Royal Gramma has Ich

I'm new to this hobby so I have no idea what to do. I woke up this morning and theres like five little white spots on his face and tail. I just got him do I take him back to the pet store or what? I have been feeding with marine pellets enhanced with garlic, I thought this was supposed to help? I think that with Ich if one fish has it, the whole tank has it, correct? I'm so scared how do I treat this? Keeping in mind that I have no quarantine tank available

 

Note: Tank also contains one firefish and one or two hermit crabs. Would a cleaner shrimp help at all?

 

Marine Ich is not a death sentence. If you do a search in the forum you will find many threads with great advise. If the fish are still eating then keep then some people recommend soaking their food in a garlic supplement to help boost their immune system. As long as they are eating I wouldn't get too concerned yet. You could move them to QT and treat them but the added stress of the move may make things worse.

Start with a search and do some reading.

 

They are still eating vigorously, so I guess that's a good sign? Occasionally my firefish will spit some food out and then eat it again. As mentioned before I have no access to QT tank... So basically for now I just keep an eye on them?

 

Keep an eye on them, and I like to use some selcon to soak their food in. Eating is a good sign.

 

garlic will not affect ich, it can enhance the food to increase eating. At this point with no qt, you want to reduce stress (definitely do not add any more livestock) and feed regularly (don't overfeed thinking food will affect the ich). You can just feed normally and watch it at this point.

 

Do not add anything else to the tank for 2 or 3 weeks at least.
Monitor your water chemistry for new tank syndrome.

Moved to--- Fish Disease.

 

Thanks you guys

 

So one day later, I see absolutely no sign of the Ich. He is not rubbing against the rock or anything. I don't know whether to be excited or suspicious...

 

Marine Ich is only visible to the naked eye for 3-7 days. After that the parasite drops off into the substrate as another stage to the parasites life cycle.

The fish made it through the initial symptomatic stage which is good, the fish will be more resistant to the parasite the second time around if environmental conditions are right.

Your tank and fish are not out of the woods yet, and I would not stock the tank with anything but corals for awhile.