kick ick questions

[gupsterwantabe]

I wrote on Monday to Trey to get some help,, thank you,, well I have some problems and need some advice,, I really appreciate all the help you get here...
Sunday I discovered my bat fish had ick,, I did the freshwater bath but did not have another tank to put him in.., so I put him back in main tank till Monday.. Monday I got another tank and started him on copper treatment.. Monday night ,, all fish got ick..
Soo Tuesday went to local store and got kick ick,, they told me to put bat back in main tank and treat them all with kick ick.
Butterfly fish died Tuesday,, bummer.
Questions:
1) Will kick ick get rid of the ick?? I have live rock so cannot use copper.
What else can I do in main tank?
2) I had to turn off skimmer and take carbon out of filter,, do I leave skimmer off for full 15 days while treating ick??
3) When can I do water change? Not for like 20 days?
any help would be appreciated,, thank you
If anyone can tell me better way than kick ick pleasehelp

 

[gupsterwantabe]

Thanks Terry B,, but I do have live rock so cannot use hyposalinity... Soo have to use Kick ick,, also using garlic,,,
do I leave skimmer off whole time treating with kick ick? When can I do water change?

 

[zackt]

Its been sooooooo long since I've posted a message one here, but here goes my theory on "ich".
1. Garlic does NOT work.
2. Bat-fish are not the most beginner oriented fish. If you are having ich complications, I would seriously advise slowing down and getting more simple fish such as chromis and tough as nail wrasses for a while.
3. Parasites and other nasties are present in ANY system. Its just a matter of whether or not your fish are sussceptable to the pathogen. iow. perhaps you should check your acclimation proceedure, water conditions, etcetc.
4. If you're up to doing things like medical treatments and hyposalinity. go nuts. But those things all put stress on a fish. Medicines and hyposalinity are never a part of a fish's natural lifestyle, therefore... they will always cause a type of disturbance, which IMO, never helps ich. If I were you, I would just leave EVERYTHING alone. Act like the ich isnt present, and hope for the best. I have 3 cleaner shrimp, They always see mine cleaning my tang and angel from time to time. So get a few of those. At least with cleaner shrimp, you know they arent harming anything.
5. If the ich gets extreme in your tank. ie. spreading to other fish and what not. Take remove and quarantine the tank, if there is nothing for the ich to infect, it will die out after a month or so.
Best of luck, I hope I didnt rant too much.
hth
Zack

 

[pufferlover]

I to am trying kick ick for the first time in one of my 20 gallon grow out tanks. I did first treatment 3 days ago, next one due tomorrow. I have tried no ick in the past with no luck (basically same thing). Altho there is no live rock or inverts (other then snails) in the tank I wanted to see if the stuff works. I had moved the baby Prok there a few days ago and noticed a few spots show up so I decided to try the stuff and see if it does anything (it looks clean today). I have read about people who use it once or twice just as a preventitive when adding or moving fish (does that matter I do not know).

 

[zackt]

Terry B.
My case in point in regard to your response...
If hyposalinity IS better for a fish... why isnt it so in the natural marine environment? Hyposalinity is to fish as what being put in a freezer is to humans. Uncomfortable and wrong. Sure it may work to kill off all the ticks and fleas you have running around you... but will you be too happy? I doubt it.
Also... when you say "Sick fish need treatment or they will die." I bought a flame angelfish 6 months ago... when I first got her she was COVERED in ich parasites... I did nothing at all to help her. Only fed her and kept her water in pristine conditions. She fought ich for 3 times before it finally cleared up. Now she has grown nearly an inch, and I havent seen ich for nearly 5 months. Also, I never said cleaner shrimp were a solution to the problem. I only implied they helped to prevent major outbreaks. Far be it for me to critisize your knowlege Terry B. , but I go on what my experience tells me.
Garlic... well, I tried it once at the beginning of my tank setup. All it did was make my tank smell like my mothers lasanga. BAD.

 

[bobj]

Marine fish have adapted to the specific gravity of the water in the reef environment.
They expend energy to counteract the loss of water to the environment.
So, reducing the sp.gr. actually makes it easier for the fish to maintain fluid equilibrium and requires less energy.
Only when the sp.gr. is so low that fluid begins to flow into the fish's tissue will the fish become stressed. Actually, the lowered salinity increases the gas solubility and oxygen carrying capacity of the water.
Why don't we do this all the time if is so good? Because invertebrates, algae, and most types of live rock like the upper range of salinity.

