ich and baby clownfish

[bassbone]

Last night I brought home a 3" yellow tang and put it in my 75g display tank, as I don't have a quarantine tank (mom won't let me get one even with my own money).
It's been itching itself earlier and I suspect ich.
I know nothing about ich. I have had this tank for like six years and haven't had any ich since the first year. I don't remember how I got rid of it because I was like 8 or something back then....
I have a pair of maroon clowns, the female (my very first fish) is 6" and the male (I got a week ago) is 1"... I'm really scared that the male might die if he gets ich because he's so small...I always think worst-case scenario....
I also have a sixline wrasse that I don't care for too much because he ripped up my little clown.
As for my inverts, I have a pizza carpet anemone,two emerald crabs, some hermit crabs, and snails.
I don't know what to do. I don't want to murder my inverts, but I'm so scared of losing my clown....and tang too but especially my clown... please help...

Edit: I'd like to add that I would be willing to sacrifice the crabs during treatment, because they're easier to replace, but I don't want to do any treatment that could kill the anemone, unless it's absolutely 100% necessary. It's around 6 to 8 inches in diameter, so it's a good size, and it cost me quite a bit.

 

[HumbleFish]

Once a tank has Ich (introduced by an infected fish), then Ich will always be present in the tank and all fish are (eventually) infected. I've included two links at the bottom of my post to help you better understand Ich and it's life cycle.

Now, there are only two ways to eradicate Ich from a tank. The first (preferred) method is to remove all fish from the tank, treat them in a QT, and let the display tank sit fallow (fishless) for 72 days. This starves all parasites out of your tank, since they cannot survive without fish to feed on. The second option is to treat the display tank with a chemical (like copper) or some have had success doing hyposalinity. However, both will kill all inverts (including your anemone), and treating with copper will render the tank unsuitable to house inverts ever again (unless you break the tank down and "clean" the rocks to remove all the copper).

Your only other option is what's called Ich management. Most frown upon this, as it's far from being a sure thing and takes a great deal of skill/experience to implement properly. But basically you feed often (and soak fish food in vitamin supplements to boost the fishes' immune systems), and try to keep all your parameters as stable as possible. A UV sterilizer may also prove useful to keep the overall number of parasites down. The thing is you can do all that and still lose all your fish to Ich. Ich management will never completely eradicate the parasites... it just "manages" the problem so the fish can (hopefully) cope. So, you might want to view it as a possible temporary solution to your problem until you can convince your mom how important a QT is.

I've done both, and now religiously practice Ich eradication. But you need a QT to make that happen long-term.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1992196

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2159738

 

[bassbone]

Thank you. I'll try to explain this in terms she'll understand.