stupid mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!

[reefrider]

man i am an idiot!!!! after all these years in this hobby i still am not patient! a lfs had a kole tang and i was looking for one. i saw a white spot on the pectoral fin. i figured a little ick probably from stress from shipping. so i buy the fish. well today i finally got tired of seeing these white spots on it so i decided to catch it. i used some left over eggcrate to mkae a wall/barrier. that didnt work. well i ended up taking my whole tank apart to catch this fish. i have been doing that for the past 3 hours. what fun!!!! tomorrow he is going back to the lfs. i guess i should wait for the other lfs to get one in b/c he quarentines his fish for 3 weeks before he sells them!!!! or i could use an old 30g and start my own quarentine. for all the newbies who read this one suggestion BE PATIENT AND CHECK ALL FISH BEFORE YOU BUY THEM AND IF YOU THINK SOMETHING LOOKS FISHY IT IS!!!! no pun intended!

[Nammy]

I'm the same way with wood working. not patient
Once I cut a board 3 time and it was still too short.;)

[CaddyofClowns]

Why waste your time... you could buy a perfectly healthy Tang from your LFS, and it still has chances of gettin ich in your tank.

[Puffer Daddy]

Hey Rider..

I hear ya..were all human and do things we know we shouldnt or at least, against better judgement. Sucks having to rip it apart, huh?..man, i had to do that too due to a kole harrassing a lawnmower...jeesh!. Anyway, it's over now...and you'll do it different next time...happy reefing! Oh, by chance, did you try to treat him in the tank? (you know..garlic, etc.)

[Schism]

If you got tired of seeing the spots, why not feed garlic and let him get over it. You probably made it all worse by tearing down your tank. Ich is a fact of life, without a quarantine tank, set it up or get used to it. Actually your whole tank has ich now, for 3-4 weeks. If you add any fish they have a chance of getting it, even if you see nothing..

[AFEICA]

"Ich is a fact of life" WHAT? since when? why should Ich be a fact af life? Colds and the flu might be a fact of life too, but does that mean you should have them? Am I just blessed never to have had any in my tank....or careful?

[reefrider]

i only have a yellow corris wrasse left and he is doing well. i plan on doing some weekly water changes and give it about a month before adding any new fish. i have not tried garlic. i am kinda skeptical of that stuff. where in the ocean is garlic naturally occuring?

[Donkeykong]

Garlic is not a natural source, but the vitmens in garlic are found in the ocean. And that is what you are trying to give them

[Coral Dilema]

I have had my oscelaris clown on garlic treatment for about 3 weeks now. His ick cleared up about 3 days after starting treatment and hasnt come back yet . .I plan on keeping the garlic treatment for at least 3 more weeks .. or maybe forever, Its not like garlic is overly expensive anyway.

[reefrider]

oh i see. have you used garlic to cure ick. the fish is at the lfs now but for future refrence. Does it work?

[ab5ebdxer]

I have used garlic for ich and I believe it helped. I now use it almost every day. I soak seaweed in it for my tang. He eats better now and looks much healthier.

I dont know if it is really the vitamins that help or if is the stimulation of appetite that helps the fish.

Either way it seem to help.

Mike

[Tarasco1]

I think you hit on the easiest way to deal with it in your first post, which is getting your own quarantine tank. That way you can treat it before putting it in your display, and if any of your fish develop problems while you have them, you can put them in quarantine instead of getting rid of them Just a thought.

[NTidd]

I've completely cured ich before with garlic, I had a problem with it on most of my fish and I was able to get rid of it completely, ich free for at least 6 months now, only by using garlic.

[Jeff Wiler]

i had a hippo tang get ick three days after putting it in my tank it lived for about a week while i used Kick-Ich(which seemed to have NO effect on my corals and inverts)then died after i got rid of it(two long weeks of treatment)i promise i will NEVER own another tang!

