Help Ick!!

[fishgardener]

My new chalk bass has ick I think. He has white speckles on his fins. I have tried to catch him for several days but to no avail. He just dives for the rocks. I foolishly put him in my dislpay tank when I got him instead of in
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">quarantine. Now what do I do, short of tearing up the whole tank. I don't want the other fish to get sick. I know most meds can't be put in with corals and live rock.</span></span></span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Sheryle :bash2: </span></span></span>

 

[victor626nj]

if he has it then your other fish are exosed to it .....it is in your water colom ...if he is eating then he will be fine if not you have to take all your fish out and qt them for about 2-3 months without anyfish in the tank ...too much work if you ask me just let him be if he is eating fine it will pass but you still might get other out breaks ....ich isnt gonna kill the fish .maybe a uv and some cleaners should help .....

 

[dannybradley]

Get Seachem Focus, Seachem Metronidazole, and frozen food. Mix in a 1:1:1 ratio Focus:Metro:food. It's a reef safe treament that has always worked well for me.

The metronidazole fights the parasite, the focus makes it stick to the food. Call your LFS to see if they have it. Metronidazole fed is significantly less effective without focus.

Sorry Vic, ich can eventually stress a fish into death. Cleaner shrimp are not a bad idea.

Congrats on the Chalk Bass. That's a really neat fish a lot of people overlook.

 

[saltwater junky]

as long as he is eating he should be fine, also soak all your food in garlic and zoe . there is a chance he wont make with ick but my powder brown tang came out just fine and he had ich

 

[ralph atl]

here you go:

http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/ich.html">http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/ich.html</a>


[IMG]http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php">http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php</a>

[IMG]http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php">http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php</a>

[IMG]http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-12/sp/index.php">http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-12/sp/index.php</a>

 

[dannybradley]

Garlic's not a bad idea either. I lean more towards actually medication over holistic treatments, but I've seen positive results from the use of it.

Seachem also makes a garlic product caled Garlic Guard. If you use Garlic Guard, strain all the water from your frozen food using a net before adding the medication and garlic.

 

[fishgardener]

He is eating fine. I am worried about the other fish catching it. I have a 6 line, royal gramma and a firefish in that 40 gal tank.
What is focus?

 

[victor626nj]

they should be fine if they arent stressed out and should not catch itnrither one of those fish catch it to often like your tangs would

 

[mojo]

Might want to read my recent

 

[fishgardener]

how do you feed garlic? Is it garlic from the grocery store chopped up?

 

[dannybradley]

Garlic Guard is liquid.

Focus is a nitrofuran binder. It causes the medication to stick to the food. Without it the food just washes off right into the water column. It also has some basic antibacterial properties.

 

[fishgardener]

mojo;146571 wrote: Might want to read my recent http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12016">Ich thread</a>...[/QUOTE]

I just read it. Took awhile-lots of posts, but very useful. I am sorry you lost all those fish. Did anything in particular seem to work the best?
My fish only has spots on his fins, not his body. I am going to try daily small water changes since it is only a 40 gal tank and it can do no harm, as well as garlic at night since I don't think it can hurt anything. I have good flow already. I will also get some "focus" whatever that is to keep the meds on the food. I feel like a fish nurse.

 

[cameron]

Depth charges... sure fire cure!

 

[dannybradley]

Cameron;146701 wrote: Depth charges... sure fire cure!

They sell those at Petco, only they call them livestock. All you have to do is add one to your tank and you'll have no more worries about your fish... or is it no more fish to worry about?

 

[mojo]

fishgardener;146642 wrote: I just read it. Took awhile-lots of posts, but very useful. I am sorry you lost all those fish. Did anything in particular seem to work the best?

Nothing in particular, considering the fish died in the end. The best course of action would have been to remove the fish and put them through formalin and then a quarantine, but that wasn't feasible...

 

[cameron]

If you want to QT him (and you will probably have to QT every fish), I donated a fish trap to the club that should work for getting him out. You will probably have to treat the entire tank and the only safe way to do this is to run it fishless for quite a while (months in some cases). Even then there are no guarantees.

 

[fishgardener]

I went to Saltwater City yesterday and got the focus and the MET. medication. Started feeding it to them as soon as I got home. The fish have been fed it 3 times so far. Unbelievably, the fish looks better already. He eats like a pig, which is a good thing.:roll: I did the small water change last night and again this evening, sucking the water and sand off the bottom a little. Do I continue feeding it for several months to be sure the next generation of ick doesn't get the fish?

 

[mojo]

Be careful - usually the fish do better before doing worse. Delbeek warned me of that, it happened, and then they died shortly thereafter. It's the lifecycle of Ich showing - the cysts are now dormant.

Also- you can't keep an animal on antibiotics long term. Doing so lowers their natural immunities, so that they're dependant upon the antibiotics.