3 fish with ich! help!

[wrassecal]

My yellow tang, pygmy angel and royal gramma have ich. I've done a board search and am still confused on what to do. I have a bubble anenome, colt coral and cleaner shrimps, no qt yet but I can sure get one quick if someone will tell me what I need for it. how big for all three fish. I also have a tom clown who seems OK, but then so did the others yesterday Also, how do I treat them? If garlic where do I get it? how much? If hyposalinity how low? how long? I'm so worried I can't sleep so here I am in the middle of the night trying to figure out what to do.

 

[stupid_naso]

DAB, I'm sorry to hear about your fishes. Here's a couple of things that you can do...
1. It's impossible to setup a q tank right away. So if you have a friend who has a q tank, you might want to transfer your fish over there. While doing that, setup your own q tank. You don't need anything big, a 20 gallon will be ok. Go to walmart or kmart, whichever one. They will have a deal for a complete tank setup (heater, lights, and tank). All you need is add a filter to it. CYCLE IT COMPLETELY BEFORE YOU PUT ANY FISH IN THERE. No need for gravel or rocks.
2. The best way to treat ich is hyposalinity. I know I'm not the best person to explain this but bare with me. Do a search on hyposalinity on this site, you'll find plenty. Or if not, here's my best understanding of it. You cannot do hypo in your main tank, because it will kill your inverts, and probably the stuff in your lr. You basically lower your salinity level to about 1.009 sg, VERY SLOWLY. You need a very good salinity tester for this. That's basically it. The parasite will die because of the low salinity. I heard that you can do hypo in simply an UNUSED bucket with heater, and pump or some sort, I don't recommend it though. That's basically it. Keep in mind, with the low salinity the fish will eat like crazy, that's normal.
3. I'm sorry but garlic and cleaner shrimp won't be able to help you much since the ich has gone bad. You have three fishes infected. Try feeding garlic for the heck of it. Some people had success with that. Do that while you look for a better solution.
Beth, Terry, anyone else, care to help?
I hope that helps a little...
sebae_the_clown

 

[trebor126]

You can set up a QT right away. I had to do it for my fish. It is not necessary to cycle a Qtank, you just need to do a water change every day and test the water.
If you are going to give hypo treatment, you can do this when you do the water change. Instead of adding saltwater, add dechlor. freshwater. Just make sure you lower the SG slowly with in a 48hr period to 1.009. Hold this SG for atleast 4 weeks, then slowly begin to raise the SG back to 1.024 in a 48 hr period.
Again, keep an eye on water quality and do daily changes..
All this advise was given to me by Beth.. You sure can learn a lot on this site...
Good luck!

 

[wrassecal]

Thanks for the replies so far. Iknow I can't do hyposlinity in the main tank.I've researched this site already and found all kinds of conflicting info, but most people did say take it down to 1.009. what kind of garlic do I use? I'm going to try it also, just in case it helps.

 

[wrassecal]

I just talked to my lfs and they said what I needed to to was get my main tank salinity down to 1.014. Change out 5 gals a day with dechlorinated water. Keep it that way for 3 weeks. Looks like in my situation I'm going to risk losing either fish or anenome, who knows. They said the colt coral should be able to withstand this.

 

[fmarini]

DAB:
I don't mean to tell you your LFS is wrong....BUT their flat out wrong. 1.014 will not eradicate ich, and 1.014 won't do much for your tank. You have recieved some very good information from sebae and trebor.
You have two choices. plain and simple....either treat the fish or don't.
If you decide not to treat the tank, the ich "might" go away on its own, then again it might not.Just do the next fish a favor and dont put any new fish into this tank for at least 45days (until the current ich infection dies out).
Alternatively you can treat the tank, you can try one of these "reefsafe' medicines like: kickich, nox-ich, ruby red, etc, etc, etc. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, sometimes there not totally reefsafe, sometimes they are.
There are only 2 real ways of eradicating ich, copperbased meds (cupramine is the best), and hyposalinity (thats 1.009). Use of garlic enriched food is probably the third choice althou it seems to work best in early phases.
You can go to a nutrional store (like GNC) or a supermarket and get garlic extract and soak the fishes food in it.
I'm sorry to sound aggressive here, I'm not trying to be (I'm really a nice guy) but your fish are at stake.
frank

 

[wrassecal]

Well, OK, so I've started the garlic thing and well can I use kick ich in the reef tank? will it hurt my inverts? and would it hurt to lower the main tank to 1.014 like the lfs said just in case it helps. so far the fish only have it on some fins, not their bodies.

 

[wrassecal]

well, Seabae says I can not set up a q tank right away and Treb says I can. I will not risk another life in that tank by adding anything for a long time! That much I have learned. Hopefully what I have will make it and my stupidity will be rewarded with dumb luck! Thanks to everyone so far for your responses.

 

[stupid_naso]

DAB, I still feel the same way about the q tank. It's not safe to put your fish in a brand new setup q tank. Think about it, your fishes, they're sick, and if they experience ammo and nitrite spike, they'll die. You might be able to prevent the tank to cycle by changing the water everyday. However you have to keep that lowered salinity for 4 weeks, don't you think you'll experience those spikes? Unless you want to do water change everyday for 4 weeks.
DO NOT LOWER salinity in your main tank. You'll kill or hurt your cleaner shrimp, and other inverts by lowering it to 1.014. You don't want that.
Try the medicines that FMarini gave. Those might work, it might not. I don't know whether it will hurt your inverts or not. FMarini said it might, or it might not. While doing that keep feeding garlic, and let your cleaner shrimp work. Out of those three, one should work. Good luck.
sebae_the_clown

 

[wrassecal]

Again, thanks seabae and I think you are right about the q tank and i'm going with Frank's advise, getting a"reef-safe" med and keeping up with the garlic. since my fire shrimp also cleans I've got 3 shrimp working on them, and the garlic and the med, so I'll let ya'll know how I and my fish fare.