 

[zackt]

Terry B,
I never meant to steal your fire. And no thank you, in regard to the links. My fish have never been so sick as to need a "dip" or medication. In regard to your quote... I quoted what SHOULD have been said by you. Fish dont need treatment. Sick ones do. The moral of my story is that the most simple solution is best. And human interfearance is not simple, nor best. Just step back, take care of water conditions, and let nature do its thing.
"Over maintain, and understock" <---- the key to success.

 

[zackt]

I have been keeping SW fish since I was 9... so that means I have 7 years of experience with me. Just to let you know.

 

[beth]

Interesting piece of info...fish have adapted to reef salinity? If they adapted, then where were they before? The ocean has always been salty--or at least it has since any current species of fish have existed. Are you saying that salinity in the ocean outside of the reef environment is less saline?
I would like to read some reliable data on that if you can reference it here, or email the info to me.
Thanks.
[ June 19, 2001: Message edited by: Beth ]

 

[i3luedragon]

No matter what happens and what you do to try to save your animals, nature does take its course. These products and tactics to try to save them are great, but we must understand that once you've detected crippling illness, it's usually out of your hands. The breakout and infection is probably way beyond repair. Best is to detect it very early and still pray. You just have to try your best and hope the fish or whatever animal you have still has enough FIGHT in it to save itself. So nature does take it's course and labeling someone like that isn't nice. I don't know what's up with the firepower going on lately.

 

[tjake68]

use kick ich to get it to work best use with there parisite med cobinded i forget the name they sell it togther its orange and made by rally 1 is for ich he other is for parisites in combo they work but its a med its no garuntee keep skimmer on take out carbon kickich works good when u lower your salinity so if your going ton lower it why use med its a catch 22 i try diffrent meds some work some dont 100% garuntee is hyposalinity if its possible other wise its a crapshoot best of luck try yhe meds in combo it just might work goodluck

 

[zyglet]

I have always treated ich with OTC meds and an increase in tank temperature. Most parasites and bacteria can only survive in a very limited range of temperature... so a raise in temperature can kill it off without meds... just dont stress your fish with a sudden temperature change.
Prevention is the key... I keep my tanks in a rotating temperature cycle... that has a five degree range.... which means I adjust the temp daily by one degree until it is five degrees above my ideal and then I decrease the temperature one degree until it is at my ideal level. In nature water temperature varies. Ich is a cold water disease and does not like warm water... I have not had an ICH outbreak in the last five years. If you add new water to your tank make sure it is close to the temperature of the water that is already in your tank.

 

[zippy123]

We recently added a new fish to our tank and it brought with it a case of ich which has affected one of our other fish. We have a reef tank with many corals. We went to our local aquarium shop and purchased some NO-ICH by FishVet and have been dosing our tank as instructed. This was four days ago and the improvement in both fish is amazing. Neither our fish or corals seem to be adversely affected and it seems to have controlled the ich very quickly. It is a very easy treatment and doesn't appear to cause stress to any of our tank inhabitants. Does anyone else have experience with this product?

 

[al mc]

Originally Posted by Zippy123
http:///forum/post/3145971
We recently added a new fish to our tank and it brought with it a case of ich which has affected one of our other fish. We have a reef tank with many corals. We went to our local aquarium shop and purchased some NO-ICH by FishVet and have been dosing our tank as instructed. This was four days ago and the improvement in both fish is amazing. Neither our fish or corals seem to be adversely affected and it seems to have controlled the ich very quickly. It is a very easy treatment and doesn't appear to cause stress to any of our tank inhabitants. Does anyone else have experience with this product?
Wow, This is an old thread

This medication is similar to KickIch by RubyReef. It is basically metronidazole and will help diminish/knock down the parasite but IMHO will not eliminate it. I am sure that many people have had positive results using these medications in an acute problem and saved some of their fish. However, if you want to eliminate Ich I would use either Cupramine (copper)
in a QT (not DT) or hyposalinity.

 

[luvmyreef]

Originally Posted by Zippy123
http:///forum/post/3145971
We recently added a new fish to our tank and it brought with it a case of ich which has affected one of our other fish. We have a reef tank with many corals. We went to our local aquarium shop and purchased some NO-ICH by FishVet and have been dosing our tank as instructed. This was four days ago and the improvement in both fish is amazing. Neither our fish or corals seem to be adversely affected and it seems to have controlled the ich very quickly. It is a very easy treatment and doesn't appear to cause stress to any of our tank inhabitants. Does anyone else have experience with this product?
Sure have...I recently added a new fish, and needless to say...my tang was peppered with ick...added no ick, its been almost two weeks, everything is going good...so far I really like this product..