Anyone had success with Kick-ich?

[scotty123]

Just had another plague of ich in my 36 gallon tank. The first time I had three fish and medicated the tank with Greenex. Bad choice being that it left all of them dead the next morning. So anyway, I waited awhile then bought a yellow tang, flame angel, mandarinfish and a blue damsel. Now they all have ich.
I got the bright idea to start adding Greenex again until I could get down to the LFS and pick up something else to treat them with. Well, now my Flame has gone out, the others still have Ich and I've got a really expensive bottle of this stuff called Kick-Ich. Any positive reviews about this stuff would help out a lot.

I've got a spare ten gallon tank that isn't being used but Im reluctant to use it as quarentine due to the fact that it hasn't cycled. Any advice? Thanks.

[ReefGeekster]

Most people will call it snake oil or a 50/50, I myself have been using it along with it's counterpart Rally along with a UV, and haven't lost a fish since, the ich is in my reef the fish are near impossible to catch.
Kick Ich will only work when caught early and will take many $'s before it will work, I stop using the Rally and just using Kich Ich and the UV, I added the UV when I started to use the Kick Ich. The worst fish that had it was the Copper Band Butterfly, he's a small one and I call him twitch since he twitches (due to the parasites) I've been in the treatment going on week three and most if all the fish do not show anymore signs of ich except the CCB and he's doing alot better and eating well, and that's the other key is to keep them eating and yes I have been adding garlic to their food.
There is no one magic way to eradicate ich besides QT'ing and leaving your tank fishless for 6-8 weeks.
I figure the combination of the three Kich Ich, UV 36w, and Garlic is helping since I haven't lost a fish yet after using these for three weeks, and before I used these I lost 6 fish within 1.5 weeks.
I plan on weaning the tank off Kich Ich in another couple of weeks. In using the UV I haven't had any adverse effect on my corals or inverts, I have four Rose bubble tip anemone, Zoo's, LPS and even the Yuma Ricordia in my avatar in the tank and all doing well.
Still have plenty of pods and my wrasses have plenty too eat.

[scotty123]

Well, this is the day after my first dose of the Kick-Ich and so far none of the fish died overnight compared to the Greenex Monster. I'm planning on doing to recommended dosage for high infestations because my fish don't look good. In the meantime I'm going to set up a quarentine tank for any future additions and for future breakouts. I had great success at treating 'freshwater' Ich when my Oscars came down with it from one of the feeder fish. The product I used is called Rid-ich. In less than a week my fish had no visible signs of Ich. Rid-Ich isn't safe for inverts though but can be used in a quarentine tank. I might give that a shot if the Rid-Ich doesn't do the trick.

[ReefGeekster]

If you can catch the fish you can give them dips.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/dips_baths.htm

[ATJ]

Dips and baths have been shown to be generally ineffective for the treatment of "Ich". It has been reported that the parasites are so deeply imbedded in the mucus of the fish that they are protected from chemical treatments. Dips have only worked after the mucus layer has been removed (with hypersalinity, for example).

[scotty123]

Yea, the parasite embeds itself under the skin layers and the dips get to the parasites in the gills and outer layer of the skin. My whole thing is this: the parasites that get under the skin must come to the surface eventually to complete the cycle. So by doing dips(assuming that these dips effectively eradicate the parasites on the exterior of the fish) wouldn't that in conjunction with a chemical added to the water completely get rid of the parasite?

[ATJ]

Copper (which is effective on theronts and to some extent tomonts) was shown to be not effective on attached trophonts and I assume that includes those in the gills. I don't believe dips are effective for the trophonts on the gills. So basically, you have to wait for the parasites to drop off anyway.

[scotty123]

Well it's day three and tonight the two remaining fish; yellow tang, blue damsel, will be getting another dose of the Kick-Ich. Still have signs of Ich on the fins which means the gills are just as bad. I have been using some crushed garlic (one clove in zip-loc bag, beat with a hammer and mixed with formula one and two) as feedings for it's acillin value. The two fish seem to be eating healthy and are energetic as well.
The only positive side to all of this is the experience I gain from it. I know the fish aren't doing good but they seem to be a little better. I'm definitely going to be setting up a quarentine tank in the meantime and putting all the future fish or inverts in it for at least 5 weeks for signs of illness. Next time I get Ich I'm going to treat the fish in a quarentine tank with Rid-Ich. I had unparelled success with it on my freshwater fish and the manufacturer states that it is for marine fish as well, but not to use it with inverts.

[MadTownMax]

I gave it a try when a I had a tang with Ich. As far as I know Kick-Ich is a sort of irritant that causes the fish to slough-off more of a slime coat that supposedly rids them of the parasite.

My personal experience was that it seemed to work for a day or two while the sloughed-off parasites incubated into their next stage on the substrate, then in a few more days everything in the tank had Ich, I lost a harlequin tusk, an algae blenny, and a trigger, all which were healthy before the treatment.

I think the best way to treat is still to quarantine in hyposalinity, vacuuming off the bottom of the tank (where the cysts are) when doing daily water changes - HTH.

-Nick