fish needs meds

[Bruce]

yikes....huh...i wonder if its the same greenex...well i wouldnt use it now either....lol...damm and greenex was the best 2....huh thats odd...any mods know about this?

[SJR]

okay...havn't heard anything, so my plan is this. I'm setting up a hospital tank, quarantine tank if you will ( I know, should have already had one, learning as I go though) and because I can't stand to see a fish I've had for over a year suffer, am going to do what it takes to remove him and treat him, successfully I hope. I think my Flame Angel is also coming down with it...damn fish! Will have to catch him too. :mad:

[gosh7001]

I want to add my two cents on this one. I am having ich issues in my main tank after I had done quarantine. I have had them in the past as well. I have too much rock work to catch my fish so I decided I was going to dose my system and came across Ruby Reef - Kick Ich. I have had 100% success using the methods I describe below. I have over 100 inverts including shrimp and a lot of copapod growth with no disruption in my tanks bio-filter. Fish: Percs, Copperband, Hippo Tang, Pink Spotted Goby. Corals: Frogspawn, Brain, Plates, Several Types of Polyps, hammer, Bubble, Anenome, Mushrooms

OVERDOSING
The main thing you should keep in mind is thinking about the total amount of water volume when dosing. For example, if you have a 50 gallon tank, your volume will not be 50 gallons if you have recommended amounts of LS and LR in your tank. Best case scenario for if you HAVE to dose your main tank is to take 60 - 70% of the total volume of your main tank without taking your sump into account and dose on that amount. Overdosing will kill everything so when in doubt use this method. In this case 30-35 gallons is what you should dose on. During the 15 day period of these do-sings you must turn off you skimmer as well as it will start overflowing. This will stop after your first water change after the treatment. Just make sure you are checking your water every day.

Second thing I will add is that you want to create as stress free an environment as you can. Most fish will die from stress before the ICH cycle is complete due to added stress from capture or other abnormal activities. Just feed your fish the same way. Do not change your scheduled feedings. Higher Salinity levels also cause stress so lowering your salinity slowly to 1.20 for a couple of weeks will not kill your corals and it will help to ease the stress on your fish. Some people say to raise the temp to make the ICH cycle run its course faster. True - but this also causes unnecessary stress on your fish as well with temp change. Plus if you are dosing with Kick Ich than you should not see white spots after the first couple of doses.

Finally - ICH to fish is kinda like the measles for humans. Once a fish has gotten over the strand of ICH in your tank, it is highly unlikely that they will get the same strand again. The only way this might occur is introducing new fish that are carrying a different strand into your system without quarantine. You should use a Quarantine whenever possible as I hate dosing my main system, but if you have to, try what I have done.

I have read alot about how greenex is dangerous and a lot of people have lost their tank inhabitants to it so I would steer far away from it - I would steer far away from any med dosing in the main tank to begin with but that is for another thread.

[SJR]

Thank you soooo much, I really appreciate your input. I was beginning to feel ignored. I only wish I could have saved my casualties, unfortunately it did not look good to begin with but I have learned a very valuable lesson. I will be more careful and thank you again for your knowledge and advice. It will be followed and I will keep
the Kick Ick in my "medicine closet". Your right though, I think the stress alone in catching my fish was pretty intense, more so than the disease. Had I known about the Kick Ick, they may still be alive, who knows. Thanks again!