My pretty Sailfin has ich!

[Kati]

Ok, so pretty much everything in my tank has Ich, and I am trying to figure out what would be best, so I figure I would tell everyone my plan and you could guys could let me know. So my Tomini tang, Pink box anthias, and my desjardinii sailfin tang all have Ich (I also have a pair of onyx clowns, and a yellow watchman) but their ok for now. The sailfin has it the worst by far, and I am worried that he won't make it more than a few more days without some serious action- he is pale, thin and not eating.

Ok, So my plan is To QT everyone with ich and do hyposalinity treatment. I plan on water changing the QT daily, as well as daily changes in the main tank. I want to keepthe temp in the QT at like 80 F.

As far as feeding, I was going to feed frozen formula 2 soaked in garlic xtreme every morning, and then formula 1 and 2 flakes with fresh garlic (I am not sure about the fresh garlic, I have never tried it but I read somewhere it works) in the evenings.

If that doesn't work after a few days, or if my sailfin won't eat after 2 or 3 days, I was planning on dosing a copper-based med (what is a good one?). And then as a last ditch effort Would be formalin and/or formalin and copper.

So if anyone has an opinion or a better idea I would love to here it. I really don't want to use copper on my tangs, so if anyone has a better solution than that, let me know, maybe I will do formalin before copper treatments? Also I was afraid to freshwater dip and stress everyone out more than I have to, plus I never had good results with that. Also, should I treat my Ich free fish, as a preventative measure? I don't think I would medicate them, but maybe hyposalinity? A/w please let me know if you have any advice! Thanks!

 

[Percula9]

How far down do you plan on lowering the salinity? Medicants only kill during the tomite stage(free swimming) Low salinity helps relieve the trophant stage(on the fish) Garlic in it self is not a curative, but helps the fish fight it off. Soak food in garlic for 20 min. Feed a little but often thru out the day. Remember to keep an eye on ammonia levels in the QT because it won't have a biofilter and you will be feeding. Maybe treat in display with garlic alone less stress not to move fish. Lower the salinity to 1.015-.16.

 

[seahorsedreams]

I would give the hposalinity a chance to to run it's full prescribed course (minimum 14 days) at 1.009 - 1.010. If you fish startes to decline after 2 - 3 days I don't think it would be beneifical to switch him in a weaked state to a more aggressive therapy.... and one that compromising your immune system at that.

All the fish need to come out of the display tank and the tank needs to lay fallow to break the ich cycle. Even one fish in there will allow the the cycle to continue. Then when the recovered fish are reintroduced to the DT they will again get Ich. The best amount of time to leave a tank fallow is 6 weeks.

All the fish need to be treated. But hypo is pretty easy on them. I wouldn't put them all through copper.