something most reefkeepers do with few exceptions before any new introductions) Cu will probably not be an option. Some claim there to be tank safe treatments, respected opinions seem to agree there really isn't. A search "tank/reef safe ich treatments should give better ideas. Like humans, many bacteria are always present in a marine system and stress be it environmental or physical is often the factor that brings on sickness. The best treatment may be an immediate 10-25% water change made with quality salts and RO (reverse osmosis) water; you can often find this with the bottled water or sometimes in dispensing machines at the grocery store but make sure its RO. In the long run its less expensive and easier to get your filtration system, as a bonus the coffee made with pure water tastes so much better.

 

[Craiger]

Kick Ich is a product I'm trying now. It's reef safe, but I'm not sure how effective it is. It's too soon. I also bought liquid garlic -- it's supposed to be a good thing regardless of whether the fish have ich or not. And, I'm doing water changes. I can't do a QT tank, so that's the best I can do. Lost a pair of clowns, a goby, and a powder blue tang. Trying to save 4 yellow tangs.

With Ich you need to act immediately -- the very first day you see it. If you wait too long (which is what I think I did, it's a challenge).

 

[Mrseptember15]

Ok, well im going to try that garlic stuff first. Thanks for the replies