Best Ich Treatment

Oh, so this is why we quarantine our new fish. It seems my month old Potters Angel Has brought some friends with him from Hawaii. Curiously its the Neon Gobie, the so called ich eater that has the most obvious trouble with the parasite. While I can't see it on the Angel he is scratching himself on the rocks.
I know some have had bad experiences with Ich. but what did you find worked?
I read of one treatment I was thinking of doing where you put all your fish in a quarantine tank and change 50% of the water every three days for two weeks. Cleaning the tank every time. Only adding them back to the display tank after 4 or 6 weeks, I can't remember which. Based on the life cycle of the parasite it seemed to make sense.
Any comments or suggestions?
Thanks,

Darren

Yes, although my tank is now full, next time I will quarantine.

 

I would take your fish out of the main tank, do a five minute freshwater dip, make sure the temp and pH are the same as the display tank. Then place the fish in to a large clear Rubbermaid tub (or quarantine tank) that is properly dosed with copper (remember no inverts in copper). Leave them in that tank for at least 2-4 weeks. As for the main tank leave it fallow for no less than one month. Just from experience with my own quarantine tanks do not wait to treat ick it can kill quickly. JMHO.

Hope this helps,
Dustin

 

copper is the best treatment for any external parasitic infestations for fish, but! Not good for coral reef, so it must be taken out. Garlic and marine-c can help rid of his ich and water changes would stress him less. Of course, do slow water changes.

 

Will garlic make the skimmer go crazy ?

 

So a LFS talked me into trying a "reef safe ich treatment" by Chem-Marin. They did say they didn't know if it would work. Well it didn't. I lost my Potters angel and Neon Goby. The rest of the reef is OK though.
My next question is my Clowns and 6 Line seem fine, but is the Parasite still alive in the tank? Will any new fish, after quarantine, get the ich once I add them to my tank? Or will the ich die off in the tank with only seemingly healthy fish in it?
Thanks
Darren

 

Ich will always be in your tank. I left my tank fallow for 3 months and treated all the fish with FW dips and copper and still had ich reappear when they were put back in the tank. I ended up tearing down my 120g tank and soaked all the live rock in FW for 10 min and then let it sit in a tub of SW for another 3 months and cleaned the tank out with FW and started with all new sand to finally rid the tank of ich! Moral of the story is to always QT your fish, and even this may not work because if you buy new live rock it could be harboring ich! I now FW dip and QT all my new fish for 2-3 weeks.

 

As far as I know, no. Garlic wont.

To add to the discussion, introducing a sterilizer will diminish the ich count in the aquarium. They will still linger but eventually will be killed by the UV. Introducing cleaner wrasses and gobies can also help.

 

The problem with cleaner fish is that they will also become infected with ich. I've been that route before. Uv sterilizers will help control the ich but not eradicate it. I did literature search on this when I had my out break. All the evidence based information I have found on this shows that Uv's will just help cut down on the total number of ich parasites.

 

all specks are not ich where these fish ever seen laying on their side on the bottom of the Aquarium, Or trying to get air by attempting to breathe at the surface. Or swimming up and down in a corner or just hanging infront of a power head or any high water flow area in the tank ?

 

My opinion is that you remove all the fish from your tank for a minimum of 4 weeks. And I would like to illustrate the use of minimum. I would also not waste any money on buying some chemical treatment from a store other than some cupramine or perhapas malachite green or another effective ich treatment. Keep it simple, get the fish out and into a quarentine and treat there while your main tank stays completely fishless for 4 weeks. Do not treat your reef with any chemicals. The use of UV would help some but it is not an effective treatment, its more of a risk reducer and/or band-aid IMHO.

Best wishes.