Ich

[labrec06]

Ok so i have seen a few white spots on several of my fish and i am wondering what to do ?? help please !! what do i use ?? what are possible causes?? help ??? want to do the right thing!

Thank you
Tom and Amanda

[MrSquid]

A couple of weeks back my hippo tang developed ich. I started feeding pellets soaked in Selcon and garlic - it went away FAST. Within the past week or so I picked up an anti-parasitic pellet that my fish absolutely love.

He's been glancing a bit since then, but not that often and there's no sign of ich on him.

[labrec06]

well where did you get the stuff or where can i find it ?? I would really like to nip this thing in the butt!

what do you mean by glancing??

[siropa]

there are lots and lots of articles online on how to deal with ich. i'd search them out if I was you to get some ideas. there are a number of ways people treat ich. QT with copper. QT with hyposalinity. some talk about garlic, but that feels more like voodoo to me. The unfortunate fact is that once your tank has ich in it, you aren't going to be rid of it for good until you remove all the fish, treat them in QT, and leave the tank fallow for enough time for it to completely die off. It might appear to be gone from the DT, but unless you go the fallow route it is still in there just waiting for the right stresses or conditions to bring it out.

[labrec06]

ok im starting to freak out a little

To start we can not qt the fish because they are large and there is no where to go with them if it was a couple it wouldnt matter but we have 15 . There are a few that would be next to impossible to catch ect... the tank we have for qt is only a 30g

i would have to treat the main tank with some thing any ideas

[andygb54303]

I developed ich a while back and from what i understand that unless you go fallow for 6 weeks you will never be rid of ich. Its a pain and it is a LONG six weeks and actually ended up losing all my fish. Good Luck!

[MrSquid]

I'm from the mindset that ich is always in the tank, so it's our job to keep the stressors to a minimum so it doesn't impact our fish (as much). This is another reason I run UV and ozone. Plus there's no way I'm setting up a big QT (mine's 29g - not big enough for anything but new fish), pulling 150# of live rock out of my tank and playing fish-wrangler anytime I see some glancing or spots. ;)

I'm not sure if I buy the whole medicinal aspect of garlic, but after seeing how aggressively my fish eat food soaked with it versus food NOT soaked with it, I do buy into the fact that it's an attractant and appetite stimulator. And I've also always figured that a fish that eats like a pig is going to be a bit stronger and a bit healthier - and that's never a bad thing. ;) The garlic extract is just 2 drops per feeding, so for the price and the negligible impact it'd have on water quality, to me it was worth a try - and I'm glad I did. Whether or not it was the silver bullet, I don't know - but I do know my hippo is still alive, looks and acts healthy and the rest or my fish weren't impacted at all.

Amanda - This is the anti-parasitic food I picked up: http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/10812/product.web. I got it at Petland on Appleton's east side. But if your hippo eats dried/flake food, I'd think that any anti-parasitic food would be a step in the right direction.

[siropa]

Actually if properly QT everything before it gets to the DT, you can get rid of ich. It doesn't have to be there. But there is a huge amount of discipline that is needed to stock the tank in such a way to do that. Patience...

As for garlic, who knows. there sure are a lot of people that swear by it and I use it from time to time as an additive. but there haven't been any scientific studies on it like have been done with copper and other treatments.

But in the end once you have ich in the tank, you aren't getting rid of it until the tank is fallow for long enough. Given stresses or a high fish load, it is just going to keep coming back.

[Pike614]

Garlix Extreme and a UV sterilizer have worked for me, if you've got water in your tank, you've got ich in your tank IMO...I stick with what Fosters and Smith recommend and have yet to have any problems.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?dept_id=0&siteid=6&acatid=424&aid=440

[Fishcrazy06]

I kept fish only system for quite a few years until I switched over. I think I have tried every remedy and solution they have out there. Found out in the long run the more chemicals you dump into your tank the worse things become. Whether its all natural ich remedy or whatever. What has worked for me is I do run a UV Sterilizer and I also use the Kent Marine Garlic Extreme. Haven't had ich now for I don't know how long. About 2-3 times a week they get their food soaked.

Eric