Have ICH looky here!!!!!

[stump1998]

Is it true that the ick strain dies out of you tank if you don't add anything new to the tank for a year? I don't know how someone could go a year without adding something new. I am lucky to make it 3 months.

[jenglish]

Originally Posted by stump1998

Is it true that the ick strain dies out of you tank if you don't add anything new to the tank for a year? I don't know how someone could go a year without adding something new. I am lucky to make it 3 months.

This was published by Dr. Burgess IIRC but it has not been replicated. So maybe

[Aquarist007]

Originally Posted by stump1998

Is it true that the ick strain dies out of you tank if you don't add anything new to the tank for a year? I don't know how someone could go a year without adding something new. I am lucky to make it 3 months.

the minute you add a fish then you could be adding it back to the system

[N Awe]

I have a hippo Tang that got ich. I had no signs of ich for the past year but recently added a LTA and last week I notice the Tang hiding in the rocks during the day and other unusually activities. I am setting up a 120 gallon tank and once that is ready I was going to transfer all the fish to it and treat all of them at once. Since no other fish show any signs of ich I wanted to get the Tang healthy right away. I decided on the hyposalinity method. I am still getting everything ready to start the treatment. Here is my question. The Tang is no longer showing any signs of ich. I understand just because the white spots disappear the fish still has ich. But she is now swimming fine, eating and not longer acting unusual. Can a healthy fish that gets ich get better on their own? I sill plan on treating all the fish but it will probably be a couple of months before I am ready.

Thanks

Randy

[nicks387]

A healthy fish that gets ich can absolutely get better on its own. I have witnessed it many times over the years, In fact I think most of the stuff you hear about ich is speculation and we realy dont know as much as we think we do about ich.

[nicks387]

I wouldn't treat a fish for ich unless it was the last straw and the fish was declining fast, not eating and such. Treatment and QT can add unnecessary stress and make the ich worse, I would let the fish try and beat it on its own till it stops eating. If it stops eating you must treat the fish. I find that if you do a water change and improve your water quality it improves the fishes chances of beating it on its own. This whole thing about treating the whole tank because it will spread is nonsense. If it spreads its only due to other factors like weak fish due to stress and poor water quality. If you have good water quality and healthy fish it wont spread.

[Aquarist007]

I agree with Nick however to use the same good advice in this case I would want to question the tang in this case got ich after so long. You could also say that the fish wa in good health and that's why it shook off the ich so quick.

However IMO it is worth mentioning:
That brings the health and immunity into question of that fish-----are you feeding it a varied diet, giving it lots of greens to munch on all day---rommaine, spinach, nori etc etc
Are you using a garlic soaked food and adding VitaC to your system.
Are you soaking frozen food in fish oil and or feeding chopped up whole fish(including the guts which are loaded with oils)
These are some of the things we do to build up the immunity systems in our fish
If you are already doing them ---great
Just thought I would mention it for other reefers tuning in to this threaed

[Aquarist007]

Originally Posted by stump1998

Is it true that the ick strain dies out of you tank if you don't add anything new to the tank for a year? I don't know how someone could go a year without adding something new. I am lucky to make it 3 months.

I am beginning to believe that ich never dies out entirely. Stress a fish out, put expose a sick fish to your tank and it is possible for them still to get ich.
Recent case of mine
I removed a 6 inch healthy pork fish from a clients tank--just too small for it.
I kept the porkfish in a 110 gal long for a month before I sold the tank. I removed the pork fish and put it into a 39gal tank of mine. In each case the live rock was in my system for 2 or 3 years. No sign of ich in it either.
At 12 midnight I noticed signs of ich on the pork fish--so I started to bring down the salinity---by morning it was dead.
That fish had no visible signs of ich in either the original tank or mine in 2 years.
In a discussion on here I learned that ich can stay dormant on the gills of the fish for years.
So how do you deal with that---keep the fish health through nutrition

[dupont603]

Here is how i have beaten ich in my 215g tank.I tore apart my tank once to quarentine for ich.then i met a guy at my lfs that told me not to bother taking a fish out of your tank for ich unless they stop eating.If you have a fish with ich increase your normal feedings and put garlic in there food.I put garlic in the nori 3 times a week.A fish with garlic in its system is good.Garlic acts as a defense shield against the ich,and the ich cannot find the fish.So let's start over.I see one of my fish has ich so i increase feedings to keep up the strength of the fish,then i add garlic to there food.Usually within 2 days i see no more ich.

