Ich

hutsler

New Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2006
Messages
47
Reaction score
0
Location
St. Louis MO
I have a 20 gallon US saltwater tank and this morning i noticed white spots on my coral beauty and my three striped damsel.I am sure that it is ich and i know that there was a posting a few weeks back on what to do however i can't find it anymore. I would really appreciate it if you could again tell the best way to treat this. also if this could be done quickly so i can save them!

I also have a chocolate chip starfish in the tank but otherwise it is just fish and liverock
 
Oodinex (reef safe)
Octozin (Reef safe)
These have mixed chances of success

UV Steriliser
Ozone Unit
Expensive to purchase but well worth the money

Garlic
Add as a suppliment to feeding, it really does seem to work!

As a last resort, get some freshwater with the same PH and temperature as the tank seawater and place the fish in here for about 5 mins (or as long as you dare) If the fish seem stressed and in danger of dieing then remove immediately.
I only recomend this as a last resort though
 
do i need to have a quarantine tank set up and will that medication work with the star fish in there, sorry about the repeat post
 
The meds that Navarre mentioned are classed as 'Reef-Safe' so you should be ok with the starfish.

If you are in an emergency situation then I would recommend the freshwater bath technique. This will cause the parasites to explode due to Osmosis but has no real ill-effects on the fish. The major thing to be careful of is the time that the fish is in the bath and always keep watching the fish. It is normal for the fish to lie on the bottom and gulp but use your own judgement on its health. Do Not exceed 6 minutes in a freshwater bath and never, ever bathe a Dragonet as you will kill it.

I would also try and get some Garlic Extreme (Garlic Extract) and dip the fish food in this before feeding. The garlic essence is very strong and this permeates through the fishes scales once digested. The effect this has is to make the fish very smelly to the parasites and will discourage them from hosting on the fish. This is ideal if you've just given a fish a freshwater bath as you don't want to kill the parasites only to re-introduce the fish back into an environment where it has a high risk of re-infection. Ideally a QT tank would be good as you could dose the fish with copper meds which usually work a lot better than reef-safe ones
In the long term, a UV steriliser will help control parasites and, even better, ozone as nearly every fish tank has the Ich parasite living in it, whether its dormant or active. Prevention is better than cure!
 
I've just finished treating my tank for ich. I've been soaking my food in garlic extract and feeding the fish this for 6 weeks. It has worked very effectively and is reef safe so I'd reccomend it.
 
I would move the fish to a QT and treat with cupramine if the other treatment don't end up working well. You can feed spirulina, and doing FW dips is great. The parasites fall right off, fast.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top