Really need ich advice

[Graffiti Reef]

Hey guys, Ive got ich. Fortunately only my Coral Beuaty has been exhibiting symptoms. The other fish are fine. Ive been keeping it well fed and stress free for a week now. It's been acting normal and stress free except yesterday when I noticed it moving a tad bit slower and satying in front of my powerhead for relief. I WOULD put in in a QT except that I dont want to take down my rock and try and catch it which may make things worse. Ive read all about ich and am experiencing diagnoses overload. Ive raised the temp to 80 in my tank and kept the lights off today to keep the stress down. Im thinking I may have to medicate and am cosnidering Kordons Ich Attack to treat the tank. I dont want to QT like I said because I have to take down the rockwork and try and catch the CB which may stress it out to the point of finishing it off. Shes eating fine just moving a bit slower. I will be getting a cleaner shrimp tomorrow to give her some relief. Any advice? Oh, btw I am using garlic and Selcon vitamins as an additive. Thanks guys, I know youll come through with some helpful knowledge!

[Hal]

If you're not going to QT, you are pretty limited in what you can do. Adding selcon and garlic to the food is about all you can do, but even that is only a secondary help, meaning it doesn't treat the ich itself, it only keeps the fish 'warm and comfy', if you will, while the fish's immune system tries to cope/deal with the ich.

Raising the tank temp does absolutely nothing to treat the ich. It only speeds up the lifecycle of the ich parasite, and hopefully shortens the amount of time that the parasite is on the fish in its trophont stage. If you're not doing anything to kill the ich it'll be back 3-28 days later unless the fish de-stresses on its own and builds up it's defenses.

Read this:
http://atj.net.au/marineaquaria/marineich.html
and this:
ATJ's Marine Aquarium Site - Reference - Hyposalinity Treatment

and you will be better informed than half of the reefing community.

Cleaner shrimps provide little to no meaningful relief from ich. It can't hurt to try, but I'd save my money.

Really you're already doing everything that you can within the parameters of what you said you'd be willing to do. The only other thing you could do is figure out what triggered the outbreak: is another fish picking on the coral beauty?

If your fish is eating then things are pretty good. Keep it up.

Good luck.

[medwards9999]

The shrimp and the kordons can help knock it out. follow the drections. The GOD reefers will slam you for it but it can keep your fish alive. Good luck

[Sharkbaitz]

Don't even bother wasting your money on those "ich cures in a bottle". Sorry to say but the only true way is to catch all of your fish and put them in qurantine and let the tank be fishless for 2 months. I know it's real frustrating and long but that's the real proven method. And treat your fish with copper. If you have scaleless fish like a mandarin..then you can't use copper on him/her. I know because I've tried those ich attack etc. in a bottle. Ich IMO is the worst thing ever in the SW hobby. At least in FW you can kill it and treat it quickly.

[Graffiti Reef]

Originally Posted by medwards9999

The shrimp and the kordons can help knock it out. follow the drections. The GOD reefers will slam you for it but it can keep your fish alive. Good luck

Yeah i know. I do respect the almight reef gods though. It looks like Ive got a long day of thinking ahead of me.

[dewey]

I used kordon. But, instead of QT, I gave a kordon bath with higher concentration. Left for about half an hour in a big container floating in the tank. Did that once a week for about 4 weeks and Ich or whatever my fish had disappeared.

[Graffiti Reef]

I bit the bullet and got the Herbtana. I added it to the tank today and everything seems to be doing fine. All the parems are good. I took out the carbon in the filer. The stuff smells like Citronella extract if that means anything. I raised the temp to speed up the lifecycle of the parasites and am keeping the lights off. Hopefully all this will build up the fish's slimecoat like the medicine says which will prohibit the little buggers from latching back on. Ill keep this thread going and post some daily progress updates. If this doesnt work though Im setting up a QT for sure. I have no idea what stressed the CB to get it as the parems are perfect, no bullies, healthy appetite, or lack of space. Only thing I can think of is when I rearranged some rock work one day.

[katymunoz]

Don't raise the temps in the tank. Stability is the most important and people get ich outbreaks after temperature swings. You are stressing the fish out, and obviously that's the opposite of what you want to happen.

[Mayo]

I feed spectrum for food, gives the fish a more balanced diet and keeps them healthier? I am sure there are other ways, but I've never had ich yet. Knock on wood!

My understanding is every fish has some disease. Keep em healthy and provide a clean stable environment and their own immune system should be able to handle some diseases. Others not so much.

Good luck


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[Graffiti Reef]

Ok guys, I'll fill you in on the last few days.

Saturday I kept everything the same. The CB was rubbing against things. Some spot are discolored. Parems are good, fish are well fed. I started adding Selcon to my food and mixing up the food so the fish have a balanced diet. My Tang has a few dots on him but he's not showing any discomfort. My 4 stripe damsel has been rubbing against rocks since Friday night.

Sunday The Coral Beauty is looking much better and much more active. She's showing less spots, picking at rocks, and eating well. The other fish are just as well. Theyre eating healthy, the Tang has a few spotso n his fins but seems fine.

Monday Parems still good, fish swimming and being active. No problems from any inverts. Coral beauty still showing a few spots but way more active than the past few days. Fish eating well. Coral beauty's color coming back in discolored spots. No other visible signs of stress other than the occasional rock rub. All the fish are getting along as well.

