Help The Dreaded Ich Has Me

[Darkside]

I have seen many different opinions concerning this dreaded disease that I now am dealing with. Recently noticed my Metallic Fox Face that has Ich on him. I have LFS recomend using the first line of defense garlic on the food. The last five days he seemed to be doing better but I noticed 4 white spots on him today. Of course the LFS wants me to do a freshwater dip but I am afraid this will be too little to late probably stressing him out further. The quarintine tank with either copper based products or hyposalinity seems to be the only non voodoo method to deal with the disease. My concern is putting two clowns a coral beauty a royal gramma and the fox face in a fifteen gallon tank for treatment may be way over crowding. I have heard of the no sick fish and other reef safe meds but have not heard if they truly work. Anyone have a good suggestion?

Thanks

[Reefbaby]

Do all of your fish have Ich or just the Fox Face? If you have a hospital tank, why not treat him on his own first. Some fish are more susceptible to Ich, so it might be that your other fish are resistant or unaffected.

[Darkside]

I would perform this with just the foxface but


I would assume without him in the tank the parisite would find a way to attack the other fish. Currently my inverts and corals are not that many since I wanted to try the fish only method first. I have one rock with some zoos. A blood shrip an elegance and a cody anenome. Would it be better to move the inverts to the QT tank and treat the main tank with hyposalinity?

Thanks

[Reefbaby]

yes, but it very well could be that your other fish are immune/resistant to the parasite and, therefore, it won't continue to proliferate in the system. I would start out by removing the Fox Face from the system, getting him healthier, but leave him out for several weeks until the parasite has gone through its cycle (I'll have check again how long this actually is...)

I definitely wouldn't treat the main tank. Even your one rock could harbor many inverts/snails/worms/bacteria that wouldn't survive that harsh treatment. Plus, I don't know if you have a sand bed or not. It would be impossible for you to remove all inverts.

How long has your fish shown signs of Ich? It is quite contagious, so if he's the only one that looks infected, I would try removing him and getting him better.

maybe someone else will chime in with different advice..... :D

[Seahorsedreams]

Cooper is your best bet. Hyposalinity follows right behind.

I don't believe in any of the "holistic" type solutions. No Ick won't tell us what is in their product nor will they supply us with any independant studies... Red Flag there for me. And I can't promote a product that won't disclose ANYTHING. I'm not bashing anythign here but there has to be standards.....

Do you have any pictures? Our foxface does the spot thing as well.... it never amounts to anything.

I warn you... you're not going to want to hear this. But if it is ick and you want to do the best thing possible to eradicate it.... they have to be moved out of the display tank. ALL of them. The tank has to be fallow for 4-6 weeks. I would go with the 6. If I'm going through all the trouble I sure as heck am not going to risk putting them back slightly early.

You'll need a larger tank than a 15, I'm afraid to do this.

BUT where it is only the foxface, and they are pretty resistant to stuff. You could defiately try the hypo with the inverts out of the tank. Make sure you have a refractometer to do this. The swing arm dealy is not the thing to use. It's very important that you get the right salinity. I little bit off could mean the treatment is ineffective or the fish are going to be unduly stressed/death. You need to hit 1.009 - 1.010 with a temp of 78-80.

[Darkside]

Thanks for the advise. Well going from what I have researched online I have started a quarintine tank for treatment. To my understanding I want no filter pads carbon etc. just a filter floss. I am limited to the small tank but I would rather try than not to save the fish. Plus I hate to be cruel but I have alot more invested in live sand live rock and the small amount of coral if I have to start over with the fish then thats what I will have to do. I am going to use coppersafe that way if they have any other parasite like velvet then I will solve that problem as well. My final questions are I plan on adding some water from the display tank to make sure the biological cycle is in place but how much and how often should I perform water changes. Thanks for your help and I have learned my lesson about keeping fish in quarntine for at least two weeks.

[CarmieJo]

Most of the biological activity in your tank occurs in the sand and rock so your QT tank won't cycle. You can use a sponge filter (in your QT tank) to provide some biological filtration. You should closely monitor the water quality and do water changes as often as needed, probably a couple times a week. Your bio-load is going to be high so you may need to do them even more often.