What natural ich treatment is best?

[packisbak1]

I don't have the space or resources to setup a QT tank to treat my clownfish with Ich. What is the best natural treatment that I can use in my main reef tank? Garlic, ginger kordons organic ich attack, etc? Please share your thoughts.

 

[JHemdal]

packisbak1,

As far as I know, except for garlic, nobody has tested the efficacy of any of these and then reported on the results. Lots of anecdotal information though, both pro and con. One garlic study I read showed that it killed freshwater ich in 24 hours at concentrations of 117 ppm to 570 ppm, but had no effect at 30 ppm - just to put things in perspective, they were talking on the order of 1 gram of garlic extract PER GALLON - I bet that smelled nice! It was in the North American Journal of Aquaculture 2003, volume 65 issue 1.

In my opinion, if a product does not list its active ingredients on the label it doesn't get used by me. I am wary of "natural cures" "herbal remedies" and "tonics".

Although I am not personally a big fan of hyposalinity treatments for ich, (I use copper) I would go that route before ever using a "natural" cure as the backbone of my quarantine protocol.


JHemdal

 

[stingythingy45]

Hypo.........

 

[pescadero]

Hypo. I would have said exactly the same thing until a week or two ago. If you take a look at the chromis viridis thread, there's an ugly story about how hyposalinic conditions created an ideal environment for a different parasite to rapidly kill all of the fish. Although hypo works well for many species, it may not be the best choice for all species.

 

[packisbak1]

I just called my LFS and they recommended Garlic Extreme. Any thoughts?

 

[pescadero]

what JH said.

this whole Garlic thing makes me laugh. there are wives tales about garlic for the treatment of heartworm in dogs, and there is no objective clinical data to support it. even though there are drugs that are safe and 100% effective for preventing heartworm in dogs, there are people who still refuse to use them because they are "drugs." some people like to think that drugs are inherently bad, and that insane/toxic doses of something "natural" like megadoses of garlic have to be inherently good.

i am not at all surprised to see the same belief systems are in place among aquarium hobbyists.

 

[flameangel88]

Honestly I don't know if garlic can cure ich but I think it keeps the fish eating and if you soak the food with vitamin it will help the fish get stronger to fight off disease. Maintaining good water quality will definately help. Everyone have different results using different products and personally I've used Chem-marin Stop parasite couple of times and found it helpful in treating ich but I was soaking food and nori in garlic and vita-chem twice a day. The instruction said to administer Stop Parasite 1 tsp per 10g twice a day for 5 days but I found best results to do it for 8 days. I haven't lost any corals (none of the expensive stuff when I still had them before I got my pair of Semilarvatus), shrooms, polyp rock or inverts. Your experience may vary and use with discretion.

 

[bsagecko]

i would hypo before copper or formalin

i have heard kick ich is reef-safe

but i would never use any medication in my DT and i cant find the active ingredfients for the kick ich so i am using hypo/transfer method

 

[Kmiec123]

Bring him on by, I can QT and Hypo for you ... Gimmie a call...PM sent.
For Love Of The Fish!!

Carl