Malachite green
 

Hi all, my baby regal tang has developed ich (gasp). I'm currently waiting for him to swm into an easy to scoop position so I can give him a dip in malachite green. He's very active still, and eating like a pig.

My questions are:

How much malachite green do I use for say, 5 cups of water? I thought I'd check here if anyone mixes theirs with less or more than they recommend.

Second, I'd like to quarantine him but my quarantine tank is full of angry damsels right now so thats out of the question. My concern is that the malachite green left on the skin and lungs of my tang may be detrimental to the life (mainly the shrimp) in my main tank. Is it okay to just dip the tang, them put him directly back into the main tank?

Thanks!

i dont think matchlite is a good way to deal with the problem thier is a good chance youl od and kill him tangs dont cope with matchlite well,if hes really covered i might help him long enough for a real treatment to start working but it might just stress him out and make it worse i would recomend copper but you need to have a qt tank you can devote only to fish,buying a 67g qt tank to use copper was the best thing i have done to prevent serious problems in any of my main tanks.

I think you should do a lot more reading/reasearch on Ich. There is lots of info and be prepared to read lots. IMO do not use mactchlite green.
Sorry I can not just give you a simple answer, they are many opinions on how to treat it and prevent it.

My advive now would be make sure your water parameters are as pristine as possible and add some sort of garlic or garlic extract to the food you are feeding the fish.

Good luck, Ich sucks but is rather common and a frustrating part of the hobby.

Dave

My best advice on MG ... drop it in a plastic bag and take it to the fire department for disposal as hazardous waste. It is pretty well established that this chemical is bad for you (never mind your fish). Bad for your skin, lungs, and possibly a carcinogen. There must be better ways to deal with Ich.

Okay, well can anyone recommend something else? My water parameters are great, I'm feeding garlic daily and I have 2 cleaner shrimp. All my fish are fed mysis, Prime Reef flake, and Nori on a daily basis. I can't see what else I can do that would be preventitive.

My tang is absolutely covered in ich, and what I've been doing hasn't helped at all. Has anyone had luck with Malachite Green, or any other treatment? Any input would be appreciated, I don't want to lose my tang.

Thanks

Have you tried a freshwater dip? That should get a bunch of them off.

I guess you didn't like my suggestion of reading some info.
So I would suggest hyposalinity.
But you'll need some good info, so here it is:

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/tr...marineich.html

What size is your tank, what else is in the tank. How long and how small is the tang.

Dave

Hi Monza, yes I agree that reading up on ich is a really good idea, and I've read quite a bit on it. Problem is that everyone has different ideas on what should and shouldnt be done to treat it, and much of the time their info isn't necessarily species-specific. (Thank you for the link though, I've read it)

I just thought I'd ask people who have actually been in my place what works, from personal experience...'tis why this site is so helpful.

Thanks everyone for your input, much appreciated. [/img]

using hypo in a tank with inverts is not possible and it will kill any live rock you have in thier, i used the hypo treatment for the first case of ich i ever got and it got rid of the ich but caused a big bacterial infection wich killed more fish than the ich the nitrates flew through the roof when the rock died so 2 buckets of salt later and a refractometer i desided next time it would be copper,wich i now have a 67g qt that i use copper in before any fish go in with any others

Are you positive that it is ich? Velvet can look a lot like ich and is much more deadly. Are your fish gasping at all? If not then it is ich. Paraguard by seachem is a good choice for ich. You will need to use a qt tank however. I have made the giant mistake of not qting my fish and I will never introduce another fish into my tanks without qt. Anthony Calfo said it best "to not use a quarantine tank is like playing russian roulette, everyone loses in the end some just get to play longer than others." That is probably the truest statement I have ever heard in my experience as an aquarist.