Request for a simple explanation on treating Ich

[Craiger]

It look slike all of my fish have Ich (4 yellow tangs, powder blue tang, 2 true pers, hawkfish, and goby). To say the least, I'm very upset.

I'm fairly new at this, so appreciate your feedback.

--I have a reeftank with live rock and corals.

--I don't have a quarantine tank (and can't set one up)

--It's highly unlikely I'd be able to catch the tangs (for a dip) -- my rockwork allows for them to get away and hide quickly

What is a realistic treatment? Looks like the garlic food soak helps, but won't rid the tank of ich.

 

[pelochas]

I im the same boat as you but with only one blue tang has it and the rest dont. it looks as if you did something to upset the tank and everyone got the ich.

if you have live rock and corals and a sand bed, there is no proven treatment in the tank unless you want to destroy and kill eveyrthing in there.

your best bet is to set up a quarantine tank and do the hyposalinity.

if you cant, then you will have to just try your best and do multiple water changes, feed garlic, add selcon to their food, add shrimp cleaners, and all the little stuff to help your fish. all of the will help win the battle but not the war. eventually ich will comeback one day and finish the job.

the only and most unproven and even dangerous is the Kick Ich 2 week treatment. this is dangerous to your lr and corals but its almost the only option if you completly feel that this is your only option.

i went over to a few lfs yesterday, as unbeleivable ive never seen so many fish with ich. they say its the time of year cause of the sudden temperature change.

 

[ozadars]

First of all by saying that you cant setup a quarantine tank you accept any disease to enter your tank because there is no other way to stop diseases entering to your tank.
You cant use medication or treatment in a reef tank. There are some reef-safe medications like "parasite-stop" but i dont belive that they can do anything to ich on fish. Maybe they can clear out it when its not on the fish but that should be it. Your best bet is to keep the water quality high and feed your fish good (like not just feeding dry food).

 

[Chad Vossen]

Q-tank is highly recomended. what im doing to get rid of ick in my tank is removing all the fish and keepin them in a seperate system (Q-tank) then leave the display tank fish free for 40 days while treating the fish in the Q-tank with copper. if you use copper, make sure you have a test kit because not enough wont help and to much will kill your fish. keep the fish out of the display for about 40 days and ick will no longer be present in the system. if you are successful with curing your fish from ick, then you should never have to worry about ick again unless you add new stuff.
this is my understanding on things. it also seems like a scarlet cleaner shrimp will releave most of your fish (seems to be best effective on larger fish such as tangs). it will pick off the ick spots and eat them up. it will not cure your fish however it will help controle the problem if a Q-tank is absolutly not an option. and if you have two shrimp, they will breed and feed your coral with shrimp fry!

 

[pelochas]

i need some more info on copper use. i bought the copper and also a test but havent started on it due to the fact that it may kill the fish. i have a 1 1/2 inch blue tang, is the copper treatment to harsh for the tang?

 

[Mr31415]

Just remember one cannot do copper in a reef aquarium... It will kill the inverts.

 

[Craiger]

thanks for your help!