Ich treatment

jvr1102 · #1 12/21/2007, 11:05 AM

So I have quarantined my tang for about ten days now and treated with ich med. Its says to treat for ten days then after about the 28th day treat for another week. When I noticed him twitch and have a few white spots on him I started this procedure, its now about a week and a half and he has gotten worse. There is white spots EVERYWHERE on him....I would think the worst would have been over...any help is much appreciated.

JediReefer · #2 12/21/2007, 11:20 AM

What are you using to treat the ich? It doesn't sound like copper or hypo if it keeps coming back.

I would suggest hypo to reduce the stress on the fish.

jvr1102 · #3 12/21/2007, 11:23 AM

ich-x is what my lfs guy told me

brward5 · #4 12/21/2007, 11:27 AM

You need to treat with hypo. This is most effective. If he is particularly sick don't try copper or if you do, use a very light concentration of Cupramine. Hypo treatment is 14ppt or 1.010sg lower the salinity slowly - take at least 12 hours or so. copper and hypo are the only treatments that are effective.

JediReefer · #5 12/21/2007, 11:28 AM

There are two sure fire ways to treat ich. Copper and Hypo.

Do a search for hyposalinity, I am sure there is something in the fish disease forum as well.

capn_hylinur · #6 12/21/2007, 01:28 PM

here is an excellent article on ich and its treatments:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

george81 · #7 12/21/2007, 08:30 PM

get polyp labs medic...an excellent medication and works. it is completely reef safe. I have used this in the past there was an outbreak of ick in my system a real bad one this cured it up and it has never returned i keep a bottle on hand.
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s..._ID=plb-medic1

reefergeorge · #8 12/21/2007, 08:51 PM

There are only two real ways to treat ich, Copper and hypo. All the others are snake oils and aren't Worth the drive to the store.

stuccodude · #9 12/21/2007, 09:15 PM

give him some garlic extreme soaked food stat, trust me.

kevin2000 · #10 12/21/2007, 11:39 PM

I suggest you go the RC disease forum ... rather lengthy sticky post on ich there which will help.

kau_cinta_ku · #11 12/21/2007, 11:44 PM

garlic only helps to keep the fish eating but will not kill ich.

as stated the 2 only proven methods to cure ich are with copper or hypo. both need to be treated in a QT tank along with all the other fish it was with anytime before (that you owned anyway)

stuccodude · #12 12/22/2007, 12:51 AM

sam, it is proven that mosquitos will not host a person with excessive garlic in there system, why not fish? i have seen first hand garlic works. i have read a guy had a tank and his heater failed and his blue tang which we all know are ich magnets got ich when it got stressed out from the water temp change but the thing was is he didnt add anything to his tank in almost a year so i believe ich is in all tanks. i relize i am opening a huge debate on this issue and like you said garlic will not kill ich but if ich dont like its host cause of garlic then there it is. some peps dont like change but its true

kau_cinta_ku · #13 12/22/2007, 01:01 AM

well until someone shows me sientific proof that garlic cures ich. I will still say it is not a cure. but does help

Sk8r · #14 12/22/2007, 01:33 AM

Don't do 2 treatments at once, as a rule---though garlic is a safe one to run concurrent with your other treatment: won't hurt, could help. You aren't running carbon in your quarantine filter, are you? That removes meds as fast as you put them in. Use only plain floss, and if he is this bad, I would personally say hypo. And I can't remember what the hypo salinity is, but you need a refractometer to do it safely: a really, really accurate salinity measure. As said, go to the disease forum: the answer is there in the threads marked with an *.

julianp · #15 12/22/2007, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by stuccodude
sam, it is proven that mosquitos will not host a person with excessive garlic in there system, why not fish? i have seen first hand garlic works. i have read a guy had a tank and his heater failed and his blue tang which we all know are ich magnets got ich when it got stressed out from the water temp change but the thing was is he didnt add anything to his tank in almost a year so i believe ich is in all tanks. i relize i am opening a huge debate on this issue and like you said garlic will not kill ich but if ich dont like its host cause of garlic then there it is. some peps dont like change but its true

Just to provide another experience, I soak all food I feed my fish with garlic extreme and it didn't keep them from getting ich very quickly and aggressively when I added macro algae from an infected tank. I put all fish through hyposalinity at 1.009 and now I never have to worry about an infestation again. Seems rather simple to me. No sense torturing the fish with an ongoing or randomly returning parasitic infestation when you can avoid it so easily... Just my two cents

Also, cryptocaryon irritans is not "in all tanks" It's not open to debate. It's scientifially proven that in order for the parasite to infest a fish, it has to be introduced to a tank. I hate to think how many fish die unnecessarily each year because someone is told that ich is always present and "caused by stress".

