ICH!!!! Not again

[dominican]

I'm trying NickMetCal's suggestion now - Melafix. Yesterday was Day-1. I have a 150g FOWLR. Emperor Angel and Threadfin Butterfly have ich, no signs on maroon clown, yellow tang, 3 yellow tail damsels, pseudochromis or orange spot prawn goby. (also have inverts - 1 red cleaner shrimp, 1 fire shrimp, 2 urchins, snails and reef safe hermits). Will keep you posted....
Nickmetcal, you said you administered less dosage, remember how much less? Instructions say 5mils(1 tsp) per 10gal, but I started with 2/3 of that. Fyi...

 

[ericholcek]

Kick Ich worked for more after using it for a full month. Why wouldn't it work? It is an antibiotic which kills parasites, bacteria, and amoeba's. It doesn't kill the ich off the fish. It just kills the parasite when it is in its free-swimming stage. By doing this it breaks the cycle and eventually all the ick can't reproduce. It makes sense to me that if you can't get your fish out of your tank or don't have a quaratine tank to give this a try. You'll eith lose 20 bucks or you'll have a ick free tank. Also supplement your food with garlic.

 

[nickmetcal]

Dominican, I dosed between half and 2/3 reccomended dose and only for about 7 days.
Eric, If I am not mistaken garlic does have some anti-bacterial remedial properties, but it is also high in oils, won't this be harmful for your fish?

 

[ericholcek]

garlic in food is usually given to entice a fish to eat who is not eating. It also has been shown to improve a fish's immune system. i only dose the food twice a week and it seems to help the fish out. If you have to use kick-ich make sure you use it for the whole month, as someone has stated. Ich larvae can take up to 3 weeks to hatch.

 

[dominican]

Thanks nick.. see below:
Dosed my sump with Melafix a second time last night.. Smells pretty nasty. Today Emperor and Butterfly still have a few remaining salt-grains while the ich cycle continues.. No noticeable difference in activity of any of my other buddies (fish or inverts). My understanding is that this stuff (like most) kills the ich in the water column, so right now, I'm just making sure no one starts freaking out or acting funny. So far so good... Still dosing 2/3. Will update tomorrow....

 

[dominican]

When I got home yesterday I got a scare. After looking for about 30secs I couldn't find the butterfly, and I don't know about everyone else, but that almost always means trouble in my tank. Eventually he came out from behind a rock (suspect the fire shrimp might have had a go at his ich, but I've never seen that shrimp do anything but come out to eat then go back into hiding - its' usually the red cleaner that plays doc). He went back to his usual bold self, and I stopped worrying - until I saw new salt grains on his tail/body. The Emperor also looked like hell. I dosed later in the evening, and when I fed them this morning, everybody ate.. so that's good at least. All other fish look healthy. Not sure if I should be expecting less at this point (meaning I wasn't expecting to see new ich nodules), but so far at least everyone's still acting normally. Forging onward. Will update tomorrow....

 

[rich460]

Dominican please let me know if this stuff works my fish might have ich and i dont really have away to qt him so let me know thanks.

 

[dominican]

Dosed at 3/4 yesterday. The butterfly is definitely gilling more rapidly now, scratching and acting a little erratically. He also has new nodules (again!). I tried to catch him last night for a 4 minute freshwater bath, but nothin'-doin'. I came close a couple of times, but only succeeded in freaking everyone out (they remember too, because I feed in the mornings and this morning was the first time they didn't come out until they saw the food container in my hand...) The emperor still looks bad too. He's acting normally though, and doesn't have any new salt grains, thankfully... Rest of the fish remain seemingly ich-free and fine, and no noticeable change in invert behavior.
Best news is that everyone's still eating!!!
Oh, and I left the skimmer off all night last night. the last 3 doses before that I only left it off for a couple of hours. I figure that maybe some of the meds might be getting skimmed out.. dunno...
It may be a couple of days before I repost. I usually post these from work, so stay tuned. I will not neglect to update when I get back...
And please, any comments are appreciated...

 

[eagle1]

Dom,
I hope you can get your tank ich free. I had a battle with it in my 55 a few months ago. I tried the medication route and it did not work whatsoever.
Instead, I went to a local fish store and paid about 100 bucks for a 20 gal setup and purchased a refractometer online and used the hypo treatment. Yes, it was a lot of work (removing live rock to catch fish, almost daily water changes in QT, etc.) but worth it.
Which ever method you use, good luck!

