Ich questions please help

Blu3s94

New member
Yes I have read and researched ich. I do have some questions still. I have a 90 gallon reef with sps, lps, and softies. Along with snails, cleaner shrimp, and red legged hermits.


I introduced a foxface two days ago to this tank and today I saw the ich on him. Never quarantined any fish before. Been lucky. But it ended today. I have a melanururs wrasse, yellow tang, one spot foxface, rusty angel and a pair of clowns that I will need to quarantine.

I went out and bought a power filter, heater, seachem cupramine and a 20 gallon tank.

Here are my questions guys, I believe this 20 gallon is going to be way too small to house these guys for 8 weeks, what would be a more practical size? I was in panick mode and wasnt thinking clearly. Also for my corals and inverts that will be without fish for 8 weeks, do I continue to feed the tank a small amount of food everyday since the inverts and coral wont have fish poo and leftovers to feed on I assume? I dont want to lose biological filtartion for when I reintroduce all these fish back, so how do I keep that bioload when I remove all the fish?

Last question, this is going to be a huge bioload for a brand new hospital tank. How will I be able to keep ammonia and nitrate low with that much bioload?? Obviously water changes but even then it seems it could get out of wack very quick?!


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How do u know for sure it is ich?

My tank may hace ich too. Newbiew, new tank, a blue tang showes white spots. It maybe ich, but i chose to wait and see. I plan to ttm and quarantine if this tang gets really messed up, or multiple fish start to show same symptom. Otherwise, i will just wait and enjoy the tank.

I hear this belief that every tank has traces of ich. So if fish can fight off without treatment that'd be best outcome. Well what do I know being a newbie!
 
dont quote me but i dont think wrasses handle copper very well.
8 weeks isn't long enough, you main tank needs to stay fallow for at least 73 days i believe
you will need a copper test kit also.

i dont know the answer to the rest of your questions, sorry
Good luck
 
dont quote me but i dont think wrasses handle copper very well.
8 weeks isn't long enough, you main tank needs to stay fallow for at least 73 days i believe
you will need a copper test kit also.

i dont know the answer to the rest of your questions, sorry
Good luck
Will order the test kit and will research more on the wrasse thank you

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Don't panic from a few white spots. Inspect each fish closely look at these fins. If it's only a few spots on one fish I wouldn't go into panic mode and take all your fish out. Yes 8 fish in a 20 gallon is way to much. Just inspect your fish for a few more days and advise


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How do u know for sure it is ich?

My tank may hace ich too. Newbiew, new tank, a blue tang showes white spots. It maybe ich, but i chose to wait and see. I plan to ttm and quarantine if this tang gets really messed up, or multiple fish start to show same symptom. Otherwise, i will just wait and enjoy the tank.

I hear this belief that every tank has traces of ich. So if fish can fight off without treatment that'd be best outcome. Well what do I know being a newbie!
I looked at the ttm but dont understand it. If you have to leave your display empty of fish for 8 weeks whats the point of ttm? It isnt any faster to get the fish back to there normal home?

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Don't panic from a few white spots. Inspect each fish closely look at these fins. If it's only a few spots on one fish I wouldn't go into panic mode and take all your fish out. Yes 8 fish in a 20 gallon is way to much. Just inspect your fish for a few more days and advise


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I noticed a few on eachside of the foxface, then later today I didnt see any but noticed there were spots on his pectoral fins. I will monitor, dont have the time to do anything until the weekend but want to be prepared for a full transfer. It would be 6 fish actually. I was thinking a 40 breeder would work better. Need to find one on CL

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Sorry to hear about your ich problem. I would strongly recommend the tank transfer method over treating with copper, it is much less stressful to your fish. After the 12 days of tank transfers, I would use either two 20 gallon tanks or a 40 gallon tank to house the fish during the 72 day (not 8 weeks) fallow period. You need only to very lightly feed the tank while the fish are in quarantine, the bacteria will live over a year without food (ammonia and nitrites), so you only need to provide food for your invertebrates and corals. During the 12 days of tank transfers you would have enough time to cycle either some dry rock or a couple of those bio-bricks if you use Dr. Tim's One and Only or one of the other bacteria in a bottle fast cycle products available. Then use those to provide the needed biofiltration furing the 72 day fallow period.
 
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Before you do all of this. Just make sure it's ich. I have seen a few spots on my fish only to go away in a few days.


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I looked at the ttm but dont understand it. If you have to leave your display empty of fish for 8 weeks whats the point of ttm? It isnt any faster to get the fish back to there normal home?

