The dreaded ich - What to do

We bought a fish last weekend and added it.. It is a flame fin tang. When we put it in the tank it has stayed hidden for last 5 days.. We have been patiently waiting for it to start showing itself. It did today just long enough for us to see it has a what appears to be ich.. I have no quarantine tank and 6 other fish and its Friday night.. What do I do??

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/diseases/ich-101-noob-noob-128391.html

read that!

Is it eating? Do you have nori/seaweed, selcon, garlic? If so get it eating selcon and garlic laced nori.

If not, get those things tomorrow. You can always set up a quick QT with a tote or bucket if you have to pull it to medicate. But that should be a last resort.

 

Its not eating and yes I have nori.. I also have garlic powder concentrate for marine fish...

Do I leave it in the tank with the others for now? I can do the QT in a bucket as you stated if needed. We are looking very close at the others and it appears a couple others may have some small specs ... I amheading to the site you posted to read..

 

Try the garlic laced Nori and hope he gets a whiff of that. Pulling a fish is always a last resort, but if he won't eat for a bit, or is injuring himself scratching, may be time to get treated.

 

Personally I would remove the sick fish asap. No matter what it has, whether it is fungus parasite etc there is a chance it will infect the other fish in the tank. I would pull it immediately and place it in a hospital tank and or bucket, and treat it. It may or may not live however you may be able to prevent it from infecting of infesting your display tank. I think it not eating right now is the least of your worries. And for future reference you should always quarentine your new fish before placeing in your tank. Quarentine for at least a month to ensure it is healthy and free of fungus, parasites and other nasties.

 

I also always do a nice 2 or 3 minute freshwater dip before i place my new fish into my quarentine tank. This dip often removes the little nasty parasites.

 

It will do absolutely no good to remove the fish at this point. If it has been in the tank for at least five days and is showing spots the tank is already infected. If you are going to remove the fish you will need to remove them all.

 

Yes, please don't. Removing a tang would be a nightmare, you'd have to tear down the rockwork and chase after him, stressing every fish in the tank. Don't worry about the other inhabitants, a healthy fish can fight off ich. Just keep params stable and stay cool.

 

My attitude towards ich now is if they are eating, they will usually be fine. Watch your params and don't panic.

 

Have you all been thru this before? Yet another thread on ich, with many alternatives.

NOt all fish are as susceptable to ich. Some of mine never even got it, while some get sick and die fast, in the same tank.
this was many, many months ago for me however.

If it's ich, of another disease, your tank has it now as well.
If you don't have inverts, use copper.
The garlic thing may help them eat, and that's good, however it won't kill anything.

For me, one thing I think that really helped my DT rid of the ich eventually, is use a moderately powerful UV filter.-
After loosing several fish, I took out my large, Royal Blue Tang (hippo tang), and put him in copper in a bucket with an airstone/foam filter, almost lost him, but he's as healthy as can be now. **Please see vid in my sig.

So I say take out the visibly sick ones, copper them, and do something to rid the tank, treatment, UV, going fallow, etc.

Good luck