 

[jbadge]

been using it now about a month after battling ick in a reef tank and no signs of that pesky disease.

 

[ericholcek]

2 weeks into using kick ich and all has seemed to clear up.

 

[dominican]

Ok, here's the synopsys:
Dosed at 3/4 for the last two days...
Despite no new signs of Ich and good feeding behavior, I lost the butterfly on Night-5.. I figured he might have been too far gone based on my last observation (see my last post)...
Emperor looked better and better over course of Day-6 and Day-7.
By day 8, emperor looked good and I should've done the 25% water change but couldn't as I had guests in town for the holiday weekend. Planned to do it today after work. This AM, Emperor has it again BAD, AND my pseudochromis has it!!!

I'm fairly confident this is my fault. Geez, sorry guys, the results of this play-by-play have been rendered unreliable due to my inability to follow proper procedure...
Wondering if I can resume treatment at 100% or if I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet, buy a fuge and tear down the tank to extract the fish.... I don't have the time or cash for this right now..
Will let you know what I decided to do tomorrow....
Sorry to disappoint...

 

[zap800]

to the best of my knowlege melafix is not anti-parasitic. it is used for bacteria and fungus. if some one has used this treatment and it has worked then you misdiagnosed the disease but used the right medication. it is light trying to scabies with triple antibiatic. it just wont work.

 

[zap800]

i did do some reserch the past week and i have found a medication the wont (so they say) kill most crustations. i am useing it right now on my 55 reef. it is called rx-p by kent marine. i will keep you all posted in my own thread called "is there no other way"

 

[biggie18]

ich is always there....you can't "kick" it. You just need to stop schocking to fish from QT's to show and back n forth. Once they get comfortable with STEADY temp their immune sys will fight them off like normal. How do you think they deal with it in the ocean.....they dont got no "kick-ich" out there. Just pay close attention to you conditions and gice them doses of alicin (in garlic) to help immune sys and they should be fine. Good Luck :joy:

 

[biggie18]

lol..typo......*shocking

 

[nickmetcal]

the last 3 posts are really helpful! I realized that I did use the wrong medication for a parasitic problem, but apparently what happened is that the stuff basically boosted my fish's immune systems and slime coats and overall health and they faught the stuff off of themselves. Ich still hasn't come back at all though! :notsure:

 

[biggie18]

Keep the temp STEADY and dont do any changes to tank like moving rock or adding new fish for a lil while until everyone settles down. They still have ich that you cant see, but their immune sys is fighting it off before it turns into the egg sacks that appear as white spots on the fish. Just watch temp and fish picking on each other and you should be fine.

 

[dominican]

Update:
Figured i'd post an update since this thread has survived....
Well, I gave up on Melafix. Didn't work! I lost my Emperor, my threadfin butterfly, pseudochromis and a couple of yellow-tail damsels.

Devastated, I finally broke down and bought a QT, bio-wheel and heater. I transferred water and LR from the existing tank, and added new aragonite. Then I tranferred my YT, maroon clown and orange spotted sand sifting goby (only the clown had shown any signs, and he's my first fish so I was in emergency rescue mode). They are currently in hypo @ 1.009. The fire and red cleaner shrimp, and all cleanups are still in the main.
I had to tear down the couple hundred #s of LR in the main to catch the fish. Booooooo. Also, a PVC backflow valve failed and my fuge overflowed!!! BOOOOOOOOO. Luckily I had the foresight to put a tarp in my cab as a bladder. That was great, except that the powerstrips, and the converters for my compacts weren't raised! I had to shut off the breaker to that part of the house, fish everything out, dry it all in the sun (btw, this worked), and rebuild. Lesson Learned. Replaced the backflow valve, raised the Mak-4s and put all live wires in a container...
Still haven't rearranged the LR (gonna be tough to top the arrangement I had before), but I have plenty of time - 5 weeks - to do that. There are no fish in the main display, so the 6 weeks should be enough to ensure ich die-off. Meanwhile my three homies in the QT are doing great. Wish I'd broken down and done the smart thing in the first place!!!!!
Tanks for reading! Qs and comments welcome....
Dominican

 

[eagle1]

Good decision on the QT. I consistently read that ich meds aren't that successful. Maybe in some instances but it definitely didn't work for me. I set up a QT using hypo and that resolved my ich problem.
Good luck!