Ich in reef tank
- Thread starter novak
- Start date
lion_crazz
Active Member
which fish have ich?
novak
Member
Powder blue tang I quarented the fish for 3 weeks before putting it in the main tank and it showed no sigh of ick but now it has ick. I have a uv sterlizer on the tank. My Majestic angle is not showing any spots but he is scratching the rocks alot. The powder blue has shown spots for about 2 weeks now. I realy dont want to put the fish in hospital tank.I don't thank I could catch the tang anyway without distroying my tank. Thanks Shane
bob a.
Member
I have used Kick Ick by Rallye successfully in a reef tank. I understand that many folks think it is snake oil, but it was recommended to me by the guy that runs the LFS and he is a marine biologist. It supposedly acts as an irratant to the fish which causes them to produce an excess of slime which interrupts the life cycle of the ich tomite and over the course of several weeks can cause the infestation to die off. I think we had one problem with an invert but not much else.
Its really your call, I understand why most folks dont want to tear apart a reef tank to catch fish in order to quarantine them. Good Luck
Its really your call, I understand why most folks dont want to tear apart a reef tank to catch fish in order to quarantine them. Good Luck
smoney
Active Member
Although people dont think it works, I believe it works. I have cleaner shrimp and the fish that are infected with ich swim up to the cleaner shrimp and the shrimp will eat all the parasites. I have had ich in my tank before, and my fire shrimp took care of all my fish. That may be a good solution, plus cleaner shrimp look cool.
lion_crazz
Active Member
Cleaner shrimp and neon gobies are both excellent ways to help get rid of ich. However, if you do not find out what caused the stress to give him ich, these two helpful remedies will be useless and they will be fighting a losing battle.
Your best bet in fighting ich is hypo in a QT tank.
If you QT is not an option and the fish is still eating well, your next best bet is to supplement vitamins and more importantly, garlic, in his food. Then, as you fix the problem, the fish will fight off the ich himself.
If the fish is not eating any more and the garlic does not entice him, Kick Ich and Stop Parasite work rather well at fighting ich. I have never used Kick Ich, but Parasite Stop is entirely reef safe, as far as affecting corals, inverts, macro algae, etc. Parasite Stop is not a medication like cupramine, but a natural remedy to help build the fish's immune system to fight the ich, as well as speed up the metabolism of the fish to get him to eat more.
Your best bet in fighting ich is hypo in a QT tank.
If you QT is not an option and the fish is still eating well, your next best bet is to supplement vitamins and more importantly, garlic, in his food. Then, as you fix the problem, the fish will fight off the ich himself.
If the fish is not eating any more and the garlic does not entice him, Kick Ich and Stop Parasite work rather well at fighting ich. I have never used Kick Ich, but Parasite Stop is entirely reef safe, as far as affecting corals, inverts, macro algae, etc. Parasite Stop is not a medication like cupramine, but a natural remedy to help build the fish's immune system to fight the ich, as well as speed up the metabolism of the fish to get him to eat more.
yes snake oil! i been in the hobby since the 80s , cant even call it a hobby, its part of my life keep marine life. and yes i gave kick ich a try in a 120 gallon reef, first big bottle i got didn't work, so ordered another bottle, stuff is not cheap and that didn't work. i marked my calendar for the dosing even turn off the sump, no skimmer no nothing just wave makers. says 2oz per 25 gallon so one cup hold 8oz i used 1 and a half each dose and also dosed same time 8pm. so yes snake oil. i do not even think they care if people stop buying it. they made millions from selling bottled water or what ever it was. best and only way to kill ich is get them out trap them not easy, put in a treatment tank for 8 weeks then your safe to return them to main tank. all it takes to get ich is one drop in your tank, snails crabs,rocks anything wet. so put them in a tank with out any copper i mean none at all for 8 weeks with no fish, yes feed them. 8 weeks later safe to add to main tank. you main tank will never see ich ever again. its all time and patience in this hobby.
I recommend dropping the salinity to about 1.020 and feeding more to boost there immune system if the fish is strong enough they will be able to fight it off on there own. Good luck!
Having a small QT tank ready to isolate and run hyposalinity is always a good idea imo.
Check out that post date lol
Omg! Hahah! It said it was recent!!! Lol
Someone else commented so it brought it forward. I think it's a good thing. These are issues that still exist and it's fun to look at the info in a modern light.