I have a 120G with 7 fish SFE and various crabs/snails/shrimps. I just noticed both my blue hippo tang and flame angel have are just starting to get develope ich. What would be the best idea to go about treating this? Should I try to catch the affected fish and freshwater dip them and just feed everything dipped in garlic + selcon for a few a while Or should I try to QT and hyposalinity. I do not have a QT tank settup, so I can go buy a 55gallon at the store but it wont be cycled. I also have some my liverock in a settup that took a VERY LONG time to get settup, so I woul d like to avoid taking it down, If i need to catch fish is there any sort of trap I can make?
Just Encountered Ich
- Thread starter Dunshster
- Start date
Bump. I read for like 4 hours of ich, there is just so much information it is overwhelming. Should I just straight to drastic measures and tearing down the LR to get all the fish out? Or try to catch the infected ones and dip them and feed everything garlic and get another cleaner shrimp? I can pick up a 55g for a QT tank monday morning if I need to go that route. I'd just like to figure out a plan of action so I can get started ASAP.
tropicalfishguy
New member
1 problem with removing the fish for a freshwater dip is that when you put them back into the tank, it still has ick in there. So that would be pointless. Your best bet is probably to remove into QT and either treat with hypo or copper.
Its not possible to get passed ich if I do a freshwater dip, bunch of water changes and feed everything soaked in garlic and selcon? The ich is just started only a few specs on the blue hippo and the flame angel, the yellow tang, damsels, goby, coral beauty and eel have no signs so far.
happyface888
New member
From what I read in order to cure from the ST the tank has to be left empty of fish for 6 weeks and all the fishes are moved to a QT for 6 weeks treated with hypo or cuper. Or you can let the fish fight against ich and build a immunity towards it. JBut you would have to wait out 10-11 months for ich to age and die off. just feed fish a variety of food w/ garlic do water changes. but even that it wont get ich out. I have a terrible outbreak as well ich for 2 weeks on all fishes espeically hippo tang. Just tossed in a low doseage of cupramine in ST.
I encountered a small out break of ich about a year ago I started feeding garlic soaked frozen food and it was gone in a week and I havent seen it come back yet .I never lost any of my fish so i dont know if the garlic was the miracle cure or the fish were stron enough to fight it off on their own . try a uv sterilizer and a cleaner gobie or cleaner shrimp .
happyface888
New member
I dont know about cleaner gobies they might end up getting ich as well as trying to help the other fishes. I havent had ich for 2 years after I tossed in some new fishes without QT the blue tang got covered with ich and if that wasnt bad enough I nearly sufficated it when upgradeing to a new tang. I didnt put a powerhead in the bucket and caused more stress. I have been feeding garlic flakes and foods with garlic juice and threw garlic in the tank. The ich hasnt gone away from using it though.
I soak my food in garlic oil on a cube of frozen food I dont know if it helps fight the ich off ,but I do belive that it helps boost thier immune system. cleaner gobies are suseptible to ich as well as any fish i never had my cleaner gobie in my tank at the time of my outbrake Since I have added him he constantly cleans my scopas and coral beauty. I have heard of parisite treatment that is supposedly reef safe but I don't think I would risk it yet .
happyface888
New member
Nice fish trap, there has been a mention of Ich Attack which is safe but from what i asked around the response is it sucks. Right now I tossed in cupramine in my tank w/ live rock and sand. tanks 45g instructions for cupramine 2drops for every 1 gallon, I dont have a copper test kit so I put 28 drops based on the amount of water I remember putting in my tank. When I was setting up my tank I have 3 buckets full of water each bucket was 5 gallons it filled it to the top of the tank but needed like 2 or more but I decided to be safe since I lacked the test kit and just set my tank at 15g and did 28 drops. Dont want to OD. It says that cupramine still works at low concentrations but probaly not as good but it will do for now.
sounds like your on the right track ich sucks and stress the hobbiest like it does the fish!Everything I have read says copper or hypo . I think the important part is lack of stress on the fish since it seems to increase the level of ich your fish get ie.. mild to major outbreake!
ronald7410
New member
I'm in the same situation. My blue tang has ich but I don't have a qt...
Someone help please.
Someone help please.
Paul B
Premium Member
First of all, never use a low dose of copper or Cuprimine. It will do nothing except stress your fish and maybe make the paracites mad :eek1:
Also don't use copper or anything with copper without a copper test kit. Ich is the easiest disease to cure but the cure can kill the fish faster than the ich.
There is ich in your tank and as you can tell, your fish are susepticle to it. There are a few ways to cure it but you really should get it out of your tank. The only way to do that in your tank is to leave it without fish for 6 weeks. You can use hypo if you have no corals in there. You can cure the fish in a couple of days in a seperate tank with copper. If you monitor it correctly (with a good test kit) I guarantee that you will not see any paracites in a little over two days. It will still be in your tank for 6 weeks though. Fresh water dips will clear a few external paracites but it won't help much. Cleaner fish, while interesting will do nothing for ich, neither will garlic but it will give them bad breath. Garlic is good for fish but if the fish have ich, save your money. Ich always disappears on it's own while it drops off the fish and goes through a cycle to re infect the fish again. Sometimes, if the fish are very healthy, it will not re infect the fish but in your tank I would eliminate the paracites the way I mentioned. Also save your money and don't use Kick Ich or any other reef safe ich medication. As I said, sometimes it seems to leave on it's own which is why people think these medications, garlic and cleaner fish work.
Good luck.
Paul
PS you need to quarantine if you don't want to go through this again
well I have Ich as well. I took all fish/corals and inverts out of the tank drained the tank and sump scrubbed the tank with diluted bleach and now have to refill it and start over. My fish I am treating with the transfer method. all LR and coral are going into quarantine for 6 weeks. but at least I will have an Ich free tanks and I will NEVER EVER put anything in my tank again without quaranting it.
well I have Ich as well. I took all fish/corals and inverts out of the tank drained the tank and sump scrubbed the tank with diluted bleach and now have to refill it and start over. My fish I am treating with the transfer method. all LR and coral are going into quarantine for 6 weeks. but at least I will have an Ich free tanks and I will NEVER EVER put anything in my tank again without quaranting it.
Eclectic Taste
Premium Member
Yikes, I'm in the same boat as Dunshter - my Blue Tang & Flame Angel both have small outbreak of ich (white spots like salt crystals). They are both eating like pigs, foraging all day long & picking at the rocks and diving for any random particle in the water column. I'm going to give a little garlic soaked food right now while I prepare a bucket of RO for a freshwater dip.
I just hope I can catch them, I have too much live rock & coral :>
I just hope I can catch them, I have too much live rock & coral :>
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