Fish with ICH

[tdawg57]

Well I finally finished cycling my tank after about 6 weeks or so. Got all excited, went to my LFS and purchased me some beautiful Firefish. But what do you know, one of them came unknowingly with ICH!!!! It hasn't spread to other fish yet, but sure enough there is about 8 - 10 white dots on him/her. I tried doing a search for ich, but since it's only 3 letters long it wouldn't let me. Any advice on what to do? I've heard to stay away from medicine such as drops and tablets. And the only hospital tank I have is for my freshwater, its' only 2 gallons. Would I do good in draining it and filling it with salt for a bit? Worried about temp change though. Any advice will do. Thanks in advance....Trevor

 

[RamJet]

Trevor, is your tank a reef? IF not you can treat in the main with out too much of a problem. If it is, Melafix and Pimafix are both reef safe.

 

[tdawg57]

It's a fish only with live rock with some neat little types of algee...what would you recommend?

 

[RamJet]

Well, If you dont plan on going reef, you can treat with copper. Copper kills parasites, ich, and velvet. If you dont want to use copper I would take a look at EM tablets, if I remember right they are reef safe. (Dont trust my memory read the labels on all the meds.) Make sure you turn your skimmer off durning treatment.
If your not seeing spots on the body of the fish and just seeing it on its fins, it may just be a fungus in which case I would try using Melafix. You can also use Pimafix along with the melafix, it seems to speed up recovery. I usually add bacteria wile treating, some of the meds can have ill effect on your biological filters. With any sick fish I also add garlic extreme, it will boost the fishes immune system and stimulate the appitite. One last thing, no uv sterilizer in the treatement tank.
Hope that helps, Ram