Blue Tang has ICH - feeding Garlic w/Food - Just wait it out??

[spydergst98]

Ok - I started soaking my fish food (Ocean Nutrition - Prime Reef & Formula Two) with Kyolic Garlic Extract because my Blue Tang has Ich.


I've just started doing this for 2 days - but today my Blue Tang has about 20-30 white dots all over him (Last week - he only had about 5-8 dots).

Man I don't want anything to happen to my Clown Trigger or Flame Angel.

Should I just keep feeding the fish food soaked in garlic and hope he gets better?

I do not have a Quarrantine tank - so that's not an option. I was told buying Ich medicine is a waste of money.

I rather loose him then let anything happen to my Clown Trigger - All the other fish in the tank look fine (Clown Trigger, Flame Angel, Yellow Tang, 6 Green Chromis, YT Blue Damsel, Humbug Damsel, 2 Percula Clown, and 8 Turbo Snails).

Should I just wait it out - I have the temp at 78 and the saltinity is at 1.025

Thanks,

[MalHavoc]

Have you read the following article?

[ich]

[pdyp]

My cure for ich -and I stress the "MY"- raise the tank temp. I raise my tank temp to about 82-83 degrees. I have a hippo as well and just like any other tang was ichy when I put him in and YES it spread the ich to my iblii angle. I raised the temp and a week later it was almost all gone on both. Mind you this method has taken a month to maybe free the tang of ich as the ich may come back (in a lesser degree) but it works for "ME." My tang had one last spec on its right fin about 2 days ago and is now gone. Now I will still wait a couple more weeks to see how things go. Also, try a water change. What I did do (forgot to squeeze in) was that I dropped the temp back to 78 but only to watch the ich come back.

The reason why raising the tank temp may work is that the ich's life cycle is excellerated. Thus killing them off a little faster. This logic lead me to believe that reducing the temp would help them thrive a little and raising it again would kill the survivors. SO far so good.....and I do mean good!

It was either this (for me anyway) or get some cleaner shrimps or neon gobies and go for broke. The shrimp, I'm affraid, were surely to fall victum to my puffers, soooo.... This saves me money and all I have to do is watch.

[spydergst98]

Hey thanks for the advice. I usually keep the temp at 80 degrees but it's been really cold here in TX and the tank went down to 75 yesterday.

I installed a 300 watt heater and have it set at 78 degrees.

I'm gonna set it at 82 degrees and keep feeding the food soaked in garlic for a few months and see what happens.

Thanks,

[spydergst98]

Oh yeah - I'm also gonna do a 8 gallon water change weekly for about a month.

I have a 125 Gallon FOWLR tank so doing a 8 gallon water change weekly is not a big deal right - thats' lets then 10%.

Any other suggestion? I also have a gallon of Stress Coat but whenever I add that stuff, my Protein Skimmer goes crazy for 4-5 days.

Later,

[MalHavoc]

You really need to read that article to understand the life cycle of the parasite. I know you don't want to deal with a Q tank, but it's pretty much the only way of getting rid of everything. The parasite can survive at nearly undetectable traces in a tank, attaching to fish in such tiny amounts as to be nearly unoticeable. If you don't rid yourself of it by taking the fish out and letting it die because there are no hosts, you're just going to have re-occurring problems with it.

[dgin]

You can try adding a cleaner shrimp although I'm not sure if your clown trigger will make a meal out of it or not.

It seems like the garlic isn't helping much. As such, a QT is your only real solution. I had a Powder Blue that infected most everyone in the tank and died. I put all the other inhabitants in a couple of QT and did hyposalinity and a little malachite green over the course of a month. Everyone survived the ordeal and have been ich free since.

[Jacksonbriggs]

are you guys even listening? you cannot just raise the temperature of the tank and hope it will go away. raising the temperature in the main tank might make it worse if it stresses out the fish bringing down their immune system even more. my tang has been in isolation for a week now and just today my clowns got ich because of the stupid damsel stressing it out. so lower the read the article MalHavoc posted and get a quarantine tank. A quarantine tank is an essential element for saltwater fish. I was broke after buying my whole set up and I only had room for a 2 gallon which is definately not ideal but atleast it quarantines the fish until i can upgrade. good luck and read that article

[pdyp]

Like they said. My method is for me and may not be for you. Get a QT and drug'em! Seriously. Ich is not easy to get rid of. WHat can be really bad is that I may never get to drop the temp because a reinfestation. But that will be seen in the future.

GL~

[Megalodon]

Originally posted by pdyp
Like they said. My method is for me and may not be for you.

But it's the same for everyone. The only two real ways of getting rid of it are quarantining/medicating the fish (while leaving tank fishless for six weeks), or not adding any new fish to your tank for one year and hoping the fish survive the parasite that long.

The word "curing" is being used too loosely here. Just because the fish don't show the spots after a couple days does not mean the parasite is "cured." Doing anything to stress the fish will weaken its immunity and the spots may reappear rather quickly.


:fish2: :fish1: :fish2:

[Jacksonbriggs]

you cannot use a medication to cure this. good luck though

[pdyp]

Originally posted by Megalodon
But it's the same for everyone. The only two real ways of getting rid of it are quarantining/medicating the fish (while leaving tank fishless for six weeks), or not adding any new fish to your tank for one year and hoping the fish survive the parasite that long.

The word "curing" is being used too loosely here. Just because the fish don't show the spots after a couple days does not mean the parasite is "cured." Doing anything to stress the fish will weaken its immunity and the spots may reappear rather quickly.


:fish2: :fish1: :fish2:
Theoretically it's the same for everone. There are times when even QT or running your tank bare isn't enough. What's best is up to the person and what they feel they and the fish can handle. If my tang had not shown signs of improvement, I would have went with a QT. But so far so good! DON'T JINX ME!!! ;-)

Story time:
I had a couple green severums that had ich and as much as I tried and medicated, it was not to be. The ich was just too strong for the fish and they eventually gave in. That was the only time I suffered a loss from ich. Hopefully, anyway...

[guitarfish]

I HATE ich. There is no known product one can buy and add to a tank that will kill ich 100% of the time, while not harming other inhabitants. Some products work sometime - who wants to deal with that? Some of these ich medicines cost $45! Freshwater dips or medicated dips don't get the ich in the tank. Garlic can help in some cases, but it doesn't always work.

For me, there's only one way to deal with ich. Buy a small tank, heater, light, and filter for QT purposes. Buy a refractometer. About $100-150 for the whole shebang.

All new fish aquisitions go in QT. Observe, and treat with hyposalinity if needed. When there is no ich, then into the main tank they go. As long as this is adhered to, there's no way for ich to ever get into the main tank.