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Black Ich
- Thread starter Jon
- Start date
If he can fight it off then garlic/selcon will definitely help him do that. They aren't proven as in guarenteed, but they do increase a fish's immune system and ability to fight. It is certainly worth a shot if you can't get the fish out of the tank. Good luck.
Hi Jon...If the tang is eating...just soak its favorite foods in Selcon for a few minutes before feeding. Also, gradually lowering the salinity and/or raising the tank's temerature will help. I would do this only if the tang shows no improvement after several days or if the parasite attacks other fish.
Dom
PS. What are your salinity and temp readings?
Dom
PS. What are your salinity and temp readings?
The tang is eating and acting very healthy. He has had the ich for atleast a week or two now. I never got around to diagnosing it because he was always been very active and not shown any signs of being ill (besides small black spots on his body). My salinity is 1.026 and my temperature of the tank keeps round 79.5 - 81 degrees a day. The parasites have not attacked any of my percula clownfish, lyretail anthias and fire fish.
Calaxa, maybe the fish was stressed when my salinity was very high a month ago. If you remember you chimed in on my thread about my hydrometer being way out of wack and when I finally got a refractometer I found out my salinity was 1.035. I got the salinity down to 1.026 but maybe I did it a bit too fast and stressed the tang out. Anyhow I have four cloves of garlic in my tank right now and hopefully that will continue to boost his immune system and he will fight off of the parasites. As I said he is eating well and looks very healthy besides the black spots.
Jon
Jon
If you don't have coral, drop the SG down a bit more to about 1.022. Even if you have coral, 1.024 is not a bad number to hit. I've seen too many people think that their salinity is on the mark only to find out it's way off. Remember, those refracts still need to be calibrated correctly. Ich thrives in high salinity.
I have a 36" tek light 6 bulb (234 watts) hanging from the ceiling (about 6 inches off of the glass canopy). I run the lights in a cycle 78 watts (actinic bulbs) for two hours 234 watts (all bulbs) for 8 hours and back to 78 watts for the last two hours. I have a fan on the sump 24 hours a day.
Jon
Jon
I think because you had a feeding specimen, the ich was fought off. It has NOT been removed from your system. I guarantee it. Stress your fish again and it will just resurface. But like I have said before, ich is usually not fatal. It is an annoyance. It kills only already sick fish. Cure it if you like, don't if you are too lazy. There are only 2 surefire ways to cure ich and 1 very very likely:
100% effective
Copper (2+ weeks at 0.25 ppm)
Hypo (4-6 weeks at 1.009 SG)
Effective but not 100% proven
Anti malarial drugs such as Chloroquine
Anything else you read that "cures" it, don't kid yourself.
100% effective
Copper (2+ weeks at 0.25 ppm)
Hypo (4-6 weeks at 1.009 SG)
Effective but not 100% proven
Anti malarial drugs such as Chloroquine
Anything else you read that "cures" it, don't kid yourself.
Jon,
If you truly wish to eliminate ich from your system, bear in mind it is a giant step. You must remove ALL fish from your system and put them into a QT. You will need to dose with Copper or perform hyposalinity. You must not listen to all the myths and urban legends other hobbyists will sell you on. These are the only two PROVEN methods. Everything else just does not work.
Copper treatment must be performed in a tank that contains no carbonates (ie Live rock, live sand, etc.) There must not be any inverts in this system as they will die from the copper. It must be kept at a concentration of at least 0.3. It must be maintained for a minimum of 2 weeks with 3 weeks being preferred.
Hyposalinity must be performed by gradually dropping SG to 1.009. This can be done over the course of 2 days but is less stressful if done slower. The specific gravity must be maintained for 4 weeks with 6 weeks preferred. SG must be slowly raised....much slower than lowering.
These two treatments CANNOT be combined. Copper will kill in a hypo environment.
Your current system must remain completely fish free for at least 4 weeks with 6-8 weeks preferred. You must treat all incoming fish as being infected with ich. That means hypo or copper for all fish before coming into your system.
Now if you still want to do this, good luck to you.
I will mention a few myths that have gone through the threads here.
Cleaner shrimp/Cleaner wrasse - not in their natural diet. How can these things eat something that has burrowed itself way down into the host? Furthermore, how can a cleaner wrasse get infected from something it supposedly eats. Does not make sense evolutionarily.
Garlic - how can a slight antimicrobial work it's way deep into the skin of a host to kill a parasite? How can this have an effect after it gets broken down by the fish's digestive system?
UV/Ozone/diatom filters - Fine for cleaning parasites in the water column but are you going to guarantee every bit of water will pass through before ich hits a host?
"Reef Safe" drugs - studies show they aren't reef safe and they don't cure anything. Good for losing fish and wasting money.
If you are serious, you can find lots of good reads on how to perform either one of these.
If you truly wish to eliminate ich from your system, bear in mind it is a giant step. You must remove ALL fish from your system and put them into a QT. You will need to dose with Copper or perform hyposalinity. You must not listen to all the myths and urban legends other hobbyists will sell you on. These are the only two PROVEN methods. Everything else just does not work.
Copper treatment must be performed in a tank that contains no carbonates (ie Live rock, live sand, etc.) There must not be any inverts in this system as they will die from the copper. It must be kept at a concentration of at least 0.3. It must be maintained for a minimum of 2 weeks with 3 weeks being preferred.
Hyposalinity must be performed by gradually dropping SG to 1.009. This can be done over the course of 2 days but is less stressful if done slower. The specific gravity must be maintained for 4 weeks with 6 weeks preferred. SG must be slowly raised....much slower than lowering.
These two treatments CANNOT be combined. Copper will kill in a hypo environment.
Your current system must remain completely fish free for at least 4 weeks with 6-8 weeks preferred. You must treat all incoming fish as being infected with ich. That means hypo or copper for all fish before coming into your system.
Now if you still want to do this, good luck to you.
I will mention a few myths that have gone through the threads here.
Cleaner shrimp/Cleaner wrasse - not in their natural diet. How can these things eat something that has burrowed itself way down into the host? Furthermore, how can a cleaner wrasse get infected from something it supposedly eats. Does not make sense evolutionarily.
Garlic - how can a slight antimicrobial work it's way deep into the skin of a host to kill a parasite? How can this have an effect after it gets broken down by the fish's digestive system?
UV/Ozone/diatom filters - Fine for cleaning parasites in the water column but are you going to guarantee every bit of water will pass through before ich hits a host?
"Reef Safe" drugs - studies show they aren't reef safe and they don't cure anything. Good for losing fish and wasting money.
If you are serious, you can find lots of good reads on how to perform either one of these.