How to treat ich in a reef tank ?

[Mares77]

My salinity was up to 1.028 for about a day or so and now one of my fish has ich...i brought the salinity back down to 1.025...what else can i do to treat the fish or will it simply just go away...

[DJ88]

How fast did you lower the salinity back to your new level? If it was too fast that would cause it. not that you were asking that. lol

I'd let your fish just rest a bit. You could feed it some enriched foods. ie with selcon and vitamins such as that. As well garlic seems to be somethign people use in addition to vitmains.

What kind of fish is it?

HTH

[canadawest]

All of the above suggestions, including the garlic, but most importantly....

Leave everything alone!

Ich is an opportunistic parasite that most commonly affects fish with low immune systems due to stress. The abrupt change in salinity could have been a contributor, but not likely the only cause. Is this a new addition to your tank? Is it a Tang?

Just try to keep things stable and stress free for the next week, and likely the Ich will just go away as the fish regains it's immune system and calmness. Try to keep your hands out of the tank (stresses the fish), and keep water parameters (Temp, salinity, pH, Nitrates, Nitrites, Ammonia) as stable as possible.

If the Ich doesn't get better after a week, or gets worse over the next couple days, I recommend Kent RxP, a treatment product that is reef-safe, and something I used last year to help my Blue Tang deal with his Ich. He had it at least three times in the first 6 months I had him, and not once in the past 9+ months. No other fish ever got it while he had it, so I know it was just him getting used to the new environment. Contributors were "first two weeks after introduction" stress, high temperature swings last summer, and new tank additions.

Now he's rock solid, and Ich hasn't reared it's ugly head in my tank for almost a year. (Knock on wood). ;)

[stephane]

Originally posted by canadawest:
[QB]
Leave everything alone!

QB]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">100% true + a couple of cleaner shrimp will do even better than any medication and best of all, they are cute ant funny!

Good luck!

[canadawest]

Wow, how did I forget that? Another great recommendation Stephane! Cleaner Shrimp are invaluable for dealing with Ich, or any parasitic illness. I don't know if my Tang would have made it without the pair of Cleaner Shrimp to help out.

And not only are they useful, like Stephane said they are nice to look at, and provide your fish and corals a great nutritional treat when they spawn every few weeks. Of course you must have two or more for this.