[melliepooh]

Hi everyone... Its been awhile since I've been on... To update on the horrible stressful ich situation I had only 2 *knock on wood* casualties and it could have been SOOO much worse! I lost my yellow eye tang and my favorite common clown, the smallest of the bunch *sniff sniff*... I thought my tomato clown would succumb to it as well as my yellow tang, both were looking pretty awful but they bounced back-YAY!!! I think the loads of fresh garlic I had soaked their food in really helped to boost their immune systems! My question is, everyone is clear of spots, eating like piggies and swimming happily for a few weeks now, how can I be sure that its gone??? Sidenote: I'm not buying anymore fishies till I get some commission at work and I can but a QT tank.. FOR ALL YOU NEWBIES OUT THERE... DON'T skip on the QT tank when you set up your regular tank... It will save you SOOO much frustration and heartache for a drop in the bucket compared to the costs of setting up a 55 gallon tank itself! TRUST ME - I learned my lesson! Thanks to all who gave advice and listened to me freak out!!! =)

[Bughead]

The bad news is, your tank will probably always harbor ich. The good news is, you can prevent further outbreaks by quarentining all new fish and keeping the tank stress free as possible. Even then, sometimes you'll get a small outbreak when a new fish is introduced, especially if the newcomer is aggressive or an existing fish is aggressive toward it. It doesn't take much stress to mess with the fish's immune system. But hopefully you'll not have to go through the horror you just experienced.

[Leddy]

thats good to hear that the garlic worked. i just recently added a fiji orange tailed(male i guess) devil damsel to my tank. the domino chases him all around, and i just noticed the other day that the domino is starting to develop ich. i read some of the archives that the garlic will help it out. i just use fresh garlic mixed with frozen(brine, squid, etc.), being sure its chopped and crushed really fine. hopefully it'll help, all the fish are fine, and the domino is still really active and eating. i think i gotta give it more time so he gets used to the devil, but def. gonna keep giving the garlic. Did your tank smell like garlic, cause mine does? Did you use fresh garlic, or an extract? any advice you have or what you did i'd appreciate it. i just sold my old 29gal (figures at a perfect time to have it), so i'm gonna pick up a 10 from a friend and start a small quarintine just to be safe. any comments and replies would be greatly appreciated. thanks

leddy

[melliepooh]

Hi Leddy... I use fresh minced garlic (here you can buy it in any grocery store usually in the produce section), it comes in a little jar and I add just a tip of a teaspoon to each feeding. Yes, it does smell like an italian restaurant... It really improves the fish's appetite! The QT tank is an excellent idea - learn from MY mistakes! =) But you're right, give it some more time... I hope that helps.

[Ninong]

Probably the only way to be sure that ich is gone from your tank is to remove all fish for a long enough period that the life cycle of Cryptocaryon irritans is broken. That means a minimum of 4 weeks but 6 weeks or longer would be better.

There are numerous anecdotal reports of hobbyists who successfully fought off episodes of ich infestations only to have it reappear several months later even though they did not add anything new to their tanks. The only way that could happen would be for the parasite to have continued to reproduce via the available host fish in the tank during the period that the aquarist thought the tank was ich-free. It could have reproduced in such low numbers that it wasn't even noticed. Then some trigger, such as a sudden change in temperature or another stressful event, would cause one or more of the fish to be less able to resist the parasite and its numbers would then be noticeable.

There is always the possibility that the parasite can be reintroduced anytime new fish or even pieces of live rock are added to the tank.