ICH HELP Any help would be appreciated

[momome888]

I just bought a percula and put it through a quarantine and found it was infected with ich. I put rid ich+ in a 30 gallon hospital tank with a 2 sponge filter, I know medication would harm the bacteria on the filters.So what should I do exept water changes(I tried it lowered but only about half).I have heard of people dosing bateria cultures to keep the bacteria alive.Also would ALL of my bacteria die.

[kraze3]

You need to keep the clown in the QT. I have no experience with rid ich but i recommend performing hyposalinity. With a refractometer its very easy to do. I just finished up hypo with a coral beauty about a month ago. I dropped the salinity to 1.008 for 9 weeks, no signs of ich since. If this fish was in contact with any other fish you will need to treat them also

Hyposalinity
http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html

[reeferman06]

getting rid of ich is not that hard, you dont even have to remove the affected fish, just go to your local fish store and get a product called "garlic Extreme" its reef safe, put a drop of it on the fish food and let it soak for about 5 minutes and then feed fish. The garlic will boost the fishes immune system and with that make the fish strong enough to fight off the ich,and if you use 1 drop everytime you feed your fish then you will never have to worry about ich b/c the fishes immune system will be too strong for the ich to attach itself! remember ich can only attack if the fish is stressed, and weak immune systems come from the fish being stressed, so you might wont to check you water conditions. good luck

[kraze3]

Garlic has NO proven effects on marine ich only fresh water ich. Some have claimed to have got rid of their ich problems by garlic use alone but personally I think they just got lucky. You shouldnt be posting info your not 100% sure about

Garlic link
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/sp/index.php

[reeferman06]

But I am 100% sure, I have used it, an dhave told people, and they have had good out comes. But I told here that ich attaches to stressed fish and to check her water, so if she fixes that, then she wont have to worry anyway!

[poppin_fresh]

I'm 50/50 on the garlic thing. I've had one fish die and one live on a garlic soak diet during Ich. IMO hypo treatment has been shown to treat Ich, but it is also very stressful.

Bacteria will adjust to the lower salinity, but it will take time. I would perform small, ph adjusted water changes in the mean time. In qt you should be mostly concerned with ammonia, NO2 and NO3 are of little worry.

[ek9vboi]

Just use the garlic, it works for me. But just because it works for some does not mean it will work for everyone else. No need to bash on it.

I feed them garlic soaked food every time they are fed. Don't get too worried about it, mine comes once a blue moon.

[jtemple42000]

Ich is a parasite. I do not think that hyposalinity is all that stressful on the fish if done properly.

Many people have used garlic for treating ich. Some have good luck with it while others do not. There are only a few ways to be sure that the ich is completly eliminated.

1. Hyposalinity- the link above is a excellent resource
2. Copper-however very stressful on fish and must be done properly.

I got into quite a battle on here a month or so ago with someone about stress and the fishes immune system. Seems we didn't see eye to eye. So to avoid further confusion I will leave that at that....

Do your research and do what you feel comfortable with.

[mikeatjac]

There is no study showing that "garlic Extreme" works. There is no reason that it would work. Copper is not the best either for all fish. You have to research what treatment works best for you your type of fish.

[kraze3]

I am not going to start an argument, im goin on vaca for a few days anyways. I already posted my link on garlic here is everything you need to know about ich.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=282934

Good luck with your fish and treatment :D