Ich issue.....need some advice

jfolley67

jfolley67

New member
ok, have a mild case of ich in my tank and of course I realize it will only get worse. There is no way I am going to be able to catch all the fish out of all that rock. I am going out of town this weekend so I can't even try to get them in quarrantine because the girl watching my house will not have a clue what to do and then we are leaving again for 5 days on the 16th. Not sure what to do, but in desperation thought I would try a reef safe medication. I have tried some of the medication (flagyl) but different name given by vet, but in food but does not seem to have helped. I have done garlic and even ginger root as i have heard this helps. I am going to be placing that marine depot order tomorrow and want anyone who can help to check out the medication and treatments they offer and make a suggestion of what is the best to purchase.
Please help! Fish are all still eating and seem fine but my powder brown looked a bit worse today in terms of spots and my regal has a spot on her eye, does not seem to affect them but I am certain it is becoming irritating. I want to do something the moment I return from my trip on Monday so hoping the order will arrive just then.
 
Most of the reef safe products cause algae blooms.

There was a new study done by the UM and the reason why ich stays around in the home aquarium is because they dont only host in fish. They also host in crabs and shrimp and other segmented crustaceans. The only way to get rid of it is to quarantine all fish, toss all inverts like crabs(even hermits) and shrimp. Then do a freshwater dip or a dip with formalin and then use a multipurpose medicine such as paraguard or dose copper and amd something for bacterial infections so there is no secondary infections. Then remove all snails out of the tank, place them in a different QT and dose the display tank with cupramine. Its almost reefsafe(it will kill snails/crabs/shrimp etc). Cupramine doesnt affect the sandbed and is easily removed with carbon. I had to dose mine twice (2 14day treatments) to just make sure all free swimming were dead. Dips and treatments DO NOT kill eggs, only free swimming. The life cycle of ich and other parasites are typically 21 days from hatching to egg laying, once they hatch, they have to find a host within 48-72 hours or they die. If there is nothing for them to host on, then there will not be a reoccurring problem. My display tank has been fishless for going on 2 months, and Im not putting any fish in it until I move it in a couple weeks so I can basically start over on it.

FWIW, ich can come in from corals or anything else that comes from an infected tank. If the person has ich in their system, and has cleaner shrimp, they may never notice that they have ich, and then pass it on, and swear up and down you didnt get it from them (experienced it first hand when that was the only thing added to the tank in 6 mmonths).
 
The only thing I know to do if you can't get them out, is to feed them the fishdoc concoction (selcon, some vitamin supplement (I use seachem reef plus), some brine shrimp, some metronidazole, some focus, and some garlic). I think you feed that 2x per day. Me doesn't likes ich. Sorry to hear that. You have some beautiful fish.
 
I am not familiar with focus, will look it up. I have been feeding everyone this kind of stuff in one form or another 2x per day....but not just like that. Every other feeding now they get garlic or vita-chem. then I alternate the food with soaked flake or frozen. I have used the metronidazole for a couple of weeks now and for a while in all meals. I am almost out of it now. Someone told me the ich looks worse before it gets better??????hmmmmm. Fish still all eating like pigs but blue regal is starting to do a bit of scratching on sand occasionally and I can tell the powder brown is not happy but still very feisty. I have also soaked all their seaweed on the clip in garlic. there is just no way to get them all out including the inverts....when we get back from both trips, whomever is still doing ok we will get into quarrantine and monitor in hypo, but I just want them to get to that point.. I have also heard very slowly raising temp to 84 is ok and if done slowly ok for a reef? Anyone have this...also raising the salinity a little. Opinions needed please!
 
You can leave the Focus out if you wish:) I've used it with and without.
Sounds like your doing some good things anyway. I would just keep on keeping on. It usually takes a few weeks to go away. If they have had it for a couple of weeks and are still looking and acting healthy you are likely in good shape. The powder brown sounds like the worst. Is he still eating well?

Chris
 
Raising the temp speed up the life cycle of ich, but not much. Feeding your fish different things only builds up their immune system. You have to correct the problem before it will go away. If you dont, everytime you add a new fish, ich will show up on all fish more then likely. New and old fish will be stressed which weakens their immune system, and then the ich attacks them.
 
yes, they are all totally eating like pigs. Brown looked the worst today. They still are not covered completely. The brown had some on her fins as well today. She seemed maybe a little stressed but eating ok. I am running out of the vet medicine so I am going to have to substitute the ginger root (supposedly a new something some have tried) and see if it works. I am feeling better about the skimmer going strong now though because before I felt like I was just polluting the tank with so much food and stuff. I never used to feed the tank 2 times a day. My regal had a spot today on her eye which I thought was weird. Did not seem to bother her, but I am so hoping she will be ok. If I can just get them through this month I can try and pull them out. Think I will be ok without the metronidazole? Not sure how long you should give it anyway but I have been doing it for a couple of weeks. It does seem like every day there are a few spots on the fish, today just being the worst on fins....
 
and I have GOT to get that order in tomorrow, because i hate all the crud floating in the water. I sometimes think that it makes them worse off in there. Water parameters are fine but just need to get the activated carbon and the filter socks on BAD.
 
