kick ich

browniebuck

browniebuck

Active Member
A friend of mine is using a product called Kick Ich in their reef aquarium. It claims to be reef, coral, fish, and invert safe. I am skeptical and wanted to know if anyone has ever used the product before. We recently lost our first fish, with a severe case of ich (it developed within a day...darn hippo tang). I wanted to find something to treat my tank so that nobody else gets sick, but am afraid to try this without more testimonials. Has anyone tried or heard of this product before? Does it work? Is it safe?
 
nicetry

nicetry

Active Member
Don't waste your money. The only reliable treatments for c. irritans (ich) are copper and hypolsalinity. Non of the so called bottled "reef safe" cures are worth much.
 
browniebuck

browniebuck

Active Member
If this product isn't any good, then how can I treat my inhabitants? I recently purchased a quarantine tank, but haven't had a chance to clean it up and get it running. I have heard of freshwater baths, but am not sure how to go about them??? I just want to protect my fish. My maroon clowns, Eibli angel, and green mandarin seem fine...but my Naso doesn't look right. He has black splotches where his gray coloration used to be solid. He used to get these from time to time, but they would dissapate within minutes, now they are there for quite some time before dissipating. What can I do for him???
 
browniebuck

browniebuck

Active Member
In my tank we have three porcelain crabs, blue leg hermits, red leg hermits, a queen conch, turbo snails, and 4 cleaner shrimp. We also have @35 lbs of LR and 70 lbs of LS.
 
f14peter

f14peter

Member
The point about things like Kick-Ich is that it merely helps remove the parasite from the fish itself . . . it does absolutely nothing about ridding your tank of the ich. If your fish has/had ich, your tank has it!
Inevitably, it will show up again on your livestock unless other steps are taken.
There is no silver-bullet medicinal cure for ich, so far only hypo and/or copper treatments.
It is up to the individual, treat the symptom (Again and again and again) . . . or treat the disease.
 
shogun323

shogun323

Active Member
Originally Posted by f14peter
The point about things like Kick-Ich is that it merely helps remove the parasite from the fish itself . . . it does absolutely nothing about ridding your tank of the ich. If your fish has/had ich, your tank has it!
Inevitably, it will show up again on your livestock unless other steps are taken.
There is no silver-bullet medicinal cure for ich, so far only hypo and/or copper treatments.
It is up to the individual, treat the symptom (Again and again and again) . . . or treat the disease.
Ding Ding Ding Ding!!!!! We have a winner!!! :cheer: :cheer: :cheer:
Well done Peter!!!! Nicely said!!
 
a&a2

a&a2

Member
I know I'm gonna get blasted over this but here it goes. I used it on my tank when my new hippo came down w/ick and that was 5 months ago. I have had no reoccuring signs of it
 
nicetry

nicetry

Active Member

Originally Posted by A&A2
I know I'm gonna get blasted over this but here it goes. I used it on my tank when my new hippo came down w/ick and that was 5 months ago. I have had no reoccuring signs of it
It's not that the product may not have some effectiveness, it's simply that it's not consistantly effective enough to be called reliable. Another thing to consider is that some fish can come through a bout of ****** in spite of a treatment as opposed to because of a treatment.
If you ferel the product worked for you, you're likely the exception as opposed to the rule. It's just not a product many people will endorse because for every success story, there are several that contradict it's use.
 
bloke

bloke

Member
Isn't Ich itself a parasite? How can something safe for inverts kill Ich?
Here's what I would do...
Use your QT. Set the temp in the low to mid 80s. Get ALL, yes not just those infected, but ALL fish out of the tank and put them into the QT. On their way, do a freshwater bath for about 3 minutes in water with the same pH as the tank.
Over a period of 48 hours lower the salinity of the water to 1.009-1.010. In addition, get some Cu from your LFS as well as a testing kit and adjust the Cu concentration in the water to .15 -.20. Keep the water at a gravity of 1.009-1.010 and a copper concentration of .15 -.20 for a period of 14 days. I might even keep the gravity in hypo for 30 days. After 14 days, do a water change to remove the majority of the copper.
KEEP THE FISH IN THE QT for a total of 30 days. While in the QT feed them food that was soaked in Garlic Guard. The ich will probably be gone, but these extra days will help the fish get stronger and healthier, but more importantly, it allows the Ich to runs it's lifecycle in your main tank. Just because you've removed the fish doesn't mean the Ich is gone. The Ich parasite, after leaving the host fish, hatches into 200 more and goes looking for a new host. When there are no hosts (because you've removed ALL your fish) the Ich will die after a period of 30 days.
If you only treat one of your fish, others will get Ich from the parasites in the water. If you put them back in too soon, the Ich will not be dead from the tank and you will reinfect them. YOU HAVE TO HAVE PATIENCE and ALWAYS use a QT in the future. The best cure is prevention!
People refrain from QTs because they dont want the $100 fish they just bought to sit in a separate tank for 30 days, but do you want to infect your whole system? 30 days is well worth keeping a healthy display tank.
Hope this helps and sorry for the lengthy post.
 
browniebuck

browniebuck

Active Member
The only problem with the quarantine idea is that the quarantine tank isn't set up yet. I bought ia 30g used from a guy in my area who bred cichlids to supply to pet stores that has gotten out of the trade due to old age and illness. The problem is that a friend of mine bought a 90 gallon from the same guy and had a leak (we weren't told that the tanks had been sitting in the garage for 3 years without water), having to empty the tank, reseal, and wait for the new seal to set (48 hours). Should I just assume that the tank is going to leak and peel the seal and reseal it or should I try it as is?
 
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