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The advantages of the TTM are that it is less stressful to your fish (some fish simply will not survive a copper treatment), it is IMHO easier to use since it is difficult to test and maintain the exact copper levels necessary for the copper treatments to work and yet not be too high as to kill the fish, and it has a higher success rate at eliminating the ich.
 
I hear this belief that every tank has traces of ich. So if fish can fight off without treatment that'd be best outcome. Well what do I know being a newbie!

This is simply not true. Some tanks do however have ich and the fish are able to survive with the parasite present in the tank for extended periods of time. This approach is of course a ticking time bomb. Any stress placed on the fish will lead to a sudden outbreak of then parasite often with fatal results. I have a friend who took the approach of just letting the fish live with ich, and for 5 months things were fine. You could see a few spots on some of his fish but there were no deaths. He added a new wrasse to his tank, had a major outbreak and lost well over half his fish before he could catch and treat them.
 
Hello, dealing with this ATM my tomato was covered in spots yesterday and my lawnmower was scratching himself like crazy but the other fish looked fine, I talked to a good friend and he said Ginger powered ? I tried it I did a pinch in the tank and left it than I did my water change that night and one small feeding of soaked garlic flake mixed with the ginger and today everything is gone tomato looks happy NO spots at all and the lawnmower is just chilling now and doesn't look stressed at all no more scratching. Think I'm still going to setup a hospital tank for the fish. From my understanding if the display tank has no fish the ICH has no host and will run its cycle and die off and in the hospital tank hopefully the ICH will run its cycle fall off the fish/host with nothing to grow in at the bottom of the tank just glass I hope it dies off aswell..
 
SlaminSocal,

What exactly are the "Ginger powered"? I'd like to buy and try.

The link to "garlic flake" product? I have garlic seaweed but like to try this garlic flake too.

If you will do a hospital tank, why not go through the ttm as well? Not much incremental effort there. Don't think the ich egg will just die at the bottom of the tank when fish is swimming atop.
 
Sorry to hear about your ich problem. I would strongly recommend the tank transfer method over treating with copper, it is much less stressful to your fish. After the 12 days of tank transfers, I would use either two 20 gallon tanks or a 40 gallon tank to house the fish during the 72 day (not 8 weeks) fallow period. You need only to very lightly feed the tank while the fish are in quarantine, the bacteria will live over a year without food (ammonia and nitrites), so you only need to provide food for your invertebrates and corals. During the 12 days of tank transfers you would have enough time to cycle either some dry rock or a couple of those bio-bricks if you use Dr. Tim's One and Only or one of the other bacteria in a bottle fast cycle products available. Then use those to provide the needed biofiltration furing the 72 day fallow period.

I agree with this.
 
Hello, dealing with this ATM my tomato was covered in spots yesterday and my lawnmower was scratching himself like crazy but the other fish looked fine, I talked to a good friend and he said Ginger powered ? I tried it I did a pinch in the tank and left it than I did my water change that night and one small feeding of soaked garlic flake mixed with the ginger and today everything is gone tomato looks happy NO spots at all and the lawnmower is just chilling now and doesn't look stressed at all no more scratching. Think I'm still going to setup a hospital tank for the fish. From my understanding if the display tank has no fish the ICH has no host and will run its cycle and die off and in the hospital tank hopefully the ICH will run its cycle fall off the fish/host with nothing to grow in at the bottom of the tank just glass I hope it dies off aswell..

Ginger and garlic do nothing at all to treat or prevent ich.
 
Thank you everyone, I am going to do the ttm and return the medicine. I am looking for a couple suitable tanks now. If anyone has any more advice or tips please post! Thanks again.

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Hey, just to clarify I don't think that the ginger was a cure I tried it and that's what happened my tomato is calm no spots and my lawnmower has gone back to being himself, that makes me feel a little better to hopefully give me the time to find extra tanks and equipment so that I can hospital tank or try the TTM. The ginger powder is just seasoning form the grocery store I bought the omega seafood flakes with Garlc just because of all the garlic rumors I heard about on ICH and Garlc...
 
I did see a study from jack wately He had 2 patches of discus. Feed one garlic soaked food for 2 weeks and one regular food. He food the ones that ate the garlic was cured of internal parasite while the ones who ate regular food whereby. He proved this by looking at the poop though a microscope. Not sure how this relates to ich. Just wanted to state it. Also think there are now studies being done about fish diseases and water quality


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