Friend has a Gramma with Ich

[serbusfish]

My friend has a fully stocked reef tank with standard CUC, Cleaner Shrimp, 2x Clownfish, a Firefish, a Neon Damsel, and a Royal Gramma Basslet. He tells me he thinks the Gramma has Ich as it has white dots on its body and he's seen it flicking itself. He currently has no quarantine/hospital tank. If you were in this situation what would you do to rectify the situation?

 

[Nina51]

the only thing he can do (other than doing nothing and hoping for the best) is to remove all of the fish to a hospital tank and either treat them there medication or pick up a couple of tanks (probably 20g for that many fish) and use the tank transfer method. after ttm, the fish should be quarantined for the period of time (72 days) that his display tank MUST remain fallow to allow the parasite to die off.

 

[gone fishin]

What Nina said

 

[serbusfish]

the only thing he can do (other than doing nothing and hoping for the best) is to remove all of the fish to a hospital tank and either treat them there medication or pick up a couple of tanks (probably 20g for that many fish) and use the tank transfer method. after ttm, the fish should be quarantined for the period of time (72 days) that his display tank MUST remain fallow to allow the parasite to die off.

Is hoping for the best a genuine possible solution? I always thought once a fish had Ick you had to either treat it or it would die?

I told him at the very least to get a bucket and transfer it but he doesnt have any powerhead's. I havent spoken to him since so no idea what he is planning on doing.

 

[Deinonych]

Is hoping for the best a genuine possible solution?

Nope (points at signature).

 

[Thumperc25]

I had the same issue when I added a hippo tang to my 120 reef. It and several other fish got ich. I treated it with kick ich and put garlic extract in there food. Thankfully I had enough live rock and a good clean up crew to maintain my nitrates for 2 weeks with no skimmer or carbon running as you have to remove those element while treating it with kick ich. All fish and corals survived with just a few snails acting drunk. Kick ich does not kill the ich but prevents them from latching onto the fish so they no longer have a good food source.

 

[gone fishin]

No ^^^

 

[ThRoewer]

Is hoping for the best a genuine possible solution? I always thought once a fish had Ick you had to either treat it or it would die?

Yes, if the tank is stable, the fish otherwise healthy and the infection is light a fish can develop enough immunity to get over it without intervention.
I had that happen quite a few times.

Right now I have 3 Gramma loreto for 74 days in a 10 gal QT and 6 weeks into quarantine they all showed ich - white dots and scratching. I decided to wait and see how it develops before starting treatment but after the dots were gone a few days later they didn't return.
Now, that doesn't mean they are ich free! It just means they are no longer sick, which is an important distinction because they may still be infectious to other fish.

So before I can put them into a display tank with other fish I need to clean them up via TTM.