ick

[donice]

I have a 60 gallon reeftank, I just got a blue tang and saw that he has ick.
Should I put him in a different tank and get rid of that way,or is there a safe way to take care of in that tank without killing anemones and coral or anything?

[FireEater]

Welcome to the board.

The only safe way I know of is to treat with garlic. Some say garlic builds the fishes immune system, others say it make the fish less desirable for the ick to host on.

You actually cannot treat the ick while it is still on the fish. You wait until the parasites fall off the fish and then treat them. So removing the fish now while the parasites are still on it can be good. Then treat the hospital tank for a period of two weeks with the fish in it with copper.

The fall back is that your tank might be infected already, so the ick will always be there. Unless you remove all fish for a long period of time until the parasites die off without any hosts in the water. I forget how long this takes, but I do know it is a long time.

Most people think that when the white spots on their fish are gone so is the ick. Not true as all that has happened is the parasite has drooped off the fish in preparation of reproducing in the sand. They then lie in the sand for days or even weeks until the cysts ruptures releasing up to hundreds of new parasites into your system to start the cycle over.

Hippo (blue) Tangs are the most susceptible of the tangs to get ick. I actually bought my Hippo Tang with some ick on it. It was the healthiest of all the Hippos they had. It was in a tank by himself, the others in another tank and they were loaded with ick.

As soon as I acclimated it and placed him in the tank, my Cleaner Wrasse latched on and cleaned him up real shiny. He never got ick again. I added a Powder Blue and a Naso months apart and they broke out with some ick due to the stress of what a fish goes through leaving the LFS. The Cleaner Wrasse did the same thing to them.

I'm not sure if my tank has the parasites living in it or not. I believe all these fish came in with them, even though they looked healthy. Well except for the Hippo. The Cleaner Wrasse is constantly looking over each fish in my tank. It has been one of the best fish to buy I think. My Cleaner Shrimp do not even bother with the fish. I have never seen them climb on one unless the fish actually parked right next to them and I have seen that happen only once.

The Cleaner Wrasse and the Neon Gobie both do an excellent job in maintaining an ick free tank, or at least fish. If you have ick in your system, then I believe with the Cleaner, he will eat any parasites that get on the fish, thus keeping them from multiplying as they do not stand a chance on hosting on the fish. This is an important stage for the parasite. The Cleaner breaks the chain so to speak.

Though the only drawback is getting a healthy Cleaner Wrasse or Neon Gobie. They do poorly during collection and throughout until they get to your tank. It is a hit and miss to get one to make it. Mine did great from the get go and eats like a pig. It even eats the seaweed I put out for the tangs. It has grown significantly since I got it.

[zhenya]

Hi donice,



I moved your thread to the specialized forum so you can get some help from leebca, our fish desease guru. ;)

Frankly, I think the best way to get rid of marine ich is to remove infected fish, and/or other fish that were exposed to it to another tank and treat them there. Keep display tank fallow (fish free) for about 6-7 week and life cycle of the parasite should be completed.

To prevent it from happening again it is a good idea to quarantine all of the newcomers before placing them in your display tank.
Please take a look at the sticky threads in this forum and I think you will find an article that will help you.

[leebca]

donice,

Sorry to hear of the troubles you've experienced. If you have diagnosed it properly as Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) then there is several things you need to do. First: learning. I'd like you to do some serious reading. Please start by reading this: Marine Ich - Myths and Facts

It's important to realize that ALL the marine fish in your aquarium are now infected with Marine Ich, whether you can see it or not. There are no known successful treatments for Marine Ich in a reef tank. All treatments require moving the fish to a treatment/hospital tank. There are only 3 methods known to cure fish of Marine Ich (see that above referenced post).

After removing all the fish, leave the reef tank fishless for 8 weeks and the Marine Ich will die. It will take upwards of about 8 weeks to go through the full treatment of the fish anyway, so this works out in the overall plan.

