Well, two days have passed and there is ich only on one pec fin. Have been feeding 4-5 times a day and the butterfly eats like he hasn't been fed in days. Was hoping the ich would have stayed off this fish, but it looks like the garlic is not having the general effect of keeping ich off :sad:

On the other hand, none of the other fish are affected and the butterfly seems to be gaining weight, swimming around like usual and generally doing well despite the ich.

Will continue feeding 4-5 times daily for awhile, especially in 2-3 weeks when the new batch of ich develop into the on-the-fish stage of their life cycles.

OK my Hippo Tang has had ich on and off for a month now despite optimum water conditions and undercrowding.

Just one to three spots at a time, on and off, the fish doesn't look sick at all.

I don't believe in the garlic thing because I am not an "alternative medicine" type. However I am going to try it anyway just for the hell of it.

I feed a mixture of flake, pellet, mysis, home-made frozen food, and sheets of nori. I don't have time to grind up cloves of garlic. Where is the best place to get some garlic extract/garlic juice to soak my food in?

LFS or J&L (got mine at J&L).

health food stores usually have it.

I have to agree with Bob...I've had two bad bouts of ick in the past 2.5 years and used kickick both times. Both times it worked and it didn't come back. I also know that both times it came in on newly introduced fish. I guess some things work for some people and not for others. I do know that if it happens again I'll do the same thing.

I have to say I disagree with this one. While a weakened immune system may have contributed to catching a cold or flu virus, the virus still must be present in order for you to catch it.

Why do eskimos hardly get colds? It's because it's so damn cold up there that the viruses don't normally survive. But if someone infected brings it up to them, they would definitely get sick, not because they are in the cold all the time.

Also, why do you think Wal-Mart pharmacy uses their computers to gather information on how to forecast where the flu epidemic is currently, and how fast it moves? Is it because people in the say the east are running themselves down? No, it's because the virus is spreading.

Just my 2 bits, I'll step down now :)

Absolutely correct. There was a study done some years ago on British military personnel. They were kept in freezing cold rooms wearing water soaked clothes. they did not catch colds.

But I think we are hijacking this thread.

Both factors (stress and presence of an infectious agent) are important in the spread of any communicable disease IMHO.

Ich was last seen on the pec fins of my chevron butterfly on Dec 22. This morning, I notice ich has returned to the butterfly's pec fins. The ich is large already, so I suspect it's been there at least a day or two :evil: The other three fish in this tank (120g), a blue sided fairy wrasse, a flame back dwarf angel and a green chromis have not ever shown signs of ich.

For the past 3-4 weeks, food has been PE mysis soaked with LOTS of Garlic Xtreme and Zoe. To ward off reinfection of ich, the fish have generally been fed at 8 am, 11 am, 2 pm, 4 pm and 7 pm, and sometimes more often.

Also, during the time of the over-generous feeding schedule, the butterfly has noticeably gained weight, and looks and acts to be in very good health. So, dang it, why is it getting ich while the other fish are not?

Am going to feed every two hours from now on to see if that has any effect on the ich.

Ich trouble?


http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/tt/index.htm
Try product #5 (evil laugh here)