Cleaner Shrimp and SW Ich

[Phantom Thief]

I know i'm more of a FW member, but i do love SW tanks . They are beautiful, and really colorful

But the other day, i was just wondering about something. If i am not mistaken (i might be), cleaner shrimp eat parasites on a fish's body. Am i correct so far?

The next thing is about SW ich, which i think exists (again, might be wrong). So if SW ich is similar to FW ich as in it is a parasite, wouldn't cleaner shrimp prevent any problem of ich in an SW tank?

Sorry for invading the SW forums!!!

P.T.

 

[Navarre]

You are correct


There is evidence that a cleaner shrimp, (or should i say a group of cleaners) will help to reduce the parasite. They are in no way a cure however. I have 3 cleaners and 3 Bloodshrimps (another form of deeper water cleaner) yet i still get very small outbreaks every now and then(cleaners tend to get a bit lazy in the tanks as they can find food far easier.
Ich is a real nightmare for the marine tank as copper is the only real effective way to get rid of it yet its deadly poisonous to nearly all marine life (even fish in high amounts).

UV sterilisers, corals (they filter feed and there is evidence they will help remove the parastie in its free swimming stage), shrimps, "reef safe" medications and even garlic are what is commonly used.

Personally i use Garlic, UV and the cleaners and thenkfully i have not had a serious outbreak. (just the occasional spot on a tail etc)

I also think a better cleaner for parasites in a tank is a neon goby as these will happily pick at fish if they require it. They dont harras like true cleaner wrasses (these fish should not be kept in a marine tank IMO) and they dont get lazy like shrimps do.

 

[Phantom Thief]

Yeah! I'm right!!

But, umm... garlic? (PT takes notes for future SW tank)

P.T.

 

[Navarre]

Yep!
Its been scientifically proven that the parasite is actually from Transylvania and hates garlic or Holy Symbols


No seriously though. What many people do is to take a clove of garlic and crush it up and then extract the juice. They then place this juice in som ewater with some frozen food and let this soak for about an hour. (make the place stink of course ). Then simply feed the fish the garlic soaked food. No one really seems to know why Garlic is so effective but it does seem to work. Some say that the garlic releases a chemical within the fish that the parasite cannot take and thus it falls off. Other say that the strong taste of the food promotes vigorous eating from the fish and this alone is enough to boost the immune system to defeat the parasite.

Rather than use a clove of garlic (which can be messy) many people use garlic capsules that can be split open. I even think that "Kent" (A brand name over here in the UK.. not sure if its soldin the USA) make their own garlic suppliment for fish.)

Again, this is not a 100% effective tool, it does seem ot have a big impact though. I have known people use garlic many times and its totally cleared the ich up. only to find after some onths that when they use garlic again it doesnt work. The same can be said of course for all these treaments.

Personally i would advise to vary the treaments if possible

 

[Phantom Thief]

Thanks, navarre for helping me with my curiousity

P.T.