Treating Ich without a Q tank. Need Some Help.

[OscarBeast]

Hello.

My new Neon Goby has ich. I believe that he keeps the firefish clean because I don't see any trace on him, but the neon was covered yesterday.

Well today I don't hardly see anything on him. Of course I also started skimming yesterday and the skimmer is starting to get some really nice dry foam now. I guess my question is that I was wondering if my skimmer was sucking up all of the free swimming ich? Could it be that the skimmer is pulling them out of the water before they get a chance to attach to my fish, and in turn cutting their lifecycle short? The skimmer is a Red Sea Prizm and is designed for tanks up to 100-gallons and I have it on my 10-gallon. :P

I was just wondering. I wasn't too happy about having to treat for ich with my new shrooms. I picked up some malachite green just in case though. My LFS didn't have any Maracide in, which I figured would be the safest thing to treat the tank with.

[rldavis]

First, I have to say that fortunately (knock on wood here), we don't have much experience with ich. But, if you want a natural cure might I suggest either a cleaner shrimp or a fire shrimp? Both clean fish. It is possible that because we've always had one or all of these in our tanks, that's why we've not had this problem before. I think in the long run, if you decide to go this route, you'll be happier with the fire shrimp AKA the scarlet cleaner. They cost considerably more, but they're not pigs like the other dudes, and Dr. Ron says that they don't harm a DSB or other critters in your live rock.
I would say that whatever you do, DON'T MEDICATE without asking a lot of people first. I know that using something like copper will ruin a tank forever for inverts, as well as all of the substrate and live rock. So even though it might say it's safe for saltwater, they mean fish....not live rock, invertebrates and the like.

Good luck on getting rid of it, keep us posted on the progress. :)
Becky

[Kyle McClain]

Another method is lower salinity to about 1 019. However this method takes several weeks and can cause more stress. You could give the fish a fresh water dip. If you do make sure the water is the same temp and ph as the water in the tank. Dip the fish for 60 seconds.

However I agree with Becky in that some type of cleaner shrimp is your best bet.

Kyle

[OscarBeast]

Oh yea, coppersafe will nuke the heck out of anything wihtout a spine. :P Talk about cooking a tank.

Will a little bitty neon goby (cleaner goby) allow a cleaner shrimp to clean him?

[rldavis]

It's hard to say for sure. I know that our scarlet cleaners seem to actually care about cleaning the fish more than the regular cleaner, but I think it's a crapshoot. They all seem to have personalities you know. I think it would be worth a try, I have observed a few times that the fish will get jumped on by the cleaners when they have stuff on 'em, like it or not. Plus, it would make a good addition to your tank. ;) I think a lot of times, when a fish has something irritating on it's skin, it will allow itself to be cleaned even if it normally would not.

All the best,
Becky:)

[OscarBeast]

I am glad to know that I can add a cleaner shrimp to my system. I really wanted to add one. They are pretty. I was just afraid that it would hurt something in the tank being that it is only a 10-gallon. I was also scared that as few of fish that I have it would starve.

What else do they eat when they aren't cleaning?

[rldavis]

Oh dude, :D They will eat everything. Either type will eat any of the leftover frozen food, ours really like the sinking plankton pellets. Don't worry, they're not like the cleaner wrasse, they are excellent scavengers. My only word of warning is this....If you get a regular cleaner shrimp, although it will be out more (the scarlets are kinda shy) they will steal food from corals and stuff. If you ever have a plan to keep a coral that will want/need to be fed, mostly LPS, you might want to consider getting a Fire Shrimp AKA Scarlet Cleaner shrimp. To minimize confusion, here's a regular cleaner shrimp stealing food from our frogspawn, http://www.comasonline.org:8080/reefpics/donny/CleanerShrimp%20stealing%20food%20from%20frogspawn10-22-00.jpg And a picture of a fire shrimp http://www.comasonline.org:8080/reefpics/donny/FireShrimp2%2011-21-99.jpg
IMHO the fire shrimp is much more striking. :D
(Sorry about the fuzzy pictures, these guys don't hold still long enough for a good picture)

HTH,
Becky:cool:

[saltcreeper]

Someone told me that you can feed garlic extract with your food. It is a natural way to help fight ick. Never tried it myself, since I have a full blown reef a freshwater dip for new fish and a coral bath for the others is all I can do.