I will opine. I can't sleep. My pager is going off incessantly.
Vaccination is the only tool we have to make the immune system better.
Here comes the grenade.
Past this, the immune system is a tricky thing to "boost" in any general sense. To do so... is folly in my opinion. A boosted immune system (the way I imagine it) not necessarily a good thing. It is arthritis, lupus, lymphoma, glomerullitis, adult respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis syndrome and a whole list of other bad problems. In my days doing prostate cancer, bladder and kidney cancer research with REAL immune boosters like anti-CTLA 4, interferon, Interlukens, etc... I will tell you there are significant side effects for anything that actually works to boost the immune system in any measurable way. Think about inflammation. This hurts. Inflammation can cause tissue destruction and can be a disease in itself. That is your immune system boosted! Think about that aweful all over body ache and headache you get with the flu or a cold. Hello immune system! Do you REALLY want to boost that past natures intended response? When I see people clammer for anything that says "boosts the immune system", I cringe.
That millennia of evolution left out one tiny key ingredient... like Garlic... to make the immune system work optimally just makes me laugh. Trust me when I say that millions of dollars are being spent on this research year after year and the magic immune booster has not been found. Sorting this out is easily as complex as finding the "cure" for cancer. Most of what is out there is either totally ineffective or dangerous, IMO.
A pot of vitamins? Unless you are correcting a vitamin deficiency.. you are throwing your money away IMO. To the people who print labels that say "cures Ich" or "boosts the immune system" we should all say... "Show me the data!". Or even design a study to prove that these things work. The cost would be astronomical. It is cheaper to just gather some anecdotes, make a pretty label, and start selling the stuff at high prices. Beware consumer.
That being said... the immune system (along with the rest of the organism) can be weakened by poor nutrition (vitamin deficiency), bad water quality, and overwhelmed by a huge exposure to a certain pathogen or combination of pathogens. These are the things that make Ich a problem in aquariums and not in the wild.
Basically, you are watching a race between the pathogen to feed on the host, breed, and infect other hosts... against the host to sense the invader, digest it's parts (macrophages) present them to the bone marrow, lymph nodes, thymus and spleen, build the appropriate antibodies and direct a population of T Cells, Natural Killers, and a bunch of others to coat and digest the incoming pest. This library of antibodies and T Cells sticks around for a period of time greatly speeding up the process the next time the bug comes around.
So, if the pest attacks a healthy organism in small numbers, it will innoculate the host without symptoms ultimately resulting in immunity. If the pest attacks a not so healthy organism in huge numbers.. the host my not survive... and turns into a giant contageous feeding station for the pest.
So, meet your fishes needs to the best of your ability with good nutrition, optimal water quality. Avoid overstocking. If garlic restores your fishes appetite.. then use it. You can get cheap garlic paste in a tube at the grocery store for 5 bucks a tube. Or, buy the same thing from the fish store for 20 bucks a tube.
Ich is an obligate parasite, so, if you take ALL of the fish out of the tank for six to 8 weeks you can have an Ich free tank again. These, would be treated with copper or hypo before reintroduction. Then be sure to isolate your new fish for six weeks before introduction into you display tank and consider treating them with Copper or hyposalinity during that period. If you do not do these things, you will get Ich sooner or later. I did!
Short of that, you can try UV. Remove just the fish that show spots. Vacuum your gravel (carefully) each night. The idea to cut down on the Ich population in your tank... (I have done this) but... many people whom I respect will blast these measures as ineffective.
I was taught by the head of infectious disease at the institition from which I recieved my medical degree... that no antibiotic / antifungal / antiviral / antiparisite medication can eradicate 100% of the invading organism. The goal is to reduce the bacterial / parasite / fungal population enough.. and for long enough... to allow the patient's immune system to wipe out the invader. The idea is to remind us that good nursing, wound care, surgical drainage, good nutrition is often sufficient. And, unless you know exactly what you are treating, and that your treatment will work, you should not expose the patient to pills or other untested chemicals etc...
So, in my opinion, if you can't fallow the tank... concentrate on keeping your fish healthy and lowering the load of parasites in the tank in any way that does not harm the fish left in the display tank. I will deviate from purists in the hobby when I include removing obviously infected fish from the system for treatment in a quarantined area.
Just know that you will probably see spots again from time to time, especially on any new fish, if you don't fallow your tank.
I did recently try a product called Kick Ich. It is basically nasty old tea that you pour in your tank. I did this when someone I knew "swore by it". Clever theory (not what is on the label though)... that it smells so bad it interferes with chemotaxis when the swarmers come out to find the fish, they can't do it. I tried it. No noticeable effect. The response of the company was to buy more of it. I started to feel like a chump and quit using it.
Hopefully, my post will prove an effective cure to others insomnia as it was mine.
Cheers and happy reefing.
