Fox Face Lo with ICH?

[vtec si]

I pick up a foxface rabbit fish about 3 week ago and had him in quarantine untill yesterday when I added him to my 300 gallon display. I woke up this morning to find him with Ich! I have no Idea how I am going to get him out of this tank with out taring id down! Any ideas? I have been using Garlic and all water perameter check out fine. SHould I add some cleaner shrimp? Should I let it ride? I only have two other fish in the tank but one is my prize CBB?
Any help would be great,
Martin

[Ninong]

Martin,

You probably already know the only sure advice is to remove all of the fish to quarantine and treat them there with either copper or hyposalinity. I don't recommend copper but hyposalinity is usually well tolerated by most fish. That process will take about six weeks, during which time the main aquarium is allowed to remain fallow (without fish).

That being said, you can always do what I did and hope for the best. About 18 months ago I purchased a Centropyge bispinosa (Coral Beauty Angelfish). I observed it for at least 15 minutes at the LFS and I was almost certain it was OK. Unfortunately, I don't have a QT tank. About two days after placing it in my tank, I noticed signs of ich on the angelfish and two other fish in my tank.

I immediately began feeding freshly minced garlic twice a day. Each time I used a fresh clove of garlic and minced it extremely fine. I used about 1/4 tsp of this very finely chopped garlic mixed with my regular fish food. I placed the food in about 1/2 cup of tankwater and allowed it to sit for about 15 minutes before dumping the whole mess into the 120-gal aquarium. I was surprised that my fish actually ate the garlic. They seemed to like it.

Anyway, for whatever reasons, the ich was gone in about two weeks. I continued to feed garlic for maybe another week. Then, about a week after I stopped feeding garlic, I saw signs of ich again. So I resumed feeding garlic, only this time I fed it three times a day for the next six weeks. The ich disappeared from the fish after about one week but I continued to feed the garlic for another five weeks. That was more than 18 months ago. I have not had any problems with ich since.

Whether that will work for you is anybody's guess. It happened to work for me.

[vtec si]

Thanks George,

Yes I started with the garlic that morning and today he looks a lot better. I think I will do this for 4-6 weeks and then see what happens.

Martin

[CSeaSee]

I also occasionally have a flare-up of ich for no apparent reason on my pacific sailfin; I just increase the amount of frozen formula two (with garlic!)being fed for a week or two, and it always clears up. It'll be interesting when there is finally a lot of definitive research out there on garlic; I really think there's some mechanism there, but I haven't seen any conclusive evidence one way or the other.

[Ninong]

Here are a few points that I think are important based on my experience using garlic:

• Use a new fresh garlic clove each time. Mince it very fine just prior to using it.

• Let the minced garlic soak with the regular food for at least 10 minutes prior to feeding.

• Feed twice a day. This may be important. We still don't know for certain why garlic is effective (when it is effective).

• Feed garlic for a minimum of five weeks, although six weeks would be better. (I fed it for only three weeks the first time and the ich was back a week later and I had to start all over again. And the first time I was feeding it only once a day. The second time, which was successful, I fed it twice a day for six weeks.)

Good luck!

[Ninong]

It'll be interesting when there is finally a lot of definitive research out there on garlic; I really think there's some mechanism there, but I haven't seen any conclusive evidence one way or the other.

I recently reviewed the medical literature to see what research has been done on the effects of garlic on various human health conditions. I talked about this in this recent thread.

Whether any of that has any bearing on our hobby is anybody's guess, but at least it's interesting.