Help! Am I going to lose everything?

[scholls22]

Alrighty, I just made three months into my first tank, a 24g Nanocube. I have two black and white clowns, a coral beauty, lawnmower blenny(just go it ), cleaner shrimp, a starfish (just got it) and snails and hermit crabs.

My wife just called and said she saw tiny pin size white spots on the Coral Beauty. I have not seen it yet and assuming its going to be ich. Am I going to lose everything?

I have read so many different things on the internet and dont know what to believe. I dont want to lose the fish, but I can easily relace the fish a lot quicker than the rock, sand and corals.

Can I just let it run its course? I don't have a pic, but will try. The CB does not like to be photographed.

Thanks for everyone's help!

 

[steelhead77]

OK I'll be the first to chime in here. I say take a wait and see approach. Ich is NOT an immediate killer, despite what others on this site will tell you. As long as the fish is eating and swimming normally, they can and will fight it off.

There will be many others who will now flame me for this advice and will tell you that unless you immediately remove all fish from your DT for a period of 6-8 weeks and put them into a hospital tank and treat with either hypo or copper, ALL YOUR FISH WILL DIE!!!! Hogwash! Keep your tank stress free and your water parameters pristine and the fish will fight this off.

 

[scholls22]

Thanks steelhead, you made me feel better. Obviously I dont want to see the fish suffer, but would rather lose the fish than the LR, corals, etc... I cant afford to buy all of the rock, sand, blah blah again. I have more invested in the corals than the fish anyways.

I'm guessing do a water change too? I just did one Thursday and everything tested fine then. I'll have to test everything in the morning. Should I feed him anything special? I see a lot about garlic. I just got some seaweed with garlic flavor and havent used it yet.

 

[PaxRoma]

lets assume it is ick, worst scenario
Keep all the parameters in line,and, as long as the fishes are eating, they will fight it off. Don't do anything drastic, you may stress them out unnecessarily. Sometimes the treatment is worse than the disease.

 

[scholls22]

So, does it just run its course and then die off if the fish fight it? Will the cleaner shrimp take it off of the CB?

 

[LukFox]

So, does it just run its course and then die off if the fish fight it? Will the cleaner shrimp take it off of the CB?

If you're lucky, the parasite will be present in small numbers. The cleaner will do nothing for ich.

 

[Lynnmw1208]

everyone is right, just feed really well and wait and see. if the food is garlic flavored does it mean that it actually has it in the ingredients? you might wanna read those. Did you QT your fish before putting it directly into the display tank? if you didn't you might want to consider doing that in the future. this way if the fish gets it, it would be quarantined to the QT tank and can possibly be treated if it gets worse in there. I wish you luck! keep us updated on the progress.

 

[steelhead77]

Wow! 3 people agreeing with me. Where are all the usual suspects telling me I'm going to kill this guys fish with my advice? :spin2:

Here's my Tang:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/steelhead77/3526844642/" title="Prince_Ich2 by steelhead77, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3402/3526844642_841f746b6a.jpg" width="500" height="343" alt="Prince_Ich2" /></a>

This pic was taken two years ago and he is still doing great. None of the other 8 or 9 fish in the tank came down with it and my tank has been ich free thru 2 tank upgrades and an additional 7 fish.

I believe that it does eventually die off if the fish build immunity and it cannot find a host. Keep your water pristine and encourage it to eat by using garlic to stimulate feeding.

 

[Stormtrooper]

Wow! 3 people agreeing with me. Where are all the usual suspects telling me I'm going to kill this guys fish with my advice? :spin2:

Here's my Tang:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/steelhead77/3526844642/" title="Prince_Ich2 by steelhead77, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3402/3526844642_841f746b6a.jpg" width="500" height="343" alt="Prince_Ich2" /></a>

This pic was taken two years ago and he is still doing great. None of the other 8 or 9 fish in the tank came down with it and my tank has been ich free thru 2 tank upgrades and an additional 7 fish.

I believe that it does eventually die off if the fish build immunity and it cannot find a host. Keep your water pristine and encourage it to eat by using garlic to stimulate feeding.

I agree with you 100%.:thumbsup:

My Achilles had the same problem and without anything
except TLC it recovered completely.


Treatment in a lot of cases just seems to stress the fish out more.

 

[njdevilsfan]

wow dude hang a disco ball and that tang would look awsome

 

[Guacamole]

Feel that? Perhaps the winds of change

 

[kingfisher62]

I would pick up some Garlic xtreme by Kent. You can soak any food in that. Kick up your water changes to make sure your water is pristine as possible.

 

[kingfisher62]

I am thinking you might have pushed your bioload a bit to have that many fish in a tank that size so soon . Exactly what are your water parameters ? This will help us help you. what about salinity and And temp?

 

[scholls22]

Anyone use Herbtana? LFS sold that to me today. I was told to do a freshwater dip every other day and if that didnt work, use herbtana

 

[kingfisher62]

NO STOP !!!!
Do not do a FW dip whatever you do. Your fish are stress out enough. Just concentrate on the water conditions and feed garlic soaked food.
Thats what I would do but thats just my opinion.

Don't know what herbtana is.

 

[Acronic]

hey steelhead, you should try to sell that as a gem tang


and just so I dont thread jack, just feed him a varied diet of frozen soaked in garlic to make him/her extra happy and i bet he/she will be fine.

I believe that ich is in our water all the time (maybe im outright wrong) and all it takes is a stresed fish to catch it.