HELP! ICK on my tang

[Olivier]

:-[ Help! I got ick on my tang. Last night, I saw few spots on my Power Brown Tang. Can Someone help me on this. What should I do now? I just thinking of getting stuff incase I got Ick and now i got it in my tank. I read some treatment method and one of them is fresh water dip. Is this freshwater dip will get rid of ick or just temporary disinfect the fish?
Thanks in advance.
Olivier

 

[danthemanj]

The 1st thing you should do is quarantine the fish. Have the rest of your fish got it? Treat the tang seperately in a quarantine tank. You will have to keep it out of your tank for several weeks while monitoring the rest of your fish. If your other fish have also got it, you can treat the whole tank but its not as effective as treating an individual fish. Meanwhile, test your water parameters/temp/PH to see if anything is stressing the fish. Feed your fish with food dipped in Garlic extract and continue monitoring water parameters.

 

[harryk]

Sorry to hear about it. A freshwater dip will not do anything about the Ich except stress the tang out even more. I would recommend removing ALL your fish and treating them with either hyposalinity or copper in a seperate QT. DO NOT EVER TREAT YOUR DISPLAY TANK. They are the only 2 proven methods to get rid of Ich. You can also first try soaking all the food in garlic. It should help to boost the immune system so the fish might fish the ich off. If not only the two methods i mentioned above will help. In the future i would highly recommend QT'ing anything new you are going to be putting in your tank. It will prevent future headaches like the one with the ICH.

Good luck.
Harry

 

[danthemanj]

Olivier,

I should have been more specific about treating your whole tank. You CANNOT use copper to treat your tank for ICK but I've heard of folks using Ruby Reef Kick-ICH for treating their entire tank. It's supposed to be reef safe but I don't know how effective it is.

Good Luck !

 

[vincent6396]

Two weeks ago my 2 hippo tang had ick, I started soaking their food in garlic extract like Harry said and it went away but will continue to do so for all other fish. I read that it will help them fight off any disease.

 

[momof6kids]

As long as it isn't a horrible case of ick, I would just leave the fish in the display tank and soak their food in Garlic. It definitely boosts their immune system and helps them fight it off.

Now I just soak their food in Garlic once a week and have had no new outbreaks.

Erna

 

[MadReefer]

I use to hang a few fresh garlic cloves in the tank and replace them ever 2 or 3 days. The fish eventaully started to eat it and the ich was gone. Your skimmer will go nuts but hey it worked for me.

 

[Olivier]

I have all the food soak with garlic extreme and pour all of that into the main tank. at the begining about 1 week ago, my purple tang has ich and it gone away, now 3 of my fish got it. the power brown tang get the most. I am so sad to see that happen to him. every fish is eating normal. water parameter testing 2x/ week since 2 weeks ago. all parameters are fine.
PH = 8.2 and 8.3,
amonia= virtually 0 very very very light yellow 0.0 and my is 0.000
Nitrate = 10 or less than 10
nitrite = 0
salanity = 1.025 spot on. I use the meter from my wife company. very well calibrated.
Magnesium = 1300
Alkelinity about 2.4
calcium = not test.
silica = 0
phosphate = not test but there is some phosphate on my tank for sure. I setup the phosphate reactor to tackle this phosphate but not yet running it.
I did not Quarantine my fish when i brought it home. I only acclaimate the fish.
any further suggestion please do so

 

[Olivier]

As long as it isn't a horrible case of ick, I would just leave the fish in the display tank and soak their food in Garlic. It definitely boosts their immune system and helps them fight it off.

Now I just soak their food in Garlic once a week and have had no new outbreaks.

Erna

Erna,
can you define horrible? It seems horrible to me already when I see like 20 spots on my tang. The fish does not jump or do anything out of ordinary yet.

 

[momof6kids]

Olivier,
How long have you been soaking their food in garlic? Did you just start or have you been doing it all along?

20 is borderline horrible in my book. If you just started dosing garlic, I would keep doing it and watch them carefully.

If you have been dosing all along, I would remove the tang and quarantine it and treat it with hyposalinity.

I have heard a freshwater dip will cause the ick to drop off, but, the one time I tried that the fish was dead the next day. I think it is too much stress for a saltwater fish.

Good luck,
Erna

 

[NJ_ychung1]

my yellow tang had it... and eventually defeated it. this without hyposalinity or any other treatment. if the tang is swimming around and eating food etc, I'd leave it alone. the only thing that ick killed was a clown goby. after the CG died the ick went away because everyone else was pretty resistant to ick. the yellow tang was the carrier and the last fish added before the outbreak but he quickly became immune to it after several spawns of the ick owing to the Clow Goby falling down with it.

 

[Olivier]

Erna,
I just starting garlic soak on last week. it is about 7 days ago . every fish is feeding normal swimming around and hyper active when I come near the tank. The Tang is the one that heavily infected. other fish such as flame angel and queen angel have a few spots. The anthias lyriatail has a few on his fins but gone by today. I think my skunk shrimp and fire shrimp did their job at night when the light are out.
Should I do the treatment or hold back and keep observe to any sign of weakening?
Olivier

 

[momof6kids]

Personally, I would keep dosing the food with garlic and watch the fish carefully.

