First time ich attack!!!

[AstroCreep]

Just yesterday i noticed that my clarkii clownfish has white spots on his fins and hes rubbing himself on the rocks, so it must be ich. i went to my lfs and they sold me a product called RUBY REEF, says its reef safe and no copper and it proclaims it will Kick-Ich....before i treat my tank i was just wondering if anybody has used it or any other ideas on what i should do.. also when i administer it should i keep my skimmer off? it says on the bottle it is a 15 day process.

thx

 

[SAreefer]

I would suggest you if possible to remove the fish from your main tank and it a q-tank first, this tank would not need to be cycled first, just pore in some of you existing tanks water and ad some new water.

 

[WRASSER]

IMO i am against putting chemicals into the tank. the best way is preventive maintanence, we are a little pass that, so as regal says take the fish out and treat the fish. Keep us posted :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

I have heard Ruby Reef is pretty good. I have used kick ich in the past.

Unfortunately, most times you must treat the enire tank to be sure it is gone.

The life cycle of ich includes a swimming stage that can last up to 3 weeks or so. They can hide in the LR or substrate, and attach onto a new host.

 

[ChrisRD]

I'm also in the no-meds-in-the-tank camp.

If the infection is light I would make sure water parameters are good and it's eating well and wait to see how things go. Healthy fish that are not being stressed, eating well and living in a system with good water quality can often get past a mild bout with ich on their own.

If you really want to erradicate the parasite from the system then I would remove all fish from the display tank and treat them separately while leaving the main system fallow for a couple of months.

JMO...

 

[Anonymous]

I'm also in the no-meds-in-the-tank camp.

If the infection is light I would make sure water parameters are good and it's eating well and wait to see how things go. Healthy fish that are not being stressed, eating well and living in a system with good water quality can often get past a mild bout with ich on their own.

If you really want to erradicate the parasite from the system then I would remove all fish from the display tank and treat them separately while leaving the main system fallow for a couple of months.

JMO...

I see what you mean, but others have told me of bad experiences with QT, as it increases stress, which in turn lessens the chances of the fish getting past the ich. It seems that just as many die in the qt as in the main tank.

I never did the qt, as the couple of times i had ich I used the kick ich with success, so I never personally went the qt route.

 

[ChrisRD]

If a fish is quarantined properly it should definitely NOT be stressed out. Like just about anything, if done incorrectly, QT could possibly do more harm than good (but done correctly it's very effective). Then again, so can adding chemicals to an established reef system... :wink:

Success rates with in-tank treatments of ich are highly variable and often times "success" is simply a case of Post hoc ergo propter hoc as healthy fish will often win a mild bout with ich regardless of whether the product was used or not.

JMO/JME of course...

 

[Anonymous]

If a fish is quarantined properly it should definitely NOT be stressed out. Like just about anything, if done incorrectly, QT could possibly do more harm than good (but done correctly it's very effective). Then again, so can adding chemicals to an established reef system... :wink:

Success rates with in-tank treatments of ich are highly variable and often times "success" is simply a case of Post hoc ergo propter hoc as healthy fish will often win a mild bout with ich regardless of whether the product was used or not.

JMO/JME of course...

Thanks Chris...good to get feedback from as many people as possible!

 

[AstroCreep]

thanks for all the replies... now i just have to figure out the route i want to take...maybe ill wait a couple more days and ill see what happens.. THANKS again!!!

 

[WRASSER]

Oh yea, check your tempature on the tank, make sure it is not too cold this will add to the stress and could cause ich.

 

[AstroCreep]

ive read a few things about a fresh water dip....is this effective in cases of ich?

 

[WRASSER]

I herd of people doing this, I do not know how effective it really is.

 

[DannyXL]

So far in my new reef tank I haven't experienced ich, but I keep reading everyone saying, just quarentine your fish, freshwater dip, etc. Well, unless you are a fantastic fish catcher, more than likely you have to remove all or most of you live rock, corals, etc. This seems like a big disturbance in your tank and stress to your fish, yes?

It just seems to me if you have a healthy fish who's eating and you have a well developed reef in your tank that the fish should be able to overcome the ich and your tank should be fine. I have a lawnmower and can't imagine being able to capture him at all. As a matter of fact, I got the lawnmower because he hitched on one of my big peices of LR, not sure how he survived the trip from the LPS, but he did.

If anyone has any great ideas on how to catch your fish if you need to treat your fish for ich, that would be a great help to those who are experiencing an ich problem. I know it took me hours to develop and set up my aquascape. I'd hope there are other solutions out there.

 

[ChrisRD]

You're supposed to quarantine the fish before adding it to your main system. That eliminates the issue of having to catch it out of the display should it show signs of disease/parasites and need treatment. It also prevents you from infecting the entire system with said disease/parasite.

In the event that you do need to catch something out of the display, there are numerous tricks including fish traps, small barbless hooks, etc. If you search the board you'll probably find a bunch of ideas...

HTH

 

[DannyXL]

You're supposed to quarantine the fish before adding it to your main system. That eliminates the issue of having to catch it out of the display should it show signs of disease/parasites and need treatment. It also prevents you from infecting the entire system with said disease/parasite.

In the event that you do need to catch something out of the display, there are numerous tricks including fish traps, small barbless hooks, etc. If you search the board you'll probably find a bunch of ideas...

HTH

Gocha, I think most of these guys are having issues with the display tank, so hopefully traps will help. I don't have a quarentene tank set up as of yet, but looks like that may be a must in the near future. Do you recommend quarentene of live rock and corals also?

 

[ChrisRD]

Adding anything into the system without quarantining puts you at some risk of introducing a parasite/pathogen, so ideally, it would be best to quarantine everything if possible. Of course in reality most people don't go this far (many don't quarantine anything). IMO, that's why we see frequent questions about treating parasites/disease or about mysterious fish deaths. IMO it's also why so many aquarists have misconceptions about what causes/cures parasites like ich. JMO of course...

 

[WRASSER]

I agree with a quarantine tank. BUT I believe in preventive maintenance. Then you wont have to worry about ICH. The first thing is to look at the fish BEFORE you buy it. Happy hunting :wink: