How to treat Ick in a reef tank???

[stoneriff]

Hello folks;
I have a 120 reef tank that is pretty well stocked. My parameters are great. i recently (3 weeks ago) introduced a Powder Blue Tang in to my tank. I quarantined him for five weeks. Never noticed a thing. Now he's in my DT, and has Ick! Is there anything I can treat my tank with? I have fish, inverts, and corals in my tank.
Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[garys reef]

tangs are known for getting ick when i swaped tanks my hippo got ich and fed him garlic and he is still here today just something to try

 

[bigdog1428]

If possible , Put all fish into qt tank and try to pull as many inverts as possible ,, and let the ick die off

 

[Imbarrie]

Are the other fish eating?
What do you normally feed?

You quarantined a fish and now the tank has ich. I dont think the solution to this is quarantining the fish. In fact, I would not move anything right now. You could easily tear your tank apart getting everyone out and you could make things worse to the point of a crash.

Focus on feeding and making sure everything is eating well. Introduce cyclopeez and even nutrimar ova to keep everyone eating. Add some cleaner shrimp and neon gobies.

 

[Awibrandy]

Are the other fish eating?
What do you normally feed?

You quarantined a fish and now the tank has ich. I dont think the solution to this is quarantining the fish. In fact, I would not move anything right now. You could easily tear your tank apart getting everyone out and you could make things worse to the point of a crash.

Focus on feeding and making sure everything is eating well. Introduce cyclopeez and even nutrimar ova to keep everyone eating. Add some cleaner shrimp and neon gobies.

DITTO:fish:

 

[MikeC]

ditto:fish:

+1

 

[stoneriff]

Are the other fish eating?
What do you normally feed?

You quarantined a fish and now the tank has ich. I dont think the solution to this is quarantining the fish. In fact, I would not move anything right now. You could easily tear your tank apart getting everyone out and you could make things worse to the point of a crash.

Focus on feeding and making sure everything is eating well. Introduce cyclopeez and even nutrimar ova to keep everyone eating. Add some cleaner shrimp and neon gobies.

Thank you for your input. All my fish are eating well. I feed a variety of foods. Including Cyclopeeze, Mysis, Spirulina, Brine, etc. My food always soaks in lots of garlic for at least 30 minutes. The fish look very healthy, except for the ick on my Powder Blue, and now my Coral Beauty. I will definitely not be trying to catch them. It will tear my tank apart. I'm thinking of getting a UV. What do you folks think???

 

[Imbarrie]

My experience with ich started with a sailfin tang.
I had a hippo for a year but the day after I added the sailfin all my fish had ich. My clowns had black dots all over, my hippo was spotted white all over. I had a few other fish at the time all covered.
I had two cleaner shrimp and they did nothing but pick at rocks until I added two neon gobies. They started grooming the fish immediately and once the shrimp saw them doing it they all got involved.
I heard nothing eats ich, and maybe they are right, who knows. What I think happened is the fish were healthy and they overcame the parasite with the help of a good diet and the cleaning crew setting up cleaning stations. The fish would hover around the cleaning stations in the tank and would get cleaned.
After the outbreak was over, the fish did not visit the stations as much.
The parasite spends part of its life cycle in the rocks. I honestly think that is when they were eaten by the cleaning crew preventing the parasite from getting out of hand.
Keep the fish eating, healthy, and use what nature uses.

JMO.

 

[stoneriff]

I will try to find some Neon Gobies. Anyone else?
Thank you.

 

[JRLBRENNAN]

Just got through it with my hippo if he is eating lots of food with garlic and lots of seaweed soacked in garlic best way tried every treatment and over the counter stuff doesn't work the garlic and keeping him happy a feed best way for me and all my friends and we are all reefers good luck don't stress or the fish will too

 

[MikeC]

Just to be clear it is my understanding that garlic is not a ick cure ,but is said to entice the fish to eat more therefore makeing them more healthy and have a better immune systum.