 

[malulu]

- i always keep one or two neon goby in my tank to help to keep the ich away... (do NOT get cleaner wrasse, some will tell you they do the same job, the different is leon goby will eat other foods, and the cleaner wrasse will be starve to death after no more itch to eat...)

- depends on the size of your tank, you may only be able to keep one (in case they flight each other).

- since you started to treat your tank with garlic-food, you should keep up with the water chance too (it smell stink!)

good luck.

 

[DaveK]

Powder Brown Tangs and related species are sometimes refered to as Ich magnets. They easily acquire this disease.

If this is a new fish, and it's only a couple of spots, and you have a healthy, well established reef, then the fish might recover on it's own. However, since you mention ich on almost all fish, I would start treatment.

Personally, I don't think socaking food in garlic or similar products do much, but it's not going to hurt, and a fish that's feeding well has a better chance of recovery.

If you see things get worse, you need to take much more drastic action.

I recommend you remove all fish to a quarantine tank and treat there. You must treat all fish, since fish can carry the disease, but not show it. One ich cyst can make thousands.Never, ever medicate a reef tank. No matter what the LFS says, no matter what is printed on the label of the med, no matter what your friends tell you, there are no "reef safe" medications that are effective period. (Note-there are a few rare exceptions to the never medicate a reef, but most everyone should not ever medicate.)

In my opinion there area only two serious treatments for marine ich, hyposalinity and copper. Each can be used alone, or they can be combined. Absolute minimum treatment time is about 3 weeks, 4 to 5 weeks would be better. Ich can be dormant for a long period.

 

[dnov99]

Get a couple of cleaner shrimp. I think they are one of the most beneficial additions to any reef tank. Also add a little selcon and vita-c to your food, along with the garlic.

Most people stress out over ICK, but it usually goes away in time as long as your tank parameters are all good. Usually the cause of ICK is poor water quality or some other factor that is stressing the fish out. Unfortunately powder brown tangs are very susceptible to ICK because of the lack of slime coat they have.

I have found that ICK is always and will always be in every fish tank, the only way that it stays under control is by keeping a healthy tank and not stressing your fish out. Good Luck!!

 

[magic]

Get a couple of cleaner shrimp. I think they are one of the most beneficial additions to any reef tank. Also add a little selcon and vita-c to your food, along with the garlic.

Most people stress out over ICK, but it usually goes away in time as long as your tank parameters are all good. Usually the cause of ICK is poor water quality or some other factor that is stressing the fish out. Unfortunately powder brown tangs are very susceptible to ICK because of the lack of slime coat they have.

I have found that ICK is always and will always be in every fish tank, the only way that it stays under control is by keeping a healthy tank and not stressing your fish out. Good Luck!!

I agree with dnov about the cleaner shrimp. My yellow tang had ich and the shrimp took care of it. Someone mentioned Kick-ICH . I spoke to Will at AO about it. The product contains capsin (sp?)a pepper extract that causes a thicker slime coat by irritating the fish's skin.

Bob

 

[Olivier]

Erna, Malulu and DaveK,
I will continue to feed my fish with garlic and keep my watch on the fish. If they are improve and better, I will continue to maintain taht otherwise, I will remove the fish and treat them in QT tank. I have 1 RBTA 1 Green BTA and 3 of the Zoathia, 20 fishes (10 chromis, 1 purple tang, 1 yellow tang, 1 power brown tang, 1 flame angel, 1 queen angel and 3 tinny clown, 3 shrimps) couple of hermit crab, 2 star fishes, 5 mexican snails. If in a worst case, do i need to remove shrimp,snails,BTAs and Zoathia out of the tank? do i need to remove live rock too? I have a refugium in my system as well, do i need to remove my refug?

as far as I read, if i remove all fishes (hosts) the DT tank can be leave there with higher in temperature to get these ich complete their cycle faster and die off faster right? I am going to get a radiation machine home from work and zap the entire tank. well, i need a 240V power line with 1KA to operate the machine

Malulu,
how is your tank doing? are you recover from last incident yet?

 

[harryk]

I completely agree with Davek on this one. I would remove all fish and treat in a QT. Good luck

Harry

 

[Olivier]

Get a couple of cleaner shrimp. I think they are one of the most beneficial additions to any reef tank. Also add a little selcon and vita-c to your food, along with the garlic.

Most people stress out over ICK, but it usually goes away in time as long as your tank parameters are all good. Usually the cause of ICK is poor water quality or some other factor that is stressing the fish out. Unfortunately powder brown tangs are very susceptible to ICK because of the lack of slime coat they have.

I have found that ICK is always and will always be in every fish tank, the only way that it stays under control is by keeping a healthy tank and not stressing your fish out. Good Luck!!

I agree with dnov about the cleaner shrimp. My yellow tang had ich and the shrimp took care of it. Someone mentioned Kick-ICH . I spoke to Will at AO about it. The product contains capsin (sp?)a pepper extract that causes a thicker slime coat by irritating the fish's skin.

Bob

Bob,
I got 1 fireshrimp and 2 skunk shrimp (cleaner). Is this enough?