Looks Like Ich !!!!!

[MoneyPit]

It appears that my (baby) blue hippo tang may have come down with a case of ich. My yellow tail damsel has been picking on the tang since I put him in 2 and a half weeks ago, but the tang didn't really seem to care. They are about the same size. I went out of town this past Sunday, came back today(Thursday) and the tang was covered in white spots. He keeps trying to rub up against the rocks and powerheads I could not get a pic today, but it looks like the pic's when I do a Yahoo search on ich. I read that I will have to remove all of my fish for at least a month. Put them in a QT tank and start treatment. I have read a few different things. How do you think I should treat this ? How can I be sure it's ich ?

 

[Reefhabit]

Sorry but I doubt the poor little guy is going to make it. Baby blue hippo tangs don't do well once they get ich. Try to make sure the little guy gets enough to eat cuz they start losing weight fast once they get ich.

 

[MoneyPit]

Well that will suck. What should I do about the other fish I have ? Do they still need to be treated ?

 

[KLR]

If you can catch the tang do a freshwater dip! It works really well!

Goodluck

 

[MoneyPit]

I am going to have to empty my tank to catch any of my fish. Man this sucks.

 

[_Alex_]

marine grade no ick worked well for my fish when i had it.. i also tried the skunk cleaners and they worked vrey well and saved a couple of my fish but they are hit and miss freshwater dips can be even more stressful on them. if your gona do it make sure water temp and dkh/ph are the same as your main tank

 

[hwntunda]

NO ICH works great, and you can also lower the tempertature of your tank. ich breakouts occur more often @ warmer temps.

 

[reef*freak]

kordon formalin*3 worked for me i did a 50min dip

 

[MoneyPit]

Thanks for all the help. I need to read up on a couple of these and order one asap.

 

[jestr]

safest way is cleaners like skunks

 

[MoneyPit]

safest way is cleaners like skunks

Do ya think my 4" niger trigger will play nice with one of those

 

[Paul B]

The fish needs copper and he needs it now. And if you can get quinicrine hydrocloride which is a malaria medication you could use that with the copper, that will clear the fish in about a day. If the fish is not breathing hard it does not have ich but many paracites respond to copper.
Freshwater and cleaner fish and shrimp will do nothing to cure ick. If it is ich and you can see very tiny spots all over the fins, it means the gills are loaded with paracites. It is the paracites in the gills that kill the fish, not the ones you see on the fins. They multiply so much that the fish can no longer extract oxygen from the water. That is why they breath fast.
Unfortunately the fish may have too many paracites and his gills may already be too far damaged.

 

[_Alex_]

I have to disagree that cleaner shrimp dont help. when it broke out in my tank, i put in 2 skunk cleaner shrimp, within a hour my chromis had them both cleaning his gills and inside his mouth, and I could see then both pulling stuff out, all my fish that allowed the cleaners to clean them survived, I had mated clowns, one allowed cleaning it lived, other didnt get cleaned and died.

cleaners do serve a purpose, other wise they wouldnt be there

Not sure on the trigger, but I have seen them use the cleaners, but could go either way

 

[Mantis]

Mix Garlic juice/extract into your food, it slowly helps. It will boost their immune system... But you will be able to see the difference the first day.

I used the Garlic that we eat and you can buy it a the grocery store. Minced garlic. Something similar to this will work... Some tangs will even eat the whole garlic chunk.
Spice World Minced Garlic 48oz 1.36kg $6.83USD - Spice Place

Take a piece of frozen brine and mix it with garlic juice only. No water, the juice will melt the brine. It might stink up your house like garlic. But it does work. Good Luck.

 

[Paul B]

I have to disagree that cleaner shrimp dont help.

I also have to disagree that you disagree, if that makes any sense :wink:
I know a lot of people use cleaner shrimp to control ich and there is nothing wrong with the concept. Cleaner fish and shrimp eat paracites. The problem with it is that the paracites you can see on the fish is just a tiny fraction of paracites that are in the tank. Also the paracites embedded inside the gills of a small fish are not reachable to those cleaners.
They won't hurt but they will not cure a fish.
The truth is that in many cases, the paracites leave on their own or they just can't infect fish any more and that is the reason for so many cures. That is also why garlic "works".
Many fish become immune to the paracite as mine are. I do not quarantine and I add fish all the time even from the sea along with NSW, in my almost 40 year old reef I have not seen a paracite of any type in over 25 years.
But cleaner fish and shrimp will not hurt, I like them because they are interesting and if you believe they will cure a fish of ich, by all means use them. :angel:

 

[_Alex_]

Never said cure, simply said to help remove/eat them off the fish and there gills.

 

[Sea MunnKey]

As much as I hate to say this .... yellow tail damsel are every bit nasty & Evil!!

Paul

 

[MoneyPit]

Ok, so here's my list of possible cures/helpers:

Freshwater dip (Tupperware)
No Ich (In Tank)
Kordon Formalin 3 (In Tank)
Cleaner Shrimp (In Tank)
Copper and Quinicrine Hydrocloride (QT Tank)
Garlic(In Tank)

Thanks everybody, I'll do what I can.....

 

[MoneyPit]

Well I have been feeding small amounts fresh garlic mash with food every other day. It appears to be helping so far, I just got my shipment of NO ICH in, should I still dose it ?

 

[beaner_12]

what you should do is use a ich treatment that is reef safe, they sale them at petco and petsmart its called rid ich. the good thing about this medication is that its reef safe. it wont kill anything in your tank. i have used it before. another good thing about it is that you can overdose your tank with no problems on your reef system or your cycle. just make sure you turn off your protein skimmer. also your water temperature raise it to 80. and your salinity to .020. do a water change after three days and continue medication until needed. also do a freshwater dip, makesure that the water is in the same temp. dont worry on the ph level. i did this a month ago and it worked well. have the fish in the fresh water for about a minute. if you see there too agitated take them out. you will see the white spots falling from the fish so make sure you dont get them with your net. this should work. good luck.