Ich Delima, Please Advise!!!

Z

zjsm36

Member
Ich seems to be a very common problem. So I'll add my name to the list of the tanks effected with it.

Problem:
I have a fairly early established reef tank with many inverts and corals. Recently ordered Flame Angel Fish from online store. Shippment was fine and drip acclimated fish before adding to tank. Had Flame Angel for about 2 weeks now. Just noticed white spots on tail fin and side fins yesterday. More appeared today. Fish still seems normal, except has not eaten the food I feed my other 2 fish (Brine Shimp Flakes or Frozen Cubed Saltwater Food). Going to get Angel fish food flakes ASAP tommorow.

I am undecided on the list of options I have read about.
1) Start a QT tank, (I know I probably should have QT when I got it). I have a spare 20gal tank but do not know how to start one up or if the trauma of getting the fish out of the show tank and into the QT is worth it. If I go this route, it seems I should take the other 2 fish out and QT them as well to make it worth the effort.
2) A fresh water dip. This idea seems to work but it sounds very risky to me.
3) Buy some Ich treatment medicine, that is reef safe. I am alittle worried about how "Reef Safe" it actually is.

Please advise and thanks in advance
 
D

dionysusjg

Member
Ok... If your tank wasn't already infected with ich, it sounds like it now is. Basically you have 2 choices. Nurse your fish through the ich infection, which may or may not be successful, and then have your fish living in a system which contains ich (you're likely to have 'flair-ups' from time to time) or....

take all 3 fish out of your system and treat them in a HT with copper or hyposalitiy (see lee's stickies on the subject) and leave your display tank 'fallow' (fish-less) for 8 weeks. This will ensure both the fish and tank are 'ich-free'. Then you should start using a quarantine tank (once again see lees docs) to prevent re-infection in the future.

good luck
 
DrHank

DrHank

Well-Known Member
Option 1 is the only effective way to eradicate ICK. Figure on leaving your display fallow for 6 weeks.
 
barbianj

barbianj

Member
+1 for Dr. Hank. You need to have an already cycled tank, or filter media, otherwise you will need to do frequent water changes to keep the ammonia level down. IMO, this causes more stress and complications to already sick fish.
 
Z

zjsm36

Member
Thanks for all the responses. The ich seems to have rapidly decreased on the fish. I got some frozen angel fish cubes and added garlic to them. The fish is now eating a big meal instead of ONLY grazing on the live rock.

Even before I added the food, which was the day after I did the original post. The Ich had decreased dramatically.

Is it irresponsible for me to skip the QT, even though the Ich is already almost all gone?
 
L

leebca

Well-Known Member
I assume you think it's gone because you don't see spots? If that is the case, then you don't fully understand the life of the parasite (and haven't read the references provided to you by Icstorc). There are no short cuts to the cure. The fish are still sick unless I have missed the part where you have given them a hyposaline treatment or a copper cure, or mis-diagnosed and this isn't Marine Ich.

So, if you haven't treated the sick fish, then that is what I'd call irresponsible. :)
 
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