SG1.0250-1.026 Temp 78 degrees

Ive been feeding frozen brine in am, spirulina flakes in afternoon, I throw in seaweed for the tang and angels, night I feed either emerald entree or angelfish food w/a little frozen brine.

I soak all my food in selcon.

[Graffiti Reef]

Tuesday - Progress is sloooowwwww. The CB seems more active, color getting better. Still has some spots on him. Notice my other fish may be infected. No visible spots on any of the other fish but some are rubbing up on rocks. Parems are good. Fish eating well. Coral Beauty ate alot this mroning. Hoping for the best. Im starting to wonder if I need to get more LR and make a few more hiding spots for the CB.

[Graffiti Reef]

Ok, so sucky update.

Thought my CB was doing fine Wednesday but awoke this morning to find it swimming awkwardly with its head up and tail down. It was swimming aimlessley. When I turned on the lights it just stopped and sank to the bottom. It's gill movement seemed labored. Did a quick check of my parems. Everythign checked out good. Realized my fish was in the process of dying. I tried making it as comfortable as possible. I took it out of the tank and placed it in a smaller containter since it was going into a crevice in the LR and for whatever reason my tang was nudging her. It was his "buddy" so maybe it was trying to help it? It's not dead just yet but I dont give it an hour before she succumbs.

What did I learn?

Reef safe treatments dont kill ick. They claim to boost the fish's immune system and thicken it's stress coat so the parasites cant re-attach but I think the proof is in the pudding. She WAS starting to get a little better but I dont think it was because of the Herbatana. I say this because some of my other fish seem to be showing symptoms of infection. I also found that when these reef-safe treatments dont work and the companies claim the treatment results vary on the fish's condition and how bad the disease has progressed. While this is partially true, it goes without saying that any treatment's results vary depending on the fish's condition and how bad the treatment progressed.

I wish I would have used either the hypo salinity or copper treatment in a QT for all my fish when my CB was still strong. I feel she probably would have survived and I feel like crap letting her suffer by using this junk. Even though it may prevent the ick from attaching on to the fish, it would still be present in it's gills.

I'm setting up a quarantine tank this weekend for the rest of my fish and will let my display tank go fallow for 4-6 weeks. Still deciding on what therapy to use, hyposalinity or copper? My other fish are super strong and could probably handle the copper.

[Jasper]

Originally Posted by Graffiti Reef

Ok, so sucky update.

Thought my CB was doing fine Wednesday but awoke this morning to find it swimming awkwardly with its head up and tail down. It was swimming aimlessley. When I turned on the lights it just stopped and sank to the bottom. It's gill movement seemed labored. Did a quick check of my parems. Everythign checked out good. Realized my fish was in the process of dying. I tried making it as comfortable as possible. I took it out of the tank and placed it in a smaller containter since it was going into a crevice in the LR and for whatever reason my tang was nudging her. It was his "buddy" so maybe it was trying to help it? It's not dead just yet but I dont give it an hour before she succumbs.

What did I learn?

Reef safe treatments dont kill ick. They claim to boost the fish's immune system and thicken it's stress coat so the parasites cant re-attach but I think the proof is in the pudding. She WAS starting to get a little better but I dont think it was because of the Herbatana. I say this because some of my other fish seem to be showing symptoms of infection. I also found that when these reef-safe treatments dont work and the companies claim the treatment results vary on the fish's condition and how bad the disease has progressed. While this is partially true, it goes without saying that any treatment's results vary depending on the fish's condition and how bad the treatment progressed.

I wish I would have used either the hypo salinity or copper treatment in a QT for all my fish when my CB was still strong. I feel she probably would have survived and I feel like crap letting her suffer by using this junk. Even though it may prevent the ick from attaching on to the fish, it would still be present in it's gills.

I'm setting up a quarantine tank this weekend for the rest of my fish and will let my display tank go fallow for 4-6 weeks. Still deciding on what therapy to use, hyposalinity or copper? My other fish are super strong and could probably handle the copper.

I am sincerely sorry you had to go through this but you are another that has confirmed all of the "reef GODS" claims...again I'm sorry for your loss

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[Graffiti Reef]

Originally Posted by Jasper

I am sincerely sorry you had to go through this but you are another that has confirmed all of the "reef GODS" claims...again I'm sorry for your loss

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Thanks, yes the almight Reef Gods were correct. I knew I was taking a chance and just wished I fought my hesitation of dissembling my rock work to get the fish and just treat with copper in the first place. I think from now on Ill be taking the advice of the veterans with a little more appreciation.

[Jasper]

Originally Posted by Graffiti Reef

Thanks, yes the almight Reef Gods were correct. I knew I was taking a chance and just wished I fought my hesitation of dissembling my rock work to get the fish and just treat with copper in the first place. I think from now on Ill be taking the advice of the veterans with a little more appreciation.

Agreed, I'm going through the same thing, noticed obvious ich on my tang last Thursday, this is all new to me too, setup a BIG quarantine over the weekend(can't put them all in a 10 gallon), emptying the display tomorrow...thanks unnamed LFS....I know, I know, no one to blame but myself

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