Ick remedy question???

[UncleMike]

Hi,

I have a clownfish that appears to have early stages of ick on it's side.
My LFS sold me Instant Ocean Lifeguard. I have some questions about the instructions that may sound dumb but I wanted to be safe rather then sorry...

I have 36gal front bow with a Tetra Whisper power filter & an Eshopps hang-on skimmer. It's all fish & w/ 40lbs of LR. I have the clown, 3 chromis, a chalk bass & an algae blenny. The only inverts I have are a feather duster, an emerald crab, some blue & red leg hermits and a few snails.

Now, the instructions on the Instant Ocean Lifeguard pack say: Before treatment, remove the filter carbon & turn off the UV sterilizer...

My questions are, "the filter carbon"? is that the Bio-Bag disposable filter cartridge? If so, I should take that out but keep the filter running, correct?

And lastly, Do I even have a UV sterilizer?

Again, I know these questions seem very basic, but I wanted to be absolutely sure before I screwed anything up. Thanks in advance as always.

 

[reefnhard]

alot of those treatments tell you to turn off protein skimmers and remove carbon..read what it says but yes if thats the case u remove it

 

[AR0026]

You would know I you have a uv..
I tried dosing before... It's didn't do anything for me and I lost my kole tang... When my clown started showing signs, I fresh water dipped him for 5mins then started feeding him his food with extreme galic... It come in drops and you just put them on the food.. It boosted the clowns system and he is alive and well...

Hope this helps..

 

[UncleMike]

Ok... here's another dumb question...

How can I determine if it is in fact Ick?
It doesn't look exactly like the images I've found however it does appear to have some white build up on it's side. Aside from that, the fish seems normal. No sluggish swimming or labored breathing, etc...

I'm hesitant to use the product for fear of killing the inverts I have in the tank.
I just did a 25% water change (which I was planning to do anyway). Any advice as to how long I could hold off before getting a better diagnosis?

 

[AR0026]

What I would do: load up his food with extreme garlic, and keep an eye the fish... If he don't look better, I would fresh water dip him..

Garlic is good for the slim they have on there body, so whatever it is even if it's not ick it should come off...

I wouldn't put anything else in your tank unless it was a last case scenario.

Good luck.

 

[UncleMike]

What I would do: load up his food with extreme garlic, and keep an eye the fish... If he don't look better, I would fresh water dip him..

Garlic is good for the slim they have on there body, so whatever it is even if it's not ick it should come off...

I wouldn't put anything else in your tank unless it was a last case scenario.

Good luck.

Thanks man!!!
This forum is great.

 

[marrone]

Fresh water dips and baths don't work against ich, as ich will not come off of the fish just because of the fresh water, especially since ich can survive in it longer than the fish can, also the ich that is living inside the fish, the fresh water dip will not have any effect on it. So it's not a good thing to do. Also putting garlic in food is a good way to build up the fish immune system, but it also doesn't kill ich. What you want to do it remove the fish and setup a hospital tank, which you can either treat with copper or use Hypo. If you go the way of Hypo, slowly dropping the SG to below 1.009, you need to make sure you have a Refactormeter, as you need to be sure the SG is correct, otherwise it doesn't work. If you plan on using copper you need to make sure you have a good test kit, as if you're not treating at the correct level, it doesn't work.

As for Instant Ocean Lifeguard, well what you'll find it most of these things don't work and are just a waste of your money. If you can't treat the whole tank, as it has corals, inverts and live rock, then it's best to setup a hospital tank and move the fish into it, there you can treat the fish. As for carbon and the Protein skimmer, both can and will remove medication for the water, especially carbon, so you need to remove it if you plan on treating the tank with any type of medication.

 

[Imbarrie]

Removing your clown doesn't solve the ich in your tank. Once you have a fish with ich you also have a tank with it.
Also, the cure is not healthy for the fish. In other words you can weaken the clown with the treatment in the hospital tank. When you place him back In the main tank he could catch it again and die.
Beef up the immune system and keep it eating and it should make it through. To cure your tank of ich you will need to remove all host animals for 6-8 weeks while you treat them in a separate tank.
The time for a quarantine tank is before you have a fish with signs.

JMO

 

[Mattl22]

Totally agree with imbarrie I did the whole hospital tank thing and it stresses the fish out more ! I had more luck just leaving the fish alone! Unless u have a really lg tank with literally thousands of dollars worth of fish I'd just leave him feed garlic
I had my hippo get ick a few times and it didn't spread and the hippo was fine a few days later

 

[Imbarrie]

I had signs of ich when I added a sailfin tang. Until then I had absolutely no signs of it, even with my hippo tang. I saw it quickly spread to my breeding pair of clownfish and cover my hippo.
I couldn't take all my fish out unless I took my whole tank apart and treating the tank is impossible with the coral.

I noticed my cleaner shrimp was cleaning the hippo and I had never seen it cleaning that fish before. I bought some cleaner gobies and they were grooming some of the fish.
I also started feeding the red gracileria from my fuge. I was using a vitamin soak for the frozen food and keeping everything eating.

Within a week I had no signs of it on any of the fish. My tank still has ich and any fish I add will catch it until I take care of it. But now my current fish are out of immediate danger.

 

[akma]

Google velvet if your not sure if its ick.

 

[marrone]

Sorry, but the whole part, about removing the fish and stressing out a fish further in a hospital tank, is well worth the risk then to leave the fish in the main tank and hope, by feeding it a lot(Garlic and such), that it will over come the ich and live. You'll find most of the time the fish will die, as will the other fish in the tank. You need to realize that the fish is already stressed out, and in a lot of case weaken already, by not doing anything there is a good chance the fish will die.

As for removing the fish not solving the problem of ich in the main tank, that is correct. You need to leave the main tank with no fish for 6-8 weeks, at which point the ich should be gone. From that point on you should QT all your new fish and be careful with any new LR that comes from someone tank, as it may have ich. You should QT the LR too.

 

[Imbarrie]

+1 on the last paragraph. That is the best way to treat ich in a tank.
Starve the parasite of any host and it will die.