tangs_in_pacifica
Member
I thought I'd post this, since I've seen a lot of ich questions and I've found this recipe useful.
Years ago, I struggled with hypo-salinity, quarantining, invert-killing chemicals, etc. to treat ich... usually, these approaches were unsuccessful. Fortunately, a freind suggested garlic-soakes food. This has worked like a charm. Unfortunately, many fish cannot get to the food before the garlic is soaked out, or their tankmates have eaten it. This is an especially bad problem when a fish is sick with ich or other parasites. Thus, I've experimented with the following solution:
Garlic-Infused Live Brine Shrimp:
-Take some live brine shrimp and rinse them out with freshwater (You'll allways want to do this, as Brinies often carry parasites).
-Disgard the old freshwater and place the brinies a a small amount of new freshwater (i.e. 1 OZ of brine shrimp to a few teaspoons of water).
-Add a healthy portion of water-soluble garlic extract in with the shrimp (I'm not a scientist, so I don't know how much I add... usually about 1/6 the water volume)
-Let the shrimp soak in their freshwater-garlic solution for a while (I've let them sit for over 1/2 hr. with no apparent ill effects... don't know how long they'll last?)
-Feed the shrimp to your fish in small increments (i.e. ensure that your fish eat the shrimp, before they've shed the garlic)
-Watch the ich fall off and stay off
I usually feed my fish this recipe whenever I add a new fish to one of my tanks, or whenever there's been a major disruption (i.e. power outage)
Hope this helps
Years ago, I struggled with hypo-salinity, quarantining, invert-killing chemicals, etc. to treat ich... usually, these approaches were unsuccessful. Fortunately, a freind suggested garlic-soakes food. This has worked like a charm. Unfortunately, many fish cannot get to the food before the garlic is soaked out, or their tankmates have eaten it. This is an especially bad problem when a fish is sick with ich or other parasites. Thus, I've experimented with the following solution:
Garlic-Infused Live Brine Shrimp:
-Take some live brine shrimp and rinse them out with freshwater (You'll allways want to do this, as Brinies often carry parasites).
-Disgard the old freshwater and place the brinies a a small amount of new freshwater (i.e. 1 OZ of brine shrimp to a few teaspoons of water).
-Add a healthy portion of water-soluble garlic extract in with the shrimp (I'm not a scientist, so I don't know how much I add... usually about 1/6 the water volume)
-Let the shrimp soak in their freshwater-garlic solution for a while (I've let them sit for over 1/2 hr. with no apparent ill effects... don't know how long they'll last?)
-Feed the shrimp to your fish in small increments (i.e. ensure that your fish eat the shrimp, before they've shed the garlic)
-Watch the ich fall off and stay off
I usually feed my fish this recipe whenever I add a new fish to one of my tanks, or whenever there's been a major disruption (i.e. power outage)
Hope this helps
