ICH UGH I am so bummed...
 

I have a beautiful blue tang and singapore angel both are COVERED in ICH I treated them with quick ich, turned up the temp, dropped the salinity gradually to .019 was at .024, took carbon out of filter, did a 15% water change tonight, started feeding with garlic. Picked up a garlic clove cut a chunk off one of the cloves and mashed it and soaked some mysis's and dried food in it for about 10-20 mins. They devoured it. I am so worried about the rest of my fish getting this and losing the ones that have it bad now. so far knock on wood they are eating swimming, just covered in the nasty lil ich things. UHG I hate this helpless feeling of not being able to do anything. IS there ANYTHING else I can do to help this clear up so I don't loose anymore fish? I know there is TONS of information and I have read TONS and TONS. Will my UV starilizer make the meds not work? should I unplug it or just leave it. I am picking up some seachem garlic extract tomorrow and some vitamines thanks to someone here :) And I am picking up a cleaner shrimp from someone here as well tomorrow. Anyother advice so I don't loose my babies would be great, as silly as this my sound I'm panicking and can't sleep over this. UGH and ppl say they are just fish???? please

how big is your tank ?

Get some garlic extract from the LFS. Much more powerfull than soaking in a clove I think. And Selcon. My tang has goten ich 2x since I have owned him. Feed them good, Don't do stuff that will stress them, like re aquascape, etc. and can even lessen lighting a bit for a couple days.

If they are still eating I wouldn't get too stressed just yet, mine have gone through a few bouts {usually when they get stressed}but have come back no problem. Garlic {liquid} is good and I don't think I would try to adjust water or temp to drastically as that can stress them out as well, If your water parameters are within spec's I would probably just wait and observe. If they are not eating then I would be real concerned, make sure you are giving them some Nori as well. Good luck.:biggrin:

+1 on liquid garlic & Selcon. If you get "Garlic Xtreme" liquid, just mix 2 drops with their food, i.e frozen food. Also, when you do a change of water, add a number of garlic drops in your tank ( I do approx. 14 drops for a 90 gallon). Something I found out that works really good is a pellet food named "biofish Food" by Dr. Bassleer. It has a bit of copper in it which will NOT harm your invertebres or reef. I find to give that on a regular basis to my fish helps tremendously. Get more than one cleaner shrimp. I have 3 in my 90 gallon and they all have separate "cleaning" stations which the fish can go. Good luck!

The best way to combat Ich is the following points, the more you can do the better.

1 - Raise temperature slowly to about to 80-81c
2 - Lower salinity slowly a few points (1.019-1.020).
3 - suppliment diet with garlic extract mixed with frozen. (garlic guard, selcon)
4 - products like ImmunoVital added to water
5 - Cleaner wrasse, cleaner shrimps don't touch ich
6 - useage of herbal Ich meds like Ich Attack or Rid-Ich work well too

If the Ich isn't too bad (10-20) spots, and if the fish is eating. Garlic is best choice, most will fight it off.

Ken - BWA

I agree with everything but the cleaner wrasse. My regal tang gets ich all the time and while my cleaner wrasse doesn't get all the spots off (mostly because the tang wont let him) he does pick off some of the spots. Sometimes when the regal has it my pink tail trigger get a few spots too, and within 2 days my cleaner wrasse picks all the spots of the trigger. I also feed garlic soaked foods which help. Usually the ich (if it's not to bad) goes away on it's own after 4-5 days.

I agree also but raise temp to 82 Deg both cleaner shrimp and wrasse will pick off the parasites but a neon Gobi is the best cleaner out there they eat the parasites very quick. I have also seen peppermint shrimp picking ICK off fish on occasion. herbal remedies are suspect most do nothing some help Kent RX-P seems to help with ICK. I do not use copper for treatment of anything unless it is marine velvet then copper is the only cure. you can also add garlic extreem to the water.

Bill

Hey Jenn,

Hope things go well, others are already giving great info, so I don't need to repeat things. Let me know when you want the garlic and vitamins.

Rick

i'm having kindof a similar problem i got a lionfish some time back that ended up with ich now keeping in mind the other fish i have as you will see in my signature have all been fine for a long time and still are, anyway long story short the lionfish got better and i kept treating just in case now just recently i got my harlequin tusk fish from the same place and after 3 days he is covered in ich and yet the other fish are still fine including the lionfish i would like to quarantine but don't have that option as i only have one other tank and thats a 16 gallon with my little percula clown in it all of my food is soaked in garlic and i treat my tank with reef solution , copper is not an option for me as i have a 6" peacock mantis in my sump/fuge all i can say is HELP PLEASE