Poll - How did you defeat Ich?

[reefgal]

Curse the fates....my yellow-eyed tang has the dreaded plague. I've read the archives, the books, and my tea leaves. The way I see it I have several options:

1) Garlic oil
2) Kick Ich
3) remove all fish to q-tank and treat with
copper
4) Do nothing and hope for the best

None of these options is particularly palitable. Garlic oil sounds messy, smelly and I am worried about garlic oil film on the skimmer, sump, etc. Kick Ich bothers me because I have worked hard to encourage bio-diversity in my tank and am hesitant to put ANY KIND of chemicals in it. I'm not confident I can even catch all eight fish. Waiting and hoping for the best is unacceptable if it means I would lose my pair of percula clowns.

I know there is no easy answer, but being an accountant, I would like to have some numbers to look at! Which option did/would you choose?

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Now, how do you pronounce (and/or spell) that again?

Reefgal in the desert

http://msnhomepages.talkcity.com/DeckDr/desertreefer/reefcover.html

[Frisco]

When I first had a tank about 6 years ago, I tried the remedies that are sold through retailers. I never had luck with any of them. My recollection about the garlic flavored oil is that it was suggested by Rob Toonen. I tried it on a newly imported and totally stressed purple tang, and the improvements were obvious within a day. I'll repost the preparation method I used later tonight.

It can be a hassle if it's done wrong, but if you take a little care to avoid obvious mistakes it's easy. The few people I've told about it haven't ever responded about its efficacy, so take my advice with caution. It definitely has worked VERY well for me though.

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http://members.xoom.com/FriscoReef/

[Jeff B]

Reefgal,

I use a modified #4. The modification being frequent water changes until I feel like the disease is under control. I've noticed that sometimes the fish look spot free which I think means the cyst has dropped off the fish in its reproductive mode. I use this as a sign to do a water change and not vacuum the gravel but at least to stir the top level of substrate in the hope I can remove the cysts before they multiply.

[billsreef]

I haven't tried garlic oil or kick ich yet, but they seem to be the only possibly viable alternatives to removing all fish and treating in a Q tank.
So far the only verifiable and repeatable cures are to treat with copper in a Q tank or treat with hyposalinity (1.009-1.010) for 3-4 weeks, while keeping all fish out of the display tank for a minimum of 4 weeks.

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Bill

If damsels grew as big as sharks, the sharks would run in fear!
My dive photos (http://hometown.aol.com/billsreef/)
ICQ 56222784

[BrianD]

What about (drum roll, please......)


SANO :D

[Doug]

Hi Reefgal,

I had some very bad ick outbreaks when I first started keeping salwater fish. So after trying other methods and not being able to catch the fish in the show tank I started to use a product called Selcon. It is a vitamin C supplement that I soak the fish food in. If I saw any signs of ick I would add the Selcon to the food and within a few days the ick would disappear. I have found that by using it 1-3 times a week I have been able to keep the fish ick free for about the last year or so. This may not work on an advanced case of ick but it may help by making the fishes immune system stronger. I have no scientific backing here but it has worked very well for me and I wanted to give you another option in case you use your option #4.

The only problem that I have ever heard of by using too much Selcon is that it can lower the pH of the water but I have not had that problem myself because I use the recommended doage on the bottle.

I have had only one ick outbreak that I could not cure with the Selcon so far but it was related to a sick fish that I added, some major water quality problems and what seemed to be a secondary bacterial infection.

BTW, I also keep cleaner shrimp in all of my tanks which seems to help also.

HTH

Doug


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Doug's Reef and Fish Page (http://38.222.244.200/dougw)

[Larry M]

I'll give you my story but first let me say I don't know if all of us are properly identifying diseases as ich. Supposedly there are other "white spot" diseases that are not as fierce as real ich.
Having said that, I pretty much follow Doug's method. Selcon, Vita-Chem, and if I see a fish come down with spots (not for over a year either) I do more frequent water changes, leave the fish where it is, and feed the hell out of it using the above additives on the food. So far, it has worked great. I still live in fear of "the big one", though.
I also try not to cram 10 fish into a 2 fish tank, put predator fish with itsy-bitsy calm fish, 12 tangs in the same tank, etc etc. :D
Oh, and I don't buy the $19.99 purple tang at Petco. In other words, some common sense preventative measures go a long way.

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Larry M

See my tanks at Northern Reef (http://www.reefcentral.com/northernreef/index.htm)

[horge]

How do I beat ich?
Quarantine, baby, quarantine :)

How do I beat ich that's gotten in-tank?
Allium-melaleuca ****tail. I know the jury's still out on the latter half of that combo, but garlic is pretty much vouchsafed as a general antibiotic/antifungal. Don't know if it works against parasites.

<C. irritans does massive damage to tissue, and maybe the garlic prevents secondary infection, until (in the free-swimming phase) the bugs can be zapped by filterfeeders or filtration equipment. Feeding the fish is a really good idea in the face of such insidious tissue damage.

BrianD: but, but...it's LIQUID ENERGY!!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

[Sparrow]

UV Sterilizer

[Vins Fins]

There is a product out that worked great for me.It's called No-Ich made by fish vet inc.
I have a 75 gal tank that had two tangs with
ich. After 3 days it was gone.I also have several corals in the tank.There were no bad
effects.Make sure that you follow the inst.
I believe that you can purchase it through
thr pet wharehouse.

Vinny G

[Scooby Doo]

I'm with Doug and Larry on this one. All too often, aquarists yank their fish and put them in a q-tank when they don't need to. Its a knee-jerk reaction to sighting of ich.

I tried a product called Rid Ich in my FO and all it did was stain the crap out of my silicon.

I have tried hyposalinity and copper. With copper my yellow tang ended up getting lateral line disease and his fins were real torn up. Matter of fact, he still has lateral line but not nearly as severe. Once I put him back in my reef, the fins healed up and the lateral line started reverting.

Since then, I am now a firm believer in providing the fish with a healthy diet. Foods soaked in Selcon and Vitachem as well as a balanced variety. This is what I did when my entire reef tank broke out with ich. Its been 3 months since then and there hasn't been a sign of it.

Bear in mind, though, there does come a point when the fish becomes so infected and stress that he doesn't have a chance to recover without intervention. You must make that call.

Scooby

[TheDonger]

Go to this link and have fun reading
http://saltaquarium.about.com/home/saltaquarium/msub33ich.htm

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Visit Keith's Reef (http://web.tampabay.rr.com/lazydasy/keithreef)

[This message has been edited by TheDonger (edited 02-12-2000).]