Originally Posted by
freak4fish
http:///forum/post/3259336
A few of my fish (yellow tang, coral beauty and six line wrasse) have been rubbing against the live rock and I have notice some ick spots on my paJamas fin, all my fish a pretty healthy and greedy eaters. I was wondering what the best action for me to take I was thinking of the hypo method but I have a bunch of inverts and it would suck to have to move them all to a qt, my coral beauty has been utilizing the cleaner shrimp to get some of the parasites do you think a few more cleaner shrimps could do the trick? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cleaner shrimp will not cure or prevent ich (the do tend to give a false sense of security); in fact, they usually don't even get at the parasite, just eat the surrounding dead tissue and the stuff the parasite produces to protect itself. I know there are several new "reef safe" products on the market and some folks swear by them. IMO, the jury is still out (I hear far more failures than success stories) and I may be old school still think only copper or hypo will really work every time. In any case, 10 days is not enough time to cure ich; the life-cycle of this parasite requires at least 4 weeks; unless some new product is claiming to kill ich in any of its several phases. As far as i know, ich can only be killed in the free-swimming stage. I'd strongly suggest you read up on this parasite and re-post your problem in the disease section of the forum--some real parasite experts hang out there. I'd also look into a QT ASAP, I have a feeling that you're going to need it. try Craig's list, all you need for a QT will cost less than one medium priced fish. Moving fish to QT may "suck"; but, IMO & IME, its the only real option you have, assuming your fish have ich, and it sounds like they do. If you properly treat your fish, QT everything new (including inverts), and let your DT go fishless for at least 4 weeks---you'll NEVER see ich in your DT again.
