# help! got a case of ich!!!



## jamie1985 (Oct 11, 2012)

Hey everyone,

Just noticed today that some of my fish have ich in my tank! firstbtime dealing with this and the fish store is closed now..what should/can i do? How do i get rid of this? What are he best treatments? Can i do anything to help now?

Thanks


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## violet (Jun 29, 2006)

Try mixing the food with fresh garlic that will help their immune system.


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## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

do for now what Violet says, since there is no way to thread the fish in the DT tank.
you will kill corals and shrimps, snails, etc when using copper.

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## thmh (Mar 17, 2011)

soak your free in garlic extra and do water changes


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## jamie1985 (Oct 11, 2012)

Ok thanks....which method to cure is best to use? I read the copper treatment is really hard on the fish? What about hyposalinity? I dont have a QT so i will have to get one...when i set it up wont it go through a nitrogen cycle anr be harmful to the fish also?


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## thmh (Mar 17, 2011)

jamie1985 said:


> Ok thanks....which method to cure is best to use? I read the copper treatment is really hard on the fish? What about hyposalinity? I dont have a QT so i will have to get one...when i set it up wont it go through a nitrogen cycle anr be harmful to the fish also?


no because your QT tank will use your tank water.


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## zk4444 (Mar 8, 2012)

jamie1985 said:


> Hey everyone,
> 
> Just noticed today that some of my fish have ich in my tank! firstbtime dealing with this and the fish store is closed now..*what should/can i do? How do i get rid of this? What are he best treatments?* Can i do anything to help now?
> 
> Thanks


Read this article and bookmark it for future reference: Marine Ich --Things begin to make sense once you understand their life cycle .










.


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## jamie1985 (Oct 11, 2012)

Hey thanks for the info...so its only my tang that has it all over her body and the only other fish that has a little bit on their fins only is my dottyback...both of my clowns and my dwarf flame angel do not have any on them....im pretty sure the flame angel is stressing others out so im going to seperate him...as for the rest i have heard that if you remove the stressor and give them a vitamin enriched diet the ich will disappear on its own is this true?...to be honest it kind of makes sense but there are soooo many conflicting opinions out there....any advice?


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## nate (Oct 14, 2011)

im not sure if this helps at all but i had signs of ich on my 65gallon but i put a large uv sterilizer on and fed my fish garlic enriched food. still no signs of ich months later. thats not to say there is no ich in my tank atm but its not affecting anything .

edit. also did regular water changes


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## TypeZERO (Jul 20, 2007)

Dealing with ich in reef tank gets iffy, increasing temp to speed up the ich cycle makes your corals unhappy, decreasing salinity to kill the ich also makes the corals unhappy. Fishing the fish out with the rockwork that reef tanks have stresses out the fish further. 
Just keep water clean with water changes, and I believe feeding a varied diet, now soaking them in garlic will help increase the fishes immune system and help they fight off the parasite themselves.


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## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

Water quality, and eating. The fish will look after itself.

Ich is a stress induced ailment. I would look at your tank, and see what has changed. 

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## Dax (Sep 29, 2010)

First of all you have a little bit of time so no need to panic. You'll notice the spots disappear and then after a few days appear again. This can go on for a couple of cycles and if your fish are not healthy enough to fight it, goodby Charlie. You can give your fish one cycle and see but after that I suggest getting them out right away. The easiest and fastest method is copper and is pretty much guaranteed to work. Hypo is difficult and unless you have the patience I don't recommend it. As far as being hard on the fish, if they survive and are Ich free after a couple of weeks, what more do you want?

Remember, you need to keep the DT fallow (no fish) for 8 weeks to make sure the Ich parasites die off. You can put the fish back after 4 but you will be taking a chance.


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## jamie1985 (Oct 11, 2012)

So its not good news....despite my efforts of garlic and pristine water conditions i have lost all but one of my fish. My blue tang jumped in the filter area, and my dottyback, dwarf flame angel, and two clowns are gone  my only lone survivor so far is my cleaner wrasse who i put in about 4 days ago to try and help with the ich situation....looks like its back to square one...any suggestions on what i should do now? 

Thanks


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## nate (Oct 14, 2011)

marine velvet? sounds pretty aggressive....


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## jamie1985 (Oct 11, 2012)

How would i distinguish marine velvet from ich? Everything i read on it sounds like it is very similar no? If it is marine velvet do i let the tank fallow for 8 weeks like is recommended for ich so the tank will be parasite-free?


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## Shoryureppa (Jul 1, 2011)

I also learned this the hard way. I lost my flame wrasse hare, now down to two. *Correct me if I am wrong here;* The ich will always be there, at least from what I understand it, unless you follow the fallow advice. THis is where I think QT is important, not only from preventing ich but also to get the fish healthy to fight off the ich when you do put it in the display. My flame wrasse harem was eating greedily when it had ich. Had I QT'd them, they would have been healthy enough to fight the ich that was in the DT. I have a leopard wrasse now that is known for being sensitive but was healthy when I intor'd it to the dt. No ich.


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## jamie1985 (Oct 11, 2012)

Hey thanks for the reply! Yes as i understand it the ich has a lifecycle that well expires within the 8 week fallow period provided there is no host fish in the tank. I dont know much about marine velvet and how it compares though. I noticed granular bumps about the size of a grain of salt on the tang at the beginning and they held on for a few days before it jumped in the filter area...other than that the other fish had very small white dots which were not raised (some just on fins and others on their whole bodys) i was hammering the garlic in them and they seemed to get a little better. I saw the cleaner shrimp picking things off of them as well. Then without warning bam i wake up one morning and the dottyback and dwarf flame angel were dead. Then the next morning both clowns were dead...it was weird because the clowns seemed ok and as i understand they are fairly hardy fish...i have since bought a QT and will definitely use it for new additions in the future, however i just want to know where i should go with my tank in the state its in now. Water params are perfect and my only fish the cleaner wrasse is still in there and seems to be doing fine.

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## andco (Aug 15, 2011)

Sorry for all your loss, it is one of those odd things that can happen to even the best of situations. I have tried the copper treatment as well as the time treatment. Copper is never the way to go unless it is a FOWLR. 

A healthy tank can still have the ich parasites present, just in controlled numbers and typically the fishes have strong enough immune systems. 

if you are down to only a couple small fish left, I would set up a trap for them, once they are out, to avoid too much stress, set up a 10 gallon tank with decent filtration ..also use the tank water to fill the 10 gallon. 

Do a small dose copper treatment and monitor the copper levels. As for the main tank..once the fish are out of there, use a sharpie and put the date you removed the fish, then below it, write the date 10 weeks after. This will give the ich plenty of time to die off ..do not go to close to the 8 week mark ..that 2 extra weeks will save you lots of headache. 

The only positive about this, is that it won't affect any corals / inverts ..so your tank can continue to flourish without the fish.

The fish should be on copper for 4 weeks max .. then the rest of the time on pure saltwater... glass bottom too, so you can easily syphon the waste etc.


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