can shrimp really clean fish of ick and other parasites????

agoutihead

agoutihead

Member
is it really true??? i have seen it done... but is it really an effective way to rid a tang of ick or other parasites????
thanks!
 
celacanthr

celacanthr

Active Member
SOME parasites yes, ick no because by the time the shrimp get to all of your tangs ick spots they would have converted to free floating again, and then just infect the tang again.
 
smoney

smoney

Active Member
Well, I dont know, but I had a thread on here a while back about the same thing sorta. My blue tang got ick and I was always seeing my fire shrimp cleaning him, and eventually he got better. A while back my tank was falling to peices and my blue tang got ick like 3 times, and everytime I would always see my fire shrimp taking care of the ick. Here is the thread below.
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/show...ire+shrimp+ick
 
kdfrosty

kdfrosty

Active Member
Ich is free floating in the water column, and takes about 4-6 weeks to get rid of. If your fish had ich and lives in a completely stress free environment it may be possible that the Ich will not comback.
The safest thing to do is setup a QT using the hyposalinity method.
 
smoney

smoney

Active Member
I dont know, I have set up QT and the success rate is so low for me, I feel that if you just leave them alone in the tank they do just fine.
 
kdfrosty

kdfrosty

Active Member
You have setup and completed a cycle on a QT tank then introduced fish and it didn't work? Bummer.
 
fishfanny79

fishfanny79

Member
See, unless someone has a suggestion to my problem, I can't get a fish out once it has Ick. I have a 215 gallon reef and catching a fish with 300lbs of LR (especially one of my tangs) would be pretty impossible. So other than the UV, 83-84 degree water, garlic in the food, keeping em fat and happy and cleaner shrimps, what can you do?
P.S. With all my tangs, Ick is my WORST NIGHTMARE. It scares me so much. LOL I just tell myself that if I keep them well fed, they will have a good immune system and their natural immunity to ick will kick in.
:notsure:
 
fishfanny79

fishfanny79

Member
oh god yeah...lol Tangs are pretty quick. Especially cus the ones you want to catch KNOW that you want to catch them.
They aren't stupid lol The ones you don't want to catch come up and bite your fingers.
 
celacanthr

celacanthr

Active Member
maybe you could put a peice of plastic the same length as your tank, between ur fish and the rock and then tryand catch em.
 
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