Well, my Atlantic Blue Tang has ich...what do I do?

[Anonymous]

I noticed today my Atlantic Blue Tang has ich. This is the firt time I've had a saltwater fish have ich, so I'm not certain what I should do, if anything. I have not disturbed the tank since the massive heat wave destroyed a lot of my corals, and my water quality has greatly improved...not to mention all the problem algae disappearing once I started water changes with reverse-osmosis water. My tank is looking fantastic nowadays, and I don't want to 'rock the boat' by ripping it apart trying to catch this guy.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Peace,

Chip

 

[Ben1]

There are lots of ways to cure salt water Ick. Some use garlic oil in the food the feed to the fish, theres also a product called garlix or something along this line. I never used this method.

If you can catch him, a fresh water bath causes the cysts to fall off and when you renet the fish you would leave behind the ick. But you dont want to catch the fish.

There are other products that claim reef safe for ick, like ruby reefs kick ick, or stop parasites. You could try one of these.
HTH

 

[Rich-n-poor]

here are a few suggesstions .....
first ick is a parasite that reproduces itself i believe in three day cycles so even if you remove the ick on the fish there is probably more potential cyst in some stage of the cycle in your tank waiting for an opportunity thats why most medication require you to dose for a 3-7 day period.
OPTION 1 treatment with Malachite green but this requires you to catch fish and put him in a hospital tank as you dont want to put this in your reef (i have dosed this in a tank with an anenome and hermits and everything lived but i have been told that was act of God) but i really wouldnt put it in with corals
Option 2 if it is a small out break just beginning a cleaner shrimp may be the best solution as they eat parasits like ick
Option 3 This one sounds crazy but it worked for me at some point in the cycle the ick parasite requires light to regenerate at least thats what someone told me so if you deprive it of light you break the cycle so what i did was shut down my lights for a period of 3 days and covered the glass on my tank with dark paper ( I had no corals at this time so i dont know what the effects on them will be ) when i uncovered the tank i had no more ick and have had none since and it was on 3 fish when the lights went out. Whether this was accident or there is truth to ick needing light during the reproductive cycle i have no idea but it worked
OPTION 4 Ive seen some ick medicine in reef stores which is supposedly safe to does even reefs with cost about $40 for enough for 1 treatment but i have no idea of the name
OPTION 5 Bang head repeatedly into wall while screaming "WHY ME " "WHY ME" and "WHAT SADIST GOT ME INTRESTED IN THIS HOBBY IN THE FIRST PLACE"
personally option 5 is my first choice whenever i have problems with my tank It doesnt solve the problem but the pain in your head makes you temporarilly forget about the pain in your wallet

Hope this helps.......

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[BBReefkeeper]

I believe the oil is called Kolic and is sold in heath food stores. I have used this and it has worked great. Put a cube of brine shrimp in a shot glass, add a few drops of oil and let soak till thawed. Feed to tank a little at a time. You should feed this way for around two weeks.
I have also use Neon Blue Gobies, they are a very heardy cleaner fish. It is cool to watch them swim up and eat ick off other fish.
good Luck
Bryan

 

[ckeadle]

do the garlic deal and also add a couple of cleaner shrimp immediately!

 

[NoriMuncher]

I would think the cleaner shrimp solution would be the most interesting to watch

.

 

[fishfarmer]

Garlic and vitamin soaked nori worked for me.

 

[Sledog]

When I added a yellow tang for algae control the tang, a clownfish, and a firefish came down with a severe case if ich.It was getting really bad(as bad as i've seen it in my own tanks.)I grabbed some Mcormicks garlic extract off the grocery store shelf and started pre-soaking the food and then rinsing before I fed.It was completely gone after only two feedings.Then 2 weeks ago I added a flame angel and he came down with ich. Two feedings of garlic soaked food he was cleared up.It really works and I didn't notice any negative side effects in my tank.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone...looks like some form of garlic treatment is the answer...I'll get to it right away!

Peace,

Chip

 

[lawndoctor]

I used to keep a Neon Goby when I had an Atlantic Blue Tang. The goby regularly cleaned the tang, even more so than my cleaner shrimp. Never saw any ich. Good luck.

 

[Anonymous]

A quick comment on the garlic thing. It works best when the infestation is spotted early, and best on hardy fish that have a chance of fighting it off by themselves anyway. A fragile fish with a heavy infestation - forget it.
Jim

 

[kbauer]

Just to add my 2cents to whats already been said. I noticed that I had ich develop after a new fish died probably of that as well. Immediately my clownfish and new sailfin tang got it. I bought some Garlic Elixir made by EcoSystems at my local lfs, put 1/4 tsp in a little tank water with a cube of frozen brine shrimp, let it set for 30 minutes, and fed them. the clownfish didn't make it but was pretty old (i think, he came with the tank) but after 1 feeding, the sailfin was better and after 4 feedings, it was completely gone

Good Luck!

