treating ich without- chemicals?

[gobie1313]

i came home tonight to find the new cream angel i bought over the weekend, with a dusting of ich. When i introduced him to my 125, the yellow tang chased him around a little bit. The tang hasnt bothered the angel since sat. and everything seemed fine. Today the ich showed up probably due to stress.
I will not treat the tank with "kick ich".I tried 2x in the past and it wiped out my tank. I heard garlic boosts the fishes immune system. So tonight i soaked brine shrimp and myosis in pure garlic paste. The angel ate the shrimp with the garlic, with no problem.
I am picking up 2 new cleaner shrimp, tommorrow.
What is evryones feeling about treating ich this way??
Can the fish fight off the ich? Will the garlic help? Should i continue the garlic feeding?
I also put the paste in a rolled up piece of sushi leaf. The tang gobbled it down.

 

[LosingSleep]

Can you describe "a dusting"?

 

[gobie1313]

oops meant to post this in reef section

 

[afboundguy]

The garlic that should help...

If it doesn't you might need to remove and QT....

What are the tank parameters?

 

[gobie1313]

CA 450 0 nitrates, 0 ammonia, ph 8.3 1.24 salinity

 

[LosingSleep]

The garlic that should help...

If it doesn't you might need to remove and QT....

What are the tank parameters?

I'd go right for the QT. "A dusting" gives me the impression that we're talking about velvet.

Pic?

 

[gobie1313]

ick spots all over, whats velvet. I cant qt, i'll never catch fish.

 

[jrmx635]

ick

try a cleaner shrimp or cleaner wrasse.
move some rocks around so the two fish aren't always seeing eachother.
that will help with the harrassing

 

[gobie1313]

If I see spots all over, can the fish fight it off, or is it destined to die?No-one else is showing signs, except for tang small amount of dots, but seems like he always has them. how long do i continue the garlic?

 

[LosingSleep]

whats velvet.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/amylloodiniumart.htm

Infected fishes have a white, tan, golden or gray dusty or powdery appearance over their outside.

This is why I asked what you meant by a dusting.

Also, inverts can be a carrier but I'm not sure if it kills them.

 

[jrmx635]

ick

Some people never stop feeding garlic.
I like to add vitamins to the food also.
Make sure you feed a variaty of foods,like frozen with lots of protien and aminos.
The ick will clear up if the fish is healthy and the stress is minimized.
Stress is mainly what causes it in a healthy tank.
you are doing things right but definately try changing around the rocks.

 

[gobie1313]

tank is 125, tons of different hiding places, but the tang seems to have left him alone for 2 days now. I guess i'll continue the garlic treatment.

 

[gobie1313]

definitely ick white dots, not puffy. But i keep a close eye on it.

 

[afboundguy]

I'd keep up with the garlic seeing how that's prob your only course.

You could try training your fish to eat out of a spec container so that when you need to catch them they just swim right into the spec container. I've been trying to do this just takes some patience.

 

[stingythingy45]

The only way to truly eradicate ich is to remove all the fish to a hospital tank for treatment and leave the display fishless or(fallow) for 6-8 weeks.
I know it's a pain and I had to do through it about a year ago.

 

[gobie1313]

My tank is too big, with too much rock,it would be impossible. The other fish are showing no signs of ich. I'm going to try to chance it with the garlic and cleaner shrimp. The yellow tang is totally ignoring the angel, so i hope the ich
will subside.

 

[Joel A]

.. cleaner shrimp can help, but IMO they are not a "cure". Neither is garlic...

Garlic gets the fish eating better, which makes the fish's natural defense system stronger, and able to help fight off ich..

Cleaner shrimp can help a little bit i suppose, but i would tend to think there job is more in preventing a fish from getting it, not getting rid of it once a fish has it...

Only really successful ways are hyposalinity, or to QT all the fish(probably still use hypo) and leave the tank fallow as Bob said...i've also had fairly successful results with formalin baths (i believe that's what it was at least) when i worked for a LFS

 

[gobie1313]

If qt the fish isnt a possibility, or dips, what do you reccomend. I cant catch the little suckers, and i move rock it will upset the anenomes and corals.

 

[LosingSleep]

There's no miracle cure.

 

[Macboy]

I experienced the same problem with my 120 reef tank. Had a powder brown tang that was in the tank only a week when it got ich. Spread to my hippo tang (of course) and my purple dottyback...the rest were ok.
This may not go over big with other reefers here but it worked for me. I hooked up my uv sterilizer and ran it about a week and the ich cleared up ( I did lose the pbt but only q/t him would have helped in that case and I think it was too far gone). Once the ich cleared up I shut off the sterilizer so the good bacteria could flourish again. I also use garlic in their food all the time.
I never had success with additives like 'kick ich' or 'ich attack' and would definitely not recommend them.