reefergeorge · #16 12/22/2007, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by stuccodude
sam, it is proven that mosquitos will not host a person with excessive garlic in there system, why not fish? i have seen first hand garlic works. i have read a guy had a tank and his heater failed and his blue tang which we all know are ich magnets got ich when it got stressed out from the water temp change but the thing was is he didnt add anything to his tank in almost a year so i believe ich is in all tanks. i relize i am opening a huge debate on this issue and like you said garlic will not kill ich but if ich dont like its host cause of garlic then there it is. some peps dont like change but its true

Wow, Those two statements just went against years of scientific research. When you see a lab release any findings that garlic repels ich, or that ich is always present in a sw tank then you need to start a new thread with these finding.
Be happy you have a healthy tank/fish that can fight off an ich outbreak.

reefergeorge · #17 12/22/2007, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by stuccodude
he didnt add anything to his tank in almost a year so i believe ich is in all tanks.

The research doesn't say almost a year it states over a year it is unlikely to have ich present.

Burgess and Matthews (1994) were attempting to maintain a viable population of C. irritans which could be used in later studies. To maintain the parasite populations, they needed host fish in order for the trophonts to feed and continue the life cycle. Each host fish was only used once in a process of serial transition such that none of the hosts would die or develop an immunity. While the procedure worked very well and enabled them to maintain populations for some time, the viability of the populations decreased with time and none of the 7 isolates they used survived more than 34 cycles, around 10 to 11 months. They suggest this is due to senescence and aging in cell lines is well recognised in Ciliophora.

The presence of aging cell lines in C. irritans suggests that an aquarium that has been running for longer than 12 months without any additions is unlikely to have any surviving "Ich" parasites, yet another exception to "Ich" always being present.

capn_hylinur · #18 12/22/2007, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by reefergeorge
Wow, Those two statements just went against years of scientific research. When you see a lab release any findings that garlic repels ich, or that ich is always present in a sw tank then you need to start a new thread with these finding.
Be happy you have a healthy tank/fish that can fight off an ich outbreak.

its not a case of garlic guard etc repelling ich or anything..

There is some evidence that feeding garlic to fish over a long period will boost their immunity systems. This doesn't mean they won't get ich---it means that they will fight it off easier when they get it.

george81 · #19 12/22/2007, 08:57 PM

polyp lab medic is prooven to kill ick because i used and it cleared up the ick and has never returned....trust me if you dont like the product i will buy it from you for what you paid for it

george81 · #20 12/22/2007, 09:00 PM

let me rephrase that if it doesnt resolve you re ick problem i will buy it off you for what you paid for it.

capn_hylinur · #21 12/22/2007, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by george81
polyp lab medic is prooven to kill ick because i used and it cleared up the ick and has never returned....trust me if you dont like the product i will buy it from you for what you paid for it

I am really not trying to be a smart a** here, but one anecdotal result doesn't measure up to the work of Steven Pro and many others on this site that state the only proven way to irradicate ich is to hyposalinate in a qt tank for 4-6 weeks.

reefergeorge · #22 12/22/2007, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by george81
polyp lab medic is prooven to kill ick because i used and it cleared up the ick and has never returned....trust me if you dont like the product i will buy it from you for what you paid for it

If this were true. They would be billionaires, and people would be using it instead of copper and hypo.
Just be happy you have a healthy tank, and your fish were healthy enough to fight the ich themselves. I say coinsidense.

george81 · #23 12/22/2007, 11:36 PM

i see what you guys are saying.....but its not a coincidence....i had a real bad case of ick...real bad.....because you guys havent heard of the product doesnt mean it doesnt work....do some research its not only my testimony. i have used it right in my display tank i dont have a qt tank....so it had to have eliminated the ick...part of qt for 4-6 weeks is so the ick in the dt doesnt have a host and dies off.... like i said ick has never returned to my system...
there is a reason they are not billionaires.....i havent seen their product in the usa.....not because their product dont work. maybe americans cant import it? i know up here in canada they have banned most pet meds and we can no longer get products like red slime remover.
..to each his own if i ever get ick again...this is what i ll use hands down. like i said you have nothing to loose if it doesnt work i will buy it from you for what it cost you.

kau_cinta_ku · #24 12/23/2007, 12:02 AM

there are lots of places that carry that product in the US.
marine depot
aquarium specialty
reef tank supply
premimum aquaticts

just to name a few. 34.00

but still no sientific data that proves that it does work. I am not saying it don't work but data will help big time. and I am not about to go buy a fish with ich just to try it.

bertoni · #25 12/23/2007, 12:08 AM

There's all sorts of anecdotes about various cures for marine ich, and this Polyp Lab product is no exception. I don't see any reason to believe it works.