Blue Hippo Tang with ick

al mc

al mc

Active Member
Coogie...KickIch is basically an antiprotozoal medication called metronidazole. Since Ich is a protozoan it is thought that it might kill the Ich.
Unfortunately it appears to act on only one stage of the Ich's life cycle so you would have to dose it quite often to have any chance that it would completely eliminate the Ich. It is advertised as reef safe and claims it will not hurt the invertebrate animals in the treated tank. I believe it is also mentioned in the archived files/threads in the disease control section of SWF forum.
It is a medication I used when I first got into this hobby and had some Ich issues. Now, when I have an issue with Ich I would consider my best chance of getting rid of it permanently would be to use hyposalinity or copper treatment in a QT tank on all the fish and leave my DT free of all fish for at least 6 weeks.
 
squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
thats fine for a QT
more bad advice...
when your tang is cured from ick in the QT what do you think is going to happen once you put him back in the main display?
hes going to get ick all over again
kick ich in your main display will most likely do more harm than good. it drastically decreases oxygen levels
do research on kick ich, and see how many peoples tanks crashed after using it
its your call..im just the bad advice girl with perfect fish
 
cooqie

cooqie

Member
ok im going to qt my fish all of them so then what can i do to avoid gettin ick again after i put him in
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by Cooqie
ok im going to qt my fish all of them so then what can i do to avoid gettin ick again after i put him in
Keep all fish out of your display tank for 6 weeks. That way the ich will die in your display tank. If you properly treat all of your fish and always properly QT new arrivals you can avoid ever getting ich in your display tank again.
 
richie69

richie69

New Member
i used kick ick a couple of times w/corals and all. thing is you follow the directions on the bottle and everything should be good. but treat the whole tank, should be about a week or so. but with f.o. tanks keep your salinity at about 1.015, that`s what i`ve done for a long time w/absolutely no problems at all...
 
squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
fallow is the best method i agree
but...you can re-introduce ich again by adding corals which are attached to small peices of live rock, crabs and hermits can also carry it
so its not just fish that can bring it in
i still say leave him alone and he will be fine. just get him beafed up and he will fight it off
 
cooqie

cooqie

Member
ok this is what im goin to do im goin to feed it with garlic while i save for a qt tank qt the tang and try to qt the fish i have
 
coral head

coral head

Member
Originally Posted by squirreloso
fallow is the best method i agree
but...you can re-introduce ich again by adding corals which are attached to small peices of live rock, crabs and hermits can also carry it
so its not just fish that can bring it in
i still say leave him alone and he will be fine. just get him beafed up and he will fight it off
I agree with Squirreloso. Ich is always present in an aquarium. Just like cold germs in the air. It's the fishes' immunity that prevents them from "getting ich".
I recently purchased a small hippo tang. Due to the stress of the move, he came down w/ich. I soaked frozen mysis and spirolina algae flakes in "Fish Solutions" (pure garlic oil/juice will work as well). Within five days the hippo was rid of ich. It has been two weeks now; no reoccurrence.
No need to quarantine. You will just stress the fish and do nothing to rid the main tank of the ich.
Just keep healthy; as long as he is eating, he should be just fine. Also be sure all of your water parameters are okay.
jmo
 
cooqie

cooqie

Member
ok so tell me can i use natural garlic and make the juice cuz i keep asking and no one answers it and if i can i can just soak the flakes in it and put the flakes inside the tank?
 
coral head

coral head

Member
Originally Posted by Cooqie
ok so tell me can i use natural garlic and make the juice cuz i keep asking and no one answers it and if i can i can just soak the flakes in it and put the flakes inside the tank?
Yes. Mix in a little bit of salt water if you do not have enough liquid to soak your food.
Good luck!
 
rudedog40

rudedog40

Member
I'm also a proponent of the garlic and metronidazole treatment. Same exact scenario as you. New 1" blue hippo, first week the only fish to come down with ich. Used Ich Attack, then started a metronidazole/garlic mix in their frozen food. It's been over two months now, and no ich is present on any of my fish. I just added a Coral Beauty two weeks agao, and he's healthy and fine.
Also as stated, this treatment is based on my situation. Yours may be the same. You have to decide how bad the ich is, and whether it is affecting just your hippo, or all your fish. Don't go jumping onto the QT bandwagon just because a few members here think that's the only way to treat ich. You'll spend more money, and possibly do more harm to all your fish sticking them in a stressful environment for 6 weeks because "Going fallow for 6 weeks is the only way to rid ich from your DT".
 