Second. . .More reading!
If you want to treat using the hyposalinity treatment, then read this: Hyposalinity Treatment

If you'd like to treat the fish with a copper treatment, please read this: Copper - Treatment, Use, Problems

Please ask if you have any questions. We're here to help!

I would strongly urge you to begin performing a quarantine process on all new marine life (fishes, inverts, corals, etc.) acquisitions. You won't have to go through this again (and again, and again, and again. . .) Here is some good reading on that:
An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: A Quarantine Tank for Everything by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com
and
A Fish Quarantine Process

Please take the time to read all the above. If you make it through that, you might find other posts and articles of interest to help you out in your marine aquarist hobby:
Table/Contents - Link List

[rjs5134]

One thing left out, a 60 gallon tank is not nearly large enough for a hippo tang. This fish should probably be returned to the lfs unless you are planning on setting up an extremely large tank in the next few months.

[donice]

Thanks for evertones input. I talk to the fish store I go to he said I was doing everything ok,and a cleaner wrasse would be a good idea .Also if I'm still having problems there is a reef safe ick medicine called kick ick. So if I need to there's a back up plan.

[leebca]

Sorry you've chosen to take that bad advice. I wish you'd consider reading AND believing this factual information:
Marine Ich - Myths and Facts

The above reference covers both the cleaner fish and reef-safe treatments, neither of which cure Marine Ich.

[weez1959]

Unfortunately the poor tang will die and so will the wrasse, Kick Ick doesn't work. Lee is right by telling you that you are following bad advice.
And you will have a domino effect if you treat in the main tank.
Pet stores will tell whatever it takes to make you think you're doing the right thing because thier goal is to sell you more fish when the others die and if you ask why the treatment didn't work they'll come up with some lame story like "the fish were too far gone" or "you waited to long" etc.

[rjs5134]

It's very easy to verify the credibility of the advise given so far by Lee, Gene and Louise. Simply click the search feature of this sight(or one of the other reef forumns) and type "ich". The vast number of threads will give you all the info you need. It will become abundantly clear that if you continue to follow the poor advise given by the lfs your fish will certainly die and your tank will never be rid of marine ich.

And just to reiterate, no matter how small your hippo tang is now, it will very shortly be WAY too large for your 60 gallon tank. This fish will nearly reach or exceed 12" in length(assuming you properly treat for ich) and is a very active swimmer that needs room to roam. I don't know the dimensions of your tank but I'm guessing they are not more than 36"long and maybe 18" wide, clearly not enough for a fish this size. I think I remember recomendations of tanks no less than several hundred gallons or so.

[donice]

okay you guys thanks for caring I will check out what lee told me .

[weez1959]

Keep us posted on the fish!

[donice]

i will thanks nothing changed yet

[donice]

I bought a cleaner wrasse very healthy one! Still giving my blue tang and the rest food soaked in garlic. There is very few white spots on him now. But not saying out of the woods yet. I am waiting for my hospital tank to arrive just incase. Hope I won't need to use it But I have what lee told me down.

[jgb23]

The problem I have with Cleaner Wrasse is they always die. I have never been able to keep one longer than 2 days. When "soaking food in garlic" do you use a specific brand or can you make your own? If so, any recipes for it

[weez1959]

Cleaner wrasses rarely do well in captivity. Of course the LFS will never tell you that and will usually tell they will be fine. It will probably come down with ich like the rest of the fish...
Your best bet is to get them out of the DT and into a QT as fast as possible and then leave your tank fishless for 6-8 weeks. From there always quarantine your fish for a minimum of 2 weeks.

[donice]

I am happy to say so far so good, no ick! I stayed with doing the cleaner wrasse , garlic soak food and two treatments of the the reef tank safe ick ,ick guard are something like that. I did'nt lose anything and dora is getting fat as every. Thank you for all your reponse I guess I caught it in time. By the way wees beautiful tank. donice