Clownfish Ick after quarentine

So I picked up 2 black percs a few weeks ago. Theyve been in quarantine since then and ive been treating them for Ick even though they showed no signs. I recently added them to my tank after acclimating them. The next morning, One of them has a slight case of Ick. I immediately placed them back in quarantine and now treating them again.

Is it me or is the quarantine process a sham? Wouldnt me treating and watching them for so long prevent this from happening. They were perfectly fine before I placed them in the DT. CAn someone give some insight on what should be done.

 

here is a good article on ich... I also read that cleaner shrimp will help pick the ich off the fish.. I am a newbi so perhaps the veterans can be of better help?
Treating Saltwater "Ich"

 

I was told they cant remove ich since its under their slime coating. On this site. Was also told smaller fish like clowns wont allow the shrimp to clean them.

 

Why would you medicate fish for ich if they did not have it?
What are your params? How did you acclimate them? Medicating for ich, specially on a clownfish, is a last case scenario when all other hope is gone. Ich is present in all systems, always. Only if a fish gets distressed enough from other sources does it succumb to ich. The best way to think of ich is it is much like the coomon cold or flu for us, just the fish's version. The best preventative and cure is quality water conditions and a healthy diet.

 

Ich goes through a life cycle. Maybe the stress of water change brought it out? Maybe it was already in your main tank and attached to your clowns. I highly recommend adding garlic to their food. I can tell a difference in my fish. I make sure at least two feeding a week are soaked in 100% garlic juice (from grocery store) and they eat it up, parasites have dissappeared and it's been years since I've had any parasite trouble.

I just switched to another tank, and adding new fish, I began soaking food immediatly to help them build up resistance to them. I guarentee it helped my fish !!

 

Would prepared flake with garlic be the same as soaking? Do you (if you use) soak brine or mysis in the garlic as well? Didn't realize garlic was such a good immune booster for fish. I know its good for you heart

 

Thanks so much for the positive feed back. I rarely ask questions on these forums since I see so many people get attacked for asking simple questions.

Ill keep them in quarantine for a few more days whilst feeding them garlic and then move them back to the dt.

 

Quarantine isn't a sham. What most likely happened is that whatever might have happened to them in the quarantine, especially if you medicated w/o signs, could have actually weakened the fish and made them more susceptible to the parasite. During quarantine, you should observe, and only medicate if you see clear signs of an infection. Besides keeping the specific gravity low during the quarantine, you really shouldn't medicate unless you know for a fact the fish have something. Otherwise you could do more damage than good. I've seen this happen time and time again when ppl quarantine fish and dose the entire quarantine tank with something like copper or formalin and not keep track of the water quality. ammonia and nitrites spike, there is a ph decrease, but the fish seem fine and dandy due to the ph drop until the fish are placed in the main tank and everything comes and bites the owner in the butt.

 

actually my brother's small maroons was in the cleaner shrimp's cave pretty much asking to be cleaned from the ich, but the shrimp refused

 

I hope they showed that cleaner shrimp who's boss!