[Blownsvt]

how exactly do you add garlic to their food? as example i feed frozen mysis shrimp cubes to my fish. I usually lust cut the cubes in half and drop one piece in on each side of the tank. When it thaws it all breaks down etc. is is possible to soak a frozen food like that in garlic with any effect?

[jason2459]

I've always thawed my frozen food in tank water then add in some garlic juices and put in refrigerator. Let that soak over night and feed the next day.

[Aquarist007]

Originally Posted by Blownsvt

how exactly do you add garlic to their food? as example i feed frozen mysis shrimp cubes to my fish. I usually lust cut the cubes in half and drop one piece in on each side of the tank. When it thaws it all breaks down etc. is is possible to soak a frozen food like that in garlic with any effect?

Jason has it right---you can soak any food including flake food in a garlic product such as Garlic Guard.

[Sisterlimonpot]

I've grown to love the smell of the potent garlic extract that I add to the fish food.

[shellzreef]

so my meds say to run for one week then do a water change....today is the day, its been a week. but as of last night i could still see white spots. so should i do the w/c or should i keep running meds for a few days???
want to run for three days after i see spots, right?
when do I do the w/c after i dont see it at all or after the week treatment??

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by shellzreef

so my meds say to run for one week then do a water change....today is the day, its been a week. but as of last night i could still see white spots. so should i do the w/c or should i keep running meds for a few days???
want to run for three days after i see spots, right?
when do I do the w/c after i dont see it at all or after the week treatment??

What kind of medication did you use?

[shellzreef]

ich attack

[Sisterlimonpot]

Is that the organic stuff that is reef safe? I never read rave reviews about that stuff.

[jason2459]

That stuff worked great for me..... IF I was wanting to give the ich a bunch of cyano to get all nice a cozy in. That's about all it did for me.

[shellzreef]

welll....im pretty sure its may fault! I was treating with melafix and pimafix, i ran out, its expansive to treat alot of gallons with that. so i got the ich attack (which Ive used before) and always worked)
In my sump I had 50 micron poly, which im guessing was taking out the meds. I didnt realize it till two days into the treatment. i had to change the pad each day, and it is stained dark black now from the meds.
Sooo im guessing that my first days of treatment didnt do anything??
And i know i should run meds for atleast three days after seeing no spots.

so w/c today on my senveth day or run a few more days?
i have no corals

[jason2459]

According to Kordon there is not supposed to be a need for water changes between treatments and it is recommended to not do a water change according to their site.

http://www.novalek.com/kordon/ich_attack/index.htm


Good luck...

[shellzreef]

wow, your awesome! thank you! now that i just grabbed the bottle after seeing the site it says ..blah blah blah.....do at least a 20% w/c at the end of treatment.
sweet so they mean just whenever im done, not after the week.
thank you man! guess i need to actually read and not just look over the directions next time.

[Aquarist007]

Originally Posted by Sisterlimonpot

I've grown to love the smell of the potent garlic extract that I add to the fish food.

that is good to know sister---now try a weeks worth of thick skimmate

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by capn_hylinur

that is good to know sister---now try a weeks worth of thick skimmate

thick skimmate doesn't bother me but I won't go as far as to say that I love the smell like I do with the garlic.

[Aquarist007]

Originally Posted by jason2459

According to Kordon there is not supposed to be a need for water changes between treatments and it is recommended to not do a water change according to their site.

http://www.novalek.com/kordon/ich_attack/index.htm


Good luck...

probably lost in the length of this thread but one of the original concepts worth mentioning again was that there were three generally accepted methods of treatment for ich---all requiring a quarantine tank:

use of copper based medications

use of hyposalination

use of a series of complete tank water changes coinciding with the stages of ich

Having lost a fish just recently to ich in less then 12 hours I am very partial for treatment with copper based medications. The advantage here is that the copper works immediately at removing the ich from the fish. In many cases as was mine the fish died or would have died by hyposalination from the ich attacking the gills of the fish and it suffocating.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Capn that last one sounds like it can be difficult to do. Do you have any details on what to look for as far as the different stages of ich's cycle? Was it Steven Pro that discussed that?