ICH! What are my options???

[C4SxM5]

Well I knew the time would come that my fishes would catch something since I haven't been QT'ing them and now the majority of them are showing signs of ICH.

Here are the fishes I have:
3 YT
PT
Imperator Angelfish
Flame Angel
6 line Wrasse
Skunk Clown
2 Ocellaris Clownfish

My question is what is the best way of getting rid of the ICH so it doesn't come back. All of the fishes are eating well and don't show any signs other than the white dots everywhere.

I don't have a QT tank at the time so please take that into consideration.

 

[reefer334]

All of the fish you have are ich magnets but the wrasse.
How big is your tank,what kind of filteration and skimmer,fish only or reef,water parameters and how much flow?
Also how old is the tank and how long have the fish been in there?
Chris

 

[yoboyjdizz]

Aslong as there is no stress, good water quality you should be ok if their eating. I would feed 2-3 times a day with foods soaked in garlic, selcon and vita-chem. You most likely will never get rid of ich but your fishes immune system will be able to fight it off and remain perfectly healthy for there on out.

 

[Joes210gal]

Tan,
As we talked about the other day, the real question is, "How do I get my nitrates down"? Bad water quality can cause a number of issues. This is one of them. I think you can treat these fish for ICH until they're blue in the face, but with high nitrates it's going to be a recurring problem. First, work on getting all that detritus out. Hopefully that will take care of your nitrate issue.
So what about your poor contaminated fish? Do you treat them knowing there's a water quality issue? Sorry, I have no clue.

 

[kevin95695]

If you have live rock, ich will always be lurking, especially with tangs and other ich magnets. Cleaner shrimp, cleaner gobies, good clean water all should help.

 

[Fragmented]

Re: ICH! What are my options???

<a
I don't have a QT tank at the time so please take that into consideration. [/B]

I am not usually this blunt, but this is your problem.

As much $$$$$ as we all have invested in our tanks, it makes no sense not to have one.

If you have corals, you can't get rid of your problem without one.

 

[wpnorton]

The majority opinion is that ICH will be present in all systems and is naturally occurring in seawater. The issue is whether the fish are distressed in some way as to lower their immune systems, damage the slime coat rendering them less able to repel the parasite. As stated above....improve the water quality and supplement foods with Garlic and vitamins. I swear by Eco Marine Garlic elixir. I feed it everyday and have seen many of my fish turn around from ICH infested and near death to healthy and vibrant specimens. Mine happened to be stressed from a tank move, not bad water quality.

It's also a theory that an established tank over 18 months with no new additions could be ICH free, but I highly doubt it.

 

[Fragmented]

Sorry, I'm not keeping up on the new and improved reef info lately. I have always just used my QT for everything. (Yes, even snails and live rock.) It gives them a chance to recover from the stress of being shipped, wholesaled, etc. before being required to hold their own in a strange community situation. It also gives me time to know if they are really healthy. I have never had a problem with ich.

As mentioned above, I do also believe strongly in a stable environment with good water quality. I have always added animals slowly to a new tank after it had become a stable environment. I also believe that the food we feed should be as close to their natural diet as we can get. Although I have used garlic as a supplement, I don't use it daily because it is a "land" food

It takes a balance of different things to have a healthy tank. It is important to be patient, observant, and responsible with the lives we have chosen to watch over.

 

[wpnorton]

Don't get me wrong...A QT tank is a great safety precaution. Some people just dont have the room or resources to have a separate QT tank so must be a little more careful and observant when adding directly into the Display....Especially with corals.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

Posted this on the BAR forum the other day:

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12134461#post12134461 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mr. Ugly
I use hyposalinity for ich.

Take the s.g. down to 1.009 over a period of several days. This should be in a hospital tank. Corals and other inverts won't survive hypo.

Here are some useful articles:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=83916

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic31173-10-1.aspx

If it is ich, you need to let the main tank run fishless for about 4-6 weeks to break the life cycle of the parasite.

I'll go 8 weeks or more. No need to rush.

Read the links. Very good info there.

 

[distallassazn]

just let the fish fight it off naturally. I've lost many fish trying to quarantine them and its just too much work. Now i have a yellow tang, powder blue tang, purple tang coexisting and they still get ich once in a while. As long your fish is eating, you shouldnt worry too much about it.

i have 3 tangs, CB butterfly, flame hawk, some golden dolleyback, two dragonets, two clowns, yellow goby, chromis,

 

[wpnorton]

I have ICH in my tank. My Blue tang, Chevron Tang and Purple Tang have not shown any effects since being fed garlic. I had a Marine Aquarium professional looking at my tank today. He was very impressed at the health of my tangs (and other fish). The ICH lurking in the rocks doesn't bother them. ECO MARINE Garlic Elixir.....Works like magic.

Or you can try and up the salinity, adjust temp or quarantine for 8 weeks and hope the fish live through it. Way to much work IMO!

 

[WarrenG]

I've had perfect results by soaking some food pellets in some of the juice from a jar of minced garlic. One or two applications was all it took in both cases. And it's free.

 

[C4SxM5]

thanks for all the replies and suggestions.

My tank is a 180 and has been up a total of 4 years (1+ with me) . My most recent water test showed Phosphate 0, Calcium 425, Alkalinity 12dkh, and Nitrate 20.

My nitrate has been between 20-30 the past 6 months and I have no clue how to get it down to 0. Water changes have been done every 2 weeks (I've actually started to do them weekly recently) and I've recently added some more Chaeto into my sump in hopes of lowering the Nitrate level.

The PT and 2 YT were recently added in the past 2 weeks and the other YT was added a month ago.

I've read about HYPO and the COPPER method to get rid of ich, but am not too sure I want to go these routes as of yet.

What does everyone think of fresh water dipping? Any ill effects or is it worth a try?

I'll continue to go the garlic method and will pick up some ECO MARINE Garlic Elixir today.

And if anyone sees a good deal on a QT tank please let me know

 

[Mr. Ugly]

I've done fresh water dipping on various fish with ich. It helps a little, but doesn't eliminate it.

You can get fooled because part of the normal life cycle of the parasite is to drop off the host. That's why so many "cures" seem to work. A lot of times you are just seeing the progression from trophant to tomant stage.

I've used hypo for treating various fish with reputations as ich magnets... porcupine puffer, stars & stripe puffer, tangs, frogfishes etc. It's effective, easy to do, and it's less stress for the fish than repeated dipping.

 

[Mr. Ugly]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12174151#post12174151 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by C4SxM5
And if anyone sees a good deal on a QT tank please let me know

Worse come to worse, you can just get a cheap rubbermaid storage bin and throw a sponge or HOB filter on it. Even a Brute trash container would do if you have one.

 

[yoboyjdizz]

I wouldn't treat tangs with copper or do a fresh water dip with them. Tangs don't respond well to copper and a fresh water dip would just stress them out more. Hypo would be your best treatment if you did the qt route.

 

[Underwaterparadise]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12153997#post12153997 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by yoboyjdizz
Aslong as there is no stress, good water quality you should be ok if their eating. I would feed 2-3 times a day with foods soaked in garlic, selcon and vita-chem. You most likely will never get rid of ich but your fishes immune system will be able to fight it off and remain perfectly healthy for there on out.

IMO this is the best advice to deal with ICH. Even with a QT system you can still have ICH outbreaks. The key to keeping it under controll is good water quality and a steady temp. 80% of the ICH cases I see are caused by a sudden drop in temp or by poor water quality.

Also IMO most treatments can stress the fish out worse then the ICH itself, especially if you have to chase the fish around for 10 min. trying to catch it before placing it in a QT tank.