Just on my tang, I have noticed a few spots on him. Immediately I performed a water change and have dropped salinity slowly from 52 on to 49 on my meter... I also did a powerhead sweep of all the rocks and cleaned up the debris, then changed the filter socks and changed out the carbon and phosphate (even though it was two weeks old)... I have been feeding him frequently and soaking the food in selcon.. He is to healthy for me to catch, I have a trap but I fear putting him in a 1-2 gallon tank wont help him. How much lower can I drop the salinity??? What are my next steps??
Ich
- Thread starter titus164
- Start date
Uhm... You're probably making it worse by disturbing the tank so much. The key to fish fighting off ich is consistency. If they're consistently healthy, the ich may come and go, but probably won't kill them. If you want to rid your tank of ich, you must leave your tank barren of all fish for an extended period of time (maybe a month? I forget to be honest). Most of us have Ich in our water. It's just part of the game. I know it's in my water, because I've had fish come down with ich before. I just keep feeding them, and as long as they're eating, they're generally going to pull through, though that may not always be the case.
Is your tank just fish? If it's more than just fish, lowering the salinity will kill your corals long before it will kill the ich. If you want to do hyposalinity treatment, I would suggest finding a seperate tank to do it in.
If it was me, I would keep feeding good food (garlic, selcon always help) and let it ride out. If the fish stops eating or is ALWAYS scratching, then I would take it out and treat it.
Is your tank just fish? If it's more than just fish, lowering the salinity will kill your corals long before it will kill the ich. If you want to do hyposalinity treatment, I would suggest finding a seperate tank to do it in.
If it was me, I would keep feeding good food (garlic, selcon always help) and let it ride out. If the fish stops eating or is ALWAYS scratching, then I would take it out and treat it.
racermike27
Premium Member
I agree 100%. My powder blue always has Ich. I just feed him till he is really fat and healthy and he just gets rid of it. But he always does have a few spots on him though.
I think almost every tank has a bit of ich it just goes unnoticed.
Just feed good food and ensure all fish hav a healthy appetite. They will get rid of it themselves.
I think almost every tank has a bit of ich it just goes unnoticed.
Just feed good food and ensure all fish hav a healthy appetite. They will get rid of it themselves.
lpsluver
New member
I just went through this a couple of weeks ago and you guys helped me out. (I never had Ick in a reef tank before, many times in my FO tanks.)
Here's what I did, I increased my feedings to at least 3x per day and at least one feeding was soaked in garlic. The keys were to get the garlic working and to keep all of the other fish fat and happy too. I also made one of the feedings Rogger's special food mix. I did not do anything else to the tank like lower salinity or raise temp.
The Ick was resolved on the Tang in about a week with no other fish getting sick.
Now I will be feeding garlic soaked food several times per week and Santa is bringing me the Eheim auto feeder for Christmas so I will be dropping New Life Spectrum Pellets several times during the day.
Here's what I did, I increased my feedings to at least 3x per day and at least one feeding was soaked in garlic. The keys were to get the garlic working and to keep all of the other fish fat and happy too. I also made one of the feedings Rogger's special food mix. I did not do anything else to the tank like lower salinity or raise temp.
The Ick was resolved on the Tang in about a week with no other fish getting sick.
Now I will be feeding garlic soaked food several times per week and Santa is bringing me the Eheim auto feeder for Christmas so I will be dropping New Life Spectrum Pellets several times during the day.
Just be careful, you may be just creating a time bomb. I'll all for feeding my fish to keep them fat and happy, but increasing your feeding suddenly could crash your tank if you're not careful. More food = more poop = more detritus = more ammonia... well you know. Watch your params.
