Ick

[nihoa]

little white dots all over a fish? ick? @$#%?!?!
can anyone tell us what to do? we dont have a second tank to put our inverts while we treat the dt. we do have lots of large containers, big big rubbermaids, and extra powerheads, thermomometres but dont have a second filter. it takes awhile to treat ick? we can leave our inverts in unfiltered water for 2 weeks. or can you get away with heavy water changes in the invert bucket?
help please.

 

[jackri]

ich can take 6 weeks to get rid of from the last signs of it.
What kind of system, how many fish affected?
What are your water parameters?
What are you feeding them?
Honestly... you really need a QT tank to treat them in and then quarantine all new arrivals before you put them in your display -- sucks yeah I know.
I feel for you... ich is so darn frustrating.
"Reef safe" treatments hardly work -- I've never heard of anyone having much success. A good diet, treated with garlic, selcon, vitamins can boost their immune system to help them fight it on their own but its up to the fish to eat and kick it.

 

[jackri]

Copper treatment will kill ich -- but you have to leave the fish out of your Display for up to 6 weeks as ich can still be in the system for that long... or if you nuke your display tank with copper.. you essentially took away the ability to keep inverts/coral in that tank -- ever.

 

[nihoa]

Originally Posted by jackri
http:///forum/post/2935399
ich can take 6 weeks to get rid of from the last signs of it.
What kind of system, how many fish affected?
What are your water parameters?
What are you feeding them?
Honestly... you really need a QT tank to treat them in and then quarantine all new arrivals before you put them in your display -- sucks yeah I know.
its a reef system. as of right now our lemonpeel angel is covered in spots (overnight) and our green clown goby has a few. our 2 ocellaris clowns, twinspot hog, and yellow watchman so far seem clean. but i hear once a few have it the rest will.
parameters:
78 degrees
specific grav 1.024
0 ammonia
15 nitrate
0 nitrite
feeding:
flakes, nori, shrimp, mysis, squid
other inhabitants:
emerald crab
fighting conch
choc chip star
hermits
snails
live rock hitch hikers but no intentional corals or anemones
so we need to take the fish out of our tank into a quarantine tank for 6 weeks? with nothing else in the tank?? they need hiding places and all that crap?

 

[spanko]

Sorry for your problem. To treat it your really should remove all of the fish to another tank for treatment. Hyposalinity seems to be the least intrusive on the fish. Go to the disease forum for this and other treatment instructions.
The display needs to sit fallow, without fish, for 6 weeks. This is the time the Cryptocaryon irritans, ich, takes to die out without a host fish.

 

[jackri]

When's the last time you added fish?
I would do some research on the ich threads on here. There are some VERY good threads on ich, quarantine tanks etc... it will also give you a better understanding what your up against, a lot more than I can type in a response

 

[nihoa]

alright thanks. the last fish added were the lemonpeel and the twinspot about a week and a half ago.

 

[joe 09]

you could try kick ick .some people have had mixed results with it, i tried it and it worked for me.also you didnot say how old your tank is. a lemon peel is not a easy fish for someone new to the hobby or a new tank.angel fish should not be put in a tank less than one year old.

 

[jackri]

I tried kick ick once awhile ago for awhile -- did nothing for me but that was my experience.

 

[pbnj]

Other posters have dismissed my claim, but I was able to beat a case of ich by soaking my food daily in a few drops of Kent Marine Garlic Xtreme. I've tried may different cures, but this is the very first time in my life that I didn't lose a fish to ich. This was about 2 months ago and no more ich.
Coincidence? Dumb luck? I don't know. It just worked.

 

[jackri]

Honestly I'll second the garlic soaked food. Not sure if the ich hates garlic and irritates it or boosts fish immune system or what.. but I've seen improvement using it and use it regularly in the diet of my fish now.

 

[blacktop pete]

garlic and selcon helps alot

 

[shyfish]

Hi,
Don't remove your fish even if it is ick. This is not a freshwater tank.
Ick is always in a saltwater aquarium. When your fish are stressed they become suseptable to the disease. Chasing your fish around to catch him will not only stress it further but all his tank mates too.
Most times turning your heat up just a little to say 82 will get rid of ick on saltwater fish. A healthy fish will combate the disease without needing any more treatment.
I understand some shrimps will actually clean the ick off a fish. I don't know much about that because I don't keep shrimp. Personal preferance, I don't like them.
If your tank and all the fish should be totaly in trouble. Turn up the heat to 82, remove carbon from any filtering system and purchase medicine that is Okay to use with saltwater fish and invertabrates. It will say will not harm coral. It doesn't, but it sure will stress them for days and weeks, so don't use such a thing unless absolutly necessary. Or place the coral in the QT tank to dose your fish, it won't hurt inverts. Never use meds unless you gotta.
I personaly just toss in frozen cubes for my fish, they like to tear it apart. However properly you should use a plastic cup...scoop a small amount of tank water... drop the cube in and let it melt, then pour it back into the tank to feed your fish frozen food.
If your clowns are not used to being fed a cube still frozen, it may have stressed him a little to be exposed to the chill. He is healthy and got over it quick.
Hope this helps.

 

[nihoa]

Originally Posted by joe 09
http:///forum/post/2935639
you could try kick ick .some people have had mixed results with it, i tried it and it worked for me.also you didnot say how old your tank is. a lemon peel is not a easy fish for someone new to the hobby or a new tank.angel fish should not be put in a tank less than one year old.
the tank has been running 2+ years when we bought it over a month ago. we have added lots of live rock and fish since but it is well established.

