Yay, ich.

[JTrigger]

So after I returned from a week away down south, I found a few fish ridden with ich, namely my tang, royal gramma, 1 chromis, pair o clowns... and flame angel... which is most of em.. LoL... and most of these passed away since I got back... any suggestions for treatment? I don't have a q-tank setup at the moment... had one a while back, but took it down as it was taking up space in my tightly cramped apt..

JT

[Aquattro]

garlic. And make sure whatever stressed them is gone. And more garlic.

[Namscam]

so what??just mince up regular garlic and put it in tank??cuz i got ich or something like it on my tang too...I ve been trying greenex but it doesnt seem to work and got worst

[EmilyB]

You can mix the powered kyolic garlic you can get at health food stores into their food, or rub a cut clove on their nori.

[aussiefishy]

i did the kick ich thing and it work for me... althought i need to repeat the cycle... and it is not completely reef safe. shrimps and soft corals are very sensitive to this stuff... but although i loss 2 cleaner shrimp and a finger, i rid ick... that is the most impostant thing

cheers

[TANGOMAN]

Thanks to Deb's advice some time ago, I too have found garlic as the best treatment. I had tried that "kick-ich" a while back and achieved nothing beneficial other than the fact that I did not lose any of my fingers... .
I purchase garlic "gel tabs" and cut them open. It works for me and everything smells great !
I wish ya' luck with treatment. Keep the nutrition and water quality optimal and aquarium disturbances minimal, and hopefully they can "ride it out".

[monza]

I just crush a glove of garlic and soak in water with the food for an hour or so, remove garlic and feed.

Dave

[pocilipora]

I never had luck with garlic. Quarantine and medication is the only sure way to go. Some have claimed garlic to work, but I think on a tank where your loosing a few fish because of ick in a short period of time, you should act quickly. Quarantine them if you can. If you want Ive got a partial bottle of "Garlic Etreme" you can have.

[chwkreefer]

I have found that garlic can be quite helpful in the early onset of ich. But if there is quite an infestation and/or the fish aren't eating, you will have to catch the fish,quarantine and start dosing copper.

Kich Ich basically just irritates the fish into producing slime, which is supposed to slough off the parasite. Apparently it works for some but I think the overall consensus is that it isn't the miracle cure that reefers want. Some fish just don't produce a lot of slime. It's pretty expensive and is a 50/50 chance of success at best.

Garlic is great in boosting immunity, but if your fish is covered in ich, garlic isn't your best bet. There are articles on line that debate whether the allicin in garlic is destroyed in the gut of the fish (digestion) and therefore isn't as great as some are boasting. It certainly is worth feeding either way.

Another thing you can try is to get some metronizadole (pet store or vet, cheaper at the vet) and mix it with some fish flake food. You can dissolve a quarter tablet in warm water and add some flake food to it and then feed your fish. Or you can mix it with some homemade frozen food. The small amounts of the drug you add to your tank will pose no problem on the reef inhabitants. Do a search on the net and you'll get more info on metronizadole.

Overall your best treatment is copper. It's a real pain to tear into your reef to catch fish, but if the fish are looking bad, you are best to make the effort. Read the instructions on dosing carefully and get a copper test kit. Copper is deadly on parasites and can be quite hard on the fish too, if dosed too high. Keeping any calcium based product (sand/decorations)out of the quarantine tank will help keep the copper in suspension longer too btw. Copper has a real affinity for calcium.

Good luck
Bill

[BCOrchidGuy]

It's expensive but the Kent Galic worked for me (not that I had ich, the fish did)

Doug