 

[Rich-n-poor]

i know it sounds crazy but the light solution really worked for me the ick parasite only lives a couple of days and the reason you see more and more spots is because new protozoa have hatched and attached to the fish the ones you saw three days ago are dead and gone

kill the lights and black out the tank and you will stop these protozoa from surviving reproducing but please do something before the ick damages the fish to the point that it cant recover

how about an update ?
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[GMH320]

Would an occasional feeding of garlic soaked food help as a preventive measure to keep a fish from getting ick in the first place?

 

[Rays]

Yes,
I don't use it unless I have an out break, thankfully several months now. But two to three times a week as a prophylactic after an outbreak works wonders, this allows the cysts to die by breaking the cycle. People use different forms, juice, extract etc. The best but also very expensive is Kyolic extract from health food stores GNC etc.
Ray

 

[Anonymous]

Well, here's an update. When I posted that the tang had ich, there were about 20 white dots over mainly the front part of the fish. I just fed the tank right now, and when he came out to eat, there were no dots at all, the fish was colored up brilliantly, and he ate like a hog. I have not started treating the tank, and wonder if I even should. Maybe I mis-diagnosed it...

Peace,

Chip

 

[Stark]

I’m afraid you were probably right the first time. It’s not uncommon for the signs to come and go as the parasite progresses through its lifecycle. If you’ll indulge me a boring review (stop me if you’ve heard this before).
The life-cycle of Cryptocaryon irritans, the protozoan responsible salt-water ich, has five stages. When they’re burrowed into your fishes flesh, munching away, they’re called trophonts. You don’t see them at this stage, but you may notice your fish scratching itself against the rocks and substrate for relief. One of the places this stage can be detected is the clear flesh of the pectoral fins (it will look clouded).
When the trophont is ready to leave the host and reproduce, it secretes an opaque cyst and suddenly becomes the tomont,the dreaded white spot that strikes fear in the hearts of we fishkeepers. The tomont falls off, the fish looks better, and we’re lulled into a false sense of security. But the tomont is lying in the substrate dividing into 200, or so, daughter cells called tomites (cute little names for microscopic monsters bent on raising Cain in our aquariums).
Now this can take anywhere from 3 to 30 days. When the division is completed, the tomont bursts, spilling the daughter cells into the water column. At this point these cells are free-swimming hunters, called theronts. They seek out hosts whose flesh they will burrow into and start the cycle all over again.
Although your fish looks good now, I’d be wary of another round of infection

[ October 06, 2001: Message edited by: Stark ]

[ October 06, 2001: Message edited by: Stark ]

 

[blindsey]

I just noticed some spots and scratching on one of my Royal Grammas and a Firefish Goby (magnifica). I have a lot of fish and do not want it to spread. The Neon Blue Cleaner Goby and Cleaner Shrimp are what clued me into the problem, as for months no fish had been cleaned, then all of a sudden, they start cleaning these two when the two start scratching against the rocks and sand.

I did not quaratine my last batch of fish very long, as they all looked healthy after a couple of days, but both of these fish are new and under a lot of stress. The Gramma is fighting with another Gramma, and the Firefish's mate died (DOA) and it is all alone.

I am trying Kick Ich for the first time.

One of my friends tried it in his reef tank to cure his Tang and it worked for him along with a fresh water bath. But there is no way I can catch these small fish in my tank as I have 215 pounds of live rock.

I put the first dose in my 120+30 gallon tank on Thursday, and have to repeat every few days for about 2 weeks. The fish appear better afer just 48 hours, but time will tell. So far I have not noticed any bad effects on my invertibrates, my main concern/worry in using a medicine on my reef/fish tank, as I have hermits/crabs, shrimps, clam, scallop, brittle/serpent/sea stars, hard/soft/polyp corals, snails, etc.

I will keep you posted on its effectiveness.

 

[Terry B]

Wow, there is a lot of misinformation here. Apparently ich is not discussed much on this board. Maybe that is because there are message boards devoted fish disease elsewhere.
There are only two proven consistantly effective treatments for ich: copper or hyposalinity. Hyposalinity has many advantages. Neither of these treatments can be used in a reef tank. The only reef safe method that is worth mentioning is feeding the fish garlic. It works for some but not like the other two treatments I mentioned.
Good luck with anything else because it will be hit or miss at best.
Terry B

 

[Stark]

Yes, Terry, you’re right. The osmotic pressure of hyposalinity or the metabolic interference of heavy metals are both extremely effective. I, personally, have successfully used hyposalinity on a number of occasions since Noga’s results were first published in Seascope.
However, marillion’s original post stated that he didn’t want to take the infected fish out of the main tank. I think you’d agree neither of the above mentioned options remain available to him in that case.