 

[nihoa]

Originally Posted by Shyfish
http:///forum/post/2935954
Hi,
Don't remove your fish even if it is ick. This is not a freshwater tank.
Ick is always in a saltwater aquarium. When your fish are stressed they become suseptable to the disease. Chasing your fish around to catch him will not only stress it further but all his tank mates too.
Most times turning your heat up just a little to say 82 will get rid of ick on saltwater fish. A healthy fish will combate the disease without needing any more treatment.
I understand some shrimps will actually clean the ick off a fish. I don't know much about that because I don't keep shrimp. Personal preferance, I don't like them.
If your tank and all the fish should be totaly in trouble. Turn up the heat to 82, remove carbon from any filtering system and purchase medicine that is Okay to use with saltwater fish and invertabrates. It will say will not harm coral. It doesn't, but it sure will stress them for days and weeks, so don't use such a thing unless absolutly necessary. Or place the coral in the QT tank to dose your fish, it won't hurt inverts. Never use meds unless you gotta.
I personaly just toss in frozen cubes for my fish, they like to tear it apart. However properly you should use a plastic cup...scoop a small amount of tank water... drop the cube in and let it melt, then pour it back into the tank to feed your fish frozen food.
If your clowns are not used to being fed a cube still frozen, it may have stressed him a little to be exposed to the chill. He is healthy and got over it quick.
Hope this helps.
frozen cubes of what?
i think what im reading online and people say here is primarily get your water quality sorted and get garlic into the diet to build fishes immunity. there seems to be the school of nuking ich and the school of managing it and id prefer to manage. the peeps i bought the lemonpeel from say a qt tank will likely stress the fish to death and if not any copper meds certainly would. it sounds like treating the entire tank with less intensive methods would be best. and it seems like something i should be doing anyway. good water quality, get the immune system up, happy fish = healthy fish.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Shyfish
http:///forum/post/2935954
Hi,
Don't remove your fish even if it is ick. This is not a freshwater tank.
I think that you have that the other way around. FW ich is treated in the display, not salt water ich.
Ick is always in a saltwater aquarium. When your fish are stressed they become suseptable to the disease. Chasing your fish around to catch him will not only stress it further but all his tank mates too.
This is inaccurate. Ich is NOT always in a saltwater aquarium. Ich is a parasite with a specific life cycle. It does not appear out of thin air, it has to be introduced into the tank. You are correct that stress makes a fish more susceptible to ich though.
Most times turning your heat up just a little to say 82 will get rid of ick on saltwater fish. A healthy fish will combate the disease without needing any more treatment.
Most tanks are at 82 degrees anyway. That will do nothing against cryptocarryon irritans AKA saltwater ich.
I understand some shrimps will actually clean the ick off a fish. I don't know much about that because I don't keep shrimp. Personal preferance, I don't like them.
They will only pick some of the parasites off of the fish.
If your tank and all the fish should be totaly in trouble. Turn up the heat to 82, remove carbon from any filtering system and purchase medicine that is Okay to use with saltwater fish and invertabrates. It will say will not harm coral. It doesn't, but it sure will stress them for days and weeks, so don't use such a thing unless absolutly necessary. Or place the coral in the QT tank to dose your fish, it won't hurt inverts. Never use meds unless you gotta.
I personaly just toss in frozen cubes for my fish, they like to tear it apart. However properly you should use a plastic cup...scoop a small amount of tank water... drop the cube in and let it melt, then pour it back into the tank to feed your fish frozen food.
If your clowns are not used to being fed a cube still frozen, it may have stressed him a little to be exposed to the chill. He is healthy and got over it quick.
Hope this helps.

Again, raising the temperature to 82 will not do anything at all.
To the OP. There are some "reef safe" products out there. They get very mixed reviews. You my be able to control ich if your tank is lightly stocked, the water readings are dead on, and you feed your fish a very healthy diet. Garlic extreme is just a flavor enhancer. It may make the fish eat better though. If you want to gain the benefits of garlic then use fresh. Go to the Disease and Treatment board. The second FAQ down has information regarding ich's life cycle, setting up a QT, the medicinal use of garlic, reef safe medication info and board experiences, the life cycle of the parasite, and much more. Please take a look.

 

[shyfish]

Hi,
Nihoa asked "frozen cubes of what?"
I use a varied diet but always in frozen cubes. From brine shrimp to a mix with sponge and clams. I even use lifeline algea cubes for my algea eaters. I am not supposed to ( I should melt it first) but I just toss in three cubes and the clowns like to rip it up first and then the other fish eat it as pieces flow around the tank. In 3 min all is gone.
I do feed my Anemone and serpent stars a chunk of raw shrimp every week.
I even change the diet up on my corals. Sometimes feeding frenzy, sometimes micovert and sometimes Kents marine brand. 1 to 2Xs a week. I was feeding them every other day but the algea got out of hand because of overfeeding.

 

[shyfish]

Hi,
By the way. The guy who insists to turn up the heat to 82 has had a saltwater tank up and running for 26 years. So I trust him. The instructions on ick meds even say turn up the heat.
I don't think it does anything to the ick. I think it helps the fish to either build up immunity or ease them if they have been chilled. Warming the tank I believe helps the fish.
Most people keep a saltwater tank heated at 78 because it slows everything down and you can control algea and disease easier. I got that info from saltwater aquariums for dummies...
However perfect for fish (not all fish) should be at 82 to 84 degrees. 78 won't hurt the fish, but perfect for fish is 82-84. When fish are stressed or sick you want perfect temps to help them get better.
The 82 is also prefered by corals too, but not all. For example Xenia likes cooler temps. But what makes corals grow also makes algea grow.
I always understood that temps at 78 slows everything down. Also the smaller the tank the faster things can go bad.

 

[reefaholic33]

I have used Metronidazole.....It is an anti-biotic for several protozoan and anaerobic bacterial diseases of fish. Soak it in there food and it should clear it up.