[crichard6069]

I hear that. I had a powder brown and yellow get ich and not make it past my QT.. I tried hyposalinity, copper.. u name it. However, I can't give up on them. :) I finally have a hippo and have had it for four months now. I watched that sucker in the LFS for 7 weeks before i bought it.

[skippy2]

Somebody on this board said he uses 'spring valley odor free garlic' from Wal-mart. I got a bottle and don't know how to use it. Or maybe I shouldn't use it. My fish have never had ich. If I do use it do I just soak it in a container of tank water with the fish food?

[Jeff Wiler]

if its liquid...i use garlic gaurd and garlic extreme to thaw all frozen foods...i dont have any tangs or ichy fish its just for good luck i think it makes the fish more attracted to the food and it doesnt float around as long...that way i dont feed them as much.

[NTidd]

I've bought garlic tablets and empty the capsules into a vile, then put some in a cup of water and mix the food with it, I've also just used crushed or minced garlic from walmarts, all seemed to work fine without any ill effects, beats the price of kent's 10dollar bottle dropper.

[Schism]

Originally posted by AFEICA
WHAT? since when? why should Ich be a fact af life? Colds and the flu might be a fact of life too, but does that mean you should have them? Am I just blessed never to have had any in my tank....or careful?
Honestly if your not using quarantine, you have been lucky. Any fish bought from anywhere that has multiple fish has a chance of having ich.
Colds and ich? not even close. Maybe its a good correlation if your working in a hospital during cold season, a target rich environment.
You probably have less ich susceptable fish of just have been extremely lucky. It is a fact of life for ALMOST anyone who has a tang, which is why that sentence was in this post.

[Aquabucket]

The most effective form of treatment with garlic is done by utilizing freshly crushed garlic. By crushing the garlic you are creating an unstable chemical called allicin. This is the active ingredient that combats the parasite. Allicin must make its way into the tissue of the fish through digestion. The theory is that once allicin is in the tissue the ich will be repelled.

Garlic potions are a waste of money. The best form of treatment comes from a fresh clove of garlic.

[Jeff Wiler]

what abuot a $6 cleaner wrasse?

[Coral Garden]

I feel for you, reefrider. I purchased a chevron tang in mid-november and he was suffering from fin-rot and a mild outbreak of Ich. But since I'm the one my friends bring their sick tangs too for help, I was pretty confident that if he were healthy I'd have a good chance of curing him. So I made sure he was eating well, and then found out from the lfs whether he was part of this very infected shipment which happily wasn't the case and took him home. I felt that since the fish was relatively healthy, rather than put him in quarrantine I put him in a reef tank with a couple of cleaner shrimp. They took care of the mild ich outbreaks that occured in the first 3 weeks while I started to feed him about 5 times a day with all the good fish food I could find, fresh, frozen, with lots of nori. Two of those feedings were with minced, very finely chopped up but fresh garlic and b-complex vitamins. Other than that I just left him alone, trying very hard not to add to his stress level, which I feel is responsible for the outbreak in the first place.
After about 5 weeks the ich outbreaks stopped and the fin-rot was completely healed. The natural way can work wonders, if we're willing to give her a chance once in a while. The chevrons doing great, growing fat and digging holes in the sand....:)

Cheers...

[NTidd]

I also read somewhere that the parasites drop off because they cannot stand the garlic in the fishes system.

[Schism]

Originally posted by Jeff Wiler
what abuot a $6 cleaner wrasse?
Bad idea. These fish are extremely valuable to natural reefs and they just don't live in our systems. It is believed that they need parasites as almost all of their diet. Sometimes they will eat food we put in, but it does not sustain their lives for long. The only cases of survival I have heard are in huge tanks, 500 gallons or more.
If you want a cleaner, try a shrimp or a neon goby (better).

[lacie143]

You don't even want to see my 'canopy' for my 20 high.


Originally posted by Nammy
I'm the same way with wood working. not patient
Once I cut a board 3 time and it was still too short.;)