al mc

al mc

Active Member
There are many adjunct therapies that may help any individual fish/tanks
in treating the symptoms of Ich. Garlic to boost the immune system, keeping stress as low as possible by feeding properly and maintaining good water quality, metronidazole and other drugs/nutriceuticals that may decrease the reproductive capabilities of the organism or boost the fish's immune system or slime coat production to decrease the affects of the Ich on the fish. So, if you have a fish or fish tank that shows signs of Ich any or all these things may help in any individual tank. If you are fastidious about your tank you may never see ich again (it does not mean it is gone), but you might. You helped your tank and may have healthy fish living in an environment where the Ich organism is kept controlled, but is not totally eliminated. You and your tank, as individuals, are happy.
If you want to eliminate Ich you have to deprive it of it's host that it needs to survive..fish. A recent post on the Veterinary Information Network (VIN)
by Dr. Palmero, the aquatic person at UPenn vet school, indicates that he feels that it probably is best to leave a tank free (fallow) of fish for..gulp up to..3 months (I may just shoot myself now) while you treat all the fish in a QT/Hospital tank for a minimum of three weeks. If you do not want to introduce Ich back into your DT after that you need to practice Qting of all new arrivals..fish and inverts. I admit..a royal pain in the butt, and more expensive that just trying to control the problem.
We all want to help each other and all opinions have a right to be expressed.
I think we get caught up in the difference between cure (elimination) and control (symptom free) in all the various discussions about Ich here at SWF.com. They are not the same. Some people are happy with control, other want cure. Ultimately it is all an individual choice.
just MHO
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by Coral Head
.... Ich is always present in an aquarium. Just like cold germs in the air. ...
This is not accurate.
Ich is not a germ, it is a parasite. Just as you have to introduce fish and inverts into your aquarium, you must introduce Ich...
The other methods; garlic, medication, etc. may control ich, but they do not attack each life stage of the parasite and therefore will not rid your tank of the parasite.
 
squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
Originally Posted by 1journeyman
This is not accurate.
Ich is not a germ, it is a parasite. Just as you have to introduce fish and inverts into your aquarium, you must introduce Ich...
The other methods; garlic, medication, etc. may control ich, but they do not attack each life stage of the parasite and therefore will not rid your tank of the parasite.
yeah but hello its always in a system as long as you keep introducing livestock, live stock can be corals too ya know not just fish
in a closed system, with nothing ever new added, ich will indeed die out in time..a long time. it will eventually starve itself out
im sorry but this board is very amateur
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by squirreloso
finally some people with real life experience chime in, instead of those who just read, preach and point fingers


Several of us have real life experiences with QTing all specimens and running completely ich free systems.
Not sure why that is a bad thing.
 
squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
Originally Posted by 1journeyman
Several of us have real life experiences with QTing all specimens and running completely ich free systems.
Not sure why that is a bad thing.
its not, your just wasting your time and stressing out the fish
in all my years of doing this, ive never QT'd
since 1980 i have only lost a tank full of fish at once due to velvet from not q'ting
id say thats pretty good
it was a stupid move on my part buying a porc puffer from ***** loaded with velvet
your system is not ich free unless you havent added anything new in at least a year
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Originally Posted by squirreloso
yeah but hello its always in a system as long as you keep introducing livestock, live stock can be corals too ya know not just fish
in a closed system, with nothing ever new added, ich will indeed die out in time..a long time. it will eventually starve itself out
im sorry but this board is very ammature
Again that is not accurate.
All you have to do is QT all arrivals and you can avoid ever introducing it. In a closed system, with fish, ich may not ever die out. It could potentially bloom years from now (as it often survives on fish in small amounts that are unseen to the aquarist).
Calling the boards "very immature" for correcting wrong information is perplexing. Would the boards be more mature for continuing to allow false ideas to propagate here?
 
squirreloso

squirreloso

Member
Originally Posted by 1journeyman
Again that is not accurate.
All you have to do is QT all arrivals and you can avoid ever introducing it. In a closed system, with fish, ich may not ever die out. It could potentially bloom years from now (as it often survives on fish in small amounts that are unseen to the aquarist).
Calling the boards "very immature" for correcting wrong information is perplexing. Would the boards be more mature for continuing to allow false ideas to propagate here?

read a bit more
its not just on fish, inverts carry it as well
do you QT corals? and other inverts?
if you do, then yes you can have an ich free system in time. if you dont well then your system has ich my friend, just because fish arent effected by it doesnt mean its not present
take a sample of your water to a lab, you will then find out for sure
 
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