Can I slow down my Ich?

[palndrm12]

I just discovered that my 3 clowns and my royal gramma have ich. Looks like there is about 4-5 spots per fish. I just ordered a refractometer from this site so I can use hyposalinity to get rid of it but now I have to wait until it arrives to treat. Is there anything I can do while I am waiting to slow down the Ich. Should I try lowering the Salinity with my swing arm a little? I think I will move out what little stuff I have in the tank they are in and just treat there. It was only being kept up for their quarantine anyways. Will the Ich travel with coral, peppermint shrimp, emerald crabs or hermits? I would like to move this stuff to another tank without carrying the infection. Please help!

 

[who dey]

ick hosts on vertabrates, so your corals, shrimp, crabs, anemones, starfish or any inverts you have are not susceptable to the disease. as far as slowing the ick down, you can try dosing your food with garlic and do a very large water change in your main tank. a cleaner wrasse would feed on the parasites, and a banded coral shrimp would clean them but by the time that happens you will already have your refracto.

 

[palndrm12]

Is it possible that it would be Brook? When I first turned on the lights to the tank I focused more on the pin like spots on all the fish. Now after the lights have been on for a while the spots on the royal have all but disappeared and the clowns look more Brook like than ich. (more white patches and faded look) I wouldn't have thought that the Brook would infect the royal is this correct? Any thoughts? Should I do a precautionary formalin dip until I can hypo for the original ich diagnosis?

 

[who dey]

wouldn't hurt, but i'm no expert with brook

 

[beth]

When fish have parasites, there natural slim coat begins to excret excessively. That is likely what you are seeing with the white film. Or, it could be a prelude to a secondary bacterial infection.

 

[palndrm12]

Hey thanks for the help Who Dey and Beth!