Come to think of it, that could have been what you were seeing floating around your tank when everybody was telling you it was microbubbles.
 
I would continue the metronidazole. that's the one ingredient that as actually shown to effective against parasites. Although it's typically enteric parasites it it is used for it has been shown to work in ich.

If you dont, everytime you add a new fish, ich will show up on all fish more then likely.
Click to expand...

Not true. Whether or not ich is "always there" is conroversial but once you get rid of it it will not automatically show up on all new fish. The last episode I hade with ich was > 2 years ago and I haven't seen any since. Most of those things are only(supposedly) building up the immune system but Metronidazole has shown to be effective against ich. Another fact is in the case of healthy fish getting ich they typically recover spontaneously without treatment if there are no other stressors. This is why people think "I did this and the ich went away". I have never seen ich actually floating around the tank.


Chris
 
I will head over to the vet today and get a couple more pills to crunch up to get me by and then I have ordered the seachem kind off of marine depot. I also am ordering the focus. I just want the fish to do ok until I get back over the weekend. I have not used the metronidazole EVERY feeding the last few days because I was running short of it but did use it this way for about a week before. I will go back to every feeding. I am not sure about the eye, I will look that up, thanks for letting me know about that. I am however pretty sure that the fish do have ich, this may be a different issue. I so badly need the socks on my drains though. I think my sand sifter also kicks up a bit each day AND my maroon loves to shake the sand with her tail. Also seems to me that my clowns fins are not looking too great, they seem to be a little shredded looking. I have seen this on the boy when the female gets mad at him, but have not seen it like this on the female, I am wondering if this is the meds? ich? or someone beating on them?
 
sorry to hear, I have my fish in a 55 gal QT currently b/c the powder brown I added brought ich in with it. I did the 14 day cupramine treatment but am not wholly satisfied that they are rid of it so I will be doing hyposalinity treatment as well while the display tank goes fishless for over 6 weeks.
 
I used the feeding heavy method with lots of garlic and mine cleared up quickly 3 to 4 days and has not come back for around 3 months. It was really bad fish were absolutely cover I thought my sailfin was going to die I also had to do a freshwater dip on the sailfin.
 
Try my method, but you have to be around to do it properly! I feed formula 2, which it contains garlic. But they also say that you need to feed fresh garlic in order to work. All that said, this method worked for me every single time. I feed formula 2 four times a day and within a week, there's no symptoms of ich anywhere. When I got a foxface last time from the fish store, it looked healthy until a few days later in my tank. I had a ich breakout where all my fish was getting it bad, my poor regal was covered with it. I feed it formula 2 everyday and it was all gone in about 4 days. It is best if you catch it early on to do this treatment, the longer you wait, the worse it gets....
 
ok, made a concoction of this....
metronidazole 1/2 tab, garlic, ginger root, formula2 flakes mixed with frozen brine and a little bit of vita-chem. Froze individual meals of this mixture....cross your fingers!
 
meintn... Do not do copper and hypo together. Copper becomes much more toxic in lower salinities and leave the fish out of the display for the full 6 weeks ;).

I think you need to just keep on keeping on with your plan you are doing. Unless they are compleatly covered and not eating they will probably pull through. I don't think I would does the display with anything yet, your fish all seem pretty strong and frisky still.
 
Nah, no copper here, Angela. I am gonna keep trying to work on this...got more of the meds from the vet and ordered the focus and more of the seachem stuff so will have that mid week. They do act totally fine.....eating like pigs. Sometimes I wonder if what we think is ich, over time in the tank with all the crud floating around is the crud sticking to them....I ordered the socks for the drains also, so can't wait to work on all of that. How is your tank?
I am in Ohio this weekend for Scott's 20 year high school reunion that was tonight. Will be home tomorrow night and will call you on Monday. Hope you are ok and hope your tank is doing better!
Thanks everyone else also for the great suggestions, I am doing a little of everything that is being recommended by all.
 
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