Itch on my royal gramma

lefty · Aug 20, 2014

Hello all. So yesterday I noticed my royal gramma acting a little funny. He was rubbing against the sand. I have never seen him do this before. I had just completed a water change, so I thought I would monitor the situation. This morning I check on him and he has developed small white spots. I have never dealt with itch before, but I am pretty new to the game of marine keeping. I have had my tank up and running for about 6 months now. I have 2 clowns, and the rg. What is the reccommended method of treatment, or best method of treatment. I have read some things on it and there are so many different things out there. I am planning on a reef system in the future, so copper treatment in the dt is out. I am leaning towards waiting and seeing what develops of it, but would like to know proper steps incase it gets much worse. Thanks in advance.
Dan.

CFQTPye · Aug 20, 2014

From what I know of Ich, it hardly clears on itself. I would move your Gramma to your quarantine tank and treat for the Ich in that tank. If you have any invertebrates, the copper treatment will kill them. I would separate out the culprit and treat accordingly. Keep a close eye on the rest of your livestock... it tends to spread.

lefty · Aug 21, 2014

Is Rid Ich Plus a good product to use?

Intricateart · Aug 21, 2014

Our gramma had ich bad,but we never treated him. Lots of food really does work.Keep params in check. A year later no ich and a fat gramma.

GHill762 · Aug 21, 2014

maybe your royal grampa can scratch it for her? :xd:

rid ich and other products won't do anything, the only way to get rid of it will be to put the fish in a hospital tank and go with one of the known methods such as hyposalinity, copper, chloroquine phosphate (spelling?), etc..

there is also the idea that fat healthy fish can fight it off, I subscribe to this train of thought.. studies show that if you don't introduce any new hosts the parasite will fizzle out completely in roughly 8 months so long as you can keep the fish healthy and strong..

SantaMonicaHelp · Aug 21, 2014

Definitely try to catch it and put it into quarantine, but make sure to do so gently...Ich forms on already stressed fish, so you dont want to add any more.
Hope it heals :]

ETORRES477 · Aug 21, 2014

GHill762 said:
maybe your royal grampa can scratch it for her? :xd:

rid ich and other products won't do anything, the only way to get rid of it will be to put the fish in a hospital tank and go with one of the known methods such as hyposalinity, copper, chloroquine phosphate (spelling?), etc..

there is also the idea that fat healthy fish can fight it off, I subscribe to this train of thought.. studies show that if you don't introduce any new hosts the parasite will fizzle out completely in roughly 8 months so long as you can keep the fish healthy and strong..

+1 on both of these post. I had ich a couple of months ago, kept my parameters pristine, did my water changes, and fed my fish very well. Did not lose a single fish and no problems since. Sometimes when you take them out and put them into QT this adds to the stress. You will get many different opinions on here I'm just giving you my experience.

lefty · Aug 21, 2014

Thank you all for the advice. I am going to continue to feed well and monitor fish and parameters. I do weekly water changes already, so I will keep that up as well.