 

[Awibrandy]

Just to be clear it is my understanding that garlic is not a ick cure ,but is said to entice the fish to eat more therefore makeing them more healthy and have a better immune systum.

Yes!

There have also been reports that garlic is not good for fish, or dogs & cats for that matter.
I just finished the last of the Garlic Extreme, and not getting anymore. Just feeding a continues diverse foods, soaked in Selcon, VitaChem, and Vitamin C for 15 minutes.

 

[Imbarrie]

For my older fish I soak it in Ensure also.

 

[Reef Fixations]

Did you quarantine all of your fish, corals, inverts & live rock before putting in the tank? I know a lot of people don't but if you're going thru the trouble of quarantining a fish for "X" amount of time and nothing in the rest of the tank has been Q'd than sometimes it can defeat the purpose. Many successful tanks have specimens that show ICH on them from time to time but never get taken by it.

Putting a new fish in a QT for observation while making sure they accept prepared foods is great but to actuallly put the fish thru a full Q IMO doesn't always mean that you've made sure that ICH won't show up because it could already be in the display.

Like everyone said, feed them the best that you can and hope for the best. I am a fan of UV's especially when adding new fish to a tank. Maintain a stable temperature as well. You may also want to consider using ozone.

There is a reef safe medication that IMO is worth a try. It's called "Medic". I think you can only find it on line. You can overdose 2-3 times it's recommended amount and no inverts or corals will die and it's been proven in high end LPS and SPS tanks.

Best of luck to you!

 

[NewfiDog]

I can tell you that the POLY-LAB Medic worked well for me. Like everyone else said keeping them eating is important.

 

[stoneriff]

All my fish are ravenous eaters. They all seem to be doing great, except for Ick on two of my fish. The Powder Blue and the Coral Beauty. All of my fish were quarantined before going in to the tank. I started with dead Pukani rock and dipped all my coral in Revive before placing in tank. I'm convinced that the Powder blue brought it in the tank. He started showing almost immediately after introducing. A couple of days. I hadn't introduced another fish for 2 months before the Powder Blue went in. I have to look in to this Poly-Lab Medic stuff.
Anyone else???

 

[mbg75]

How long did u qt?

Did u qt with treatment or without?

Without treatment should be a 6-8 wk qt to visibly see if ich was present

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

The worse thing is getting ich after you QT that's why I hate tangs but I still buy them..LOL
I think if your tang is eating and not getting picked on he will pull threw if your other fish eat like pigs because he will just follow... Feed heavy and use garlic worked great for me
Good luck

 

[stoneriff]

The worse thing is getting ich after you QT that's why I hate tangs but I still buy them..LOL
I think if your tang is eating and not getting picked on he will pull threw if your other fish eat like pigs because he will just follow... Feed heavy and use garlic worked great for me
Good luck

I Qt'd for about 5 weeks. No treatment. Last time I treated in my QT, the fish died. I used half the recommended dosage of cupramine. I followed directions to a tee.
He's eating voraciously. So are all the other fish. I soak food in garlic everyday.
I'll see how it goes.

 

[asonitez]

ALRIGHT, YOU CAN BEAT THIS.

sorry for caps but its 1 am and i'm too lazy to go back and fix it .

You need to try some DrG's medicated fish food. I feed it in my tank regularly and periodically and so far its definitely taken care of my ich issue. It's sold at Absolutely Fish in Clifton New Jersey. I'm not sure how you can get it in Vegas. Probably call DrG's Marine Aquaculture and look for a distributor in Vegas.

At first fish won't eat it. You need to starve them for a few days and then introduce the medicated fish food after it ias soaked in selcon and garlic for like 30 mins. They will go crazy over it and it works by poisoning their blood and making their slime coat thicker. Be sure to ONLY FEED IT WITH ALL PUMPS TURNED OFF INCLUDING RETURN PUMP. It should stay suspended in the water column until its consumed entirely.