Stupid Ich!

HotRocks

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There is not an effective treatment that is deemed reef safe. So you more than likely will have to "manage" the ich if you cant remove the fish and treat them in a QT.

This thread should be of help to you:
 
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Bubbagump69

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There is not an effective treatment that is deemed reef safe. So you more than likely will have to "manage" the ich if you cant remove the fish and treat them in a QT.

This thread should be of help to you:

I already have an oversized UV light on my tank. I have read recently that adding more oxygen to the tank can help with management?
 

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I very recently was in this same dilemma a few weeks ago and very thoroughly researched that same article. I also have an oversized UV and was feeding food soaked in many amino acids, vitamins, etc.. I decided to go the 'management' route for about 3-4 weeks. Very slowly, my two blue tangs started getting better then a lot worse, better, then worse again, until I decided that management would eventually result in the death of these fish. It was one heck of a battle but I eventually caught both of them and have them in a cupramine qt. Catching them was the nightmare that made me attempt management. My advise, jump on the problem now. I know it sucks to battle those fish into a net or trap but the sooner you do it, I think you'll thank yourself.
I spent hours searching for reef safe treatment. There are products out there that claim to do it but not one that claims it works actually has a good review. They just don't exist.
 

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How do I treat ich effectively in a display reef tank when I can't catch the fish? I have 7 clowns, a talbot damsel, scopas tang, inverts and softies in the tank.
Make sure it is ich also, a few times I tried to treat for ich and ended up being something else like brooklynella or HLLE
 

HildebrandRarity

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How do I treat ich effectively in a display reef tank when I can't catch the fish? I have 7 clowns, a talbot damsel, scopas tang, inverts and softies in the tank.
Also another option is ruby reef kick ich but it is not 100% effective by itself and it takes a long time - also would need to supplement the food with special products to fight of parasite - no easy way in a reef tank unfortunately
 
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Bubbagump69

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Make sure it is ich also, a few times I tried to treat for ich and ended up being something else like brooklynella or HLLE

This picture is for reference only. This is exactly what it looks like on my tang.
1601480717507.png
 

Mkkari

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I am going through the same issue at the moment. I see a white spot on my White Tail Bristle tooth tang. I have 15 Tangs in my display and I sometimes see Blue tang with white spots.

I am worried, I run a UV sterilizer which is 57 Watt @ 1400 gph, I know you have to run it slower for Protozoa Bacteria. (In future I will add another UV sterlizer running slower)

Any how, I will be setting up a quarantine system to quarantine all my 25 fishes....I will start a thread when I do that to show my progress. I don't have any corals yet so its easier to tear down the tank and get all the fishes out.

Run the display tank empty for 42 days at a higher temp of 84 degrees
(ICH cycle according to all the research I have done says live only for 21 days, I am doing 42 just to be safe, also at 84 degrees the ich egg or something hatches faster and will die faster since there is no host).

Quarantine setup, will run copper for 30 days and then prazipro for 12 days
 

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Also I love this source for information in most common marine diseases.
 

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This picture is for reference only. This is exactly what it looks like on my tang.
1601480717507.png
Sorry for the late response. I ran out of the house after my last post. The reference picture you attached is a later stage of infection from the parasite. This is dangerously close to completely compromising the immune system of the fish in my opinion. You need to start treatment in a quarantine tank right away. One or two spots for a few days is normally the start. Check the size of the white dots, when they are large like the picture, they're causing real tissue damage and greatly elevating the stress level of the fish.

I'm going with a straightforward 16 day Cupramine regiment at 0.55 mg/L. After that, I'll run a big bag of carbon on the qt for two days then treat with ParaGuard for 5 days to ensure everything is out of the water, help the fish repair any remaining lesions, and replace their slime coat. Then it's off to the upstairs tank. The downstairs tank has ich so I'm planning to leave fishless for 2.5 months. It has a lot of corals, inverts, anemones so still maintaining regular temp and other parameters.

Again, I strongly suggest immediate medication. In my not-so-experienced opinion, that is beyond 'management'.
 
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Bubbagump69

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Sorry for the late response. I ran out of the house after my last post. The reference picture you attached is a later stage of infection from the parasite. This is dangerously close to completely compromising the immune system of the fish in my opinion. You need to start treatment in a quarantine tank right away. One or two spots for a few days is normally the start. Check the size of the white dots, when they are large like the picture, they're causing real tissue damage and greatly elevating the stress level of the fish.

I'm going with a straightforward 16 day Cupramine regiment at 0.55 mg/L. After that, I'll run a big bag of carbon on the qt for two days then treat with ParaGuard for 5 days to ensure everything is out of the water, help the fish repair any remaining lesions, and replace their slime coat. Then it's off to the upstairs tank. The downstairs tank has ich so I'm planning to leave fishless for 2.5 months. It has a lot of corals, inverts, anemones so still maintaining regular temp and other parameters.

Again, I strongly suggest immediate medication. In my not-so-experienced opinion, that is beyond 'management'.

Yeah, I found it this morning as I was heading out to work. It's been a long day waiting to get home to get it out of the tank and into QT.
 

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My wife just got home from work and tried to catch it. No luck. I may have to pull out my rocks and corals. UGH
Try to clear one side or corner of the tank and use what you have to create walls. I have a couple glass lids that came with my qt and I used those standing upright to create walls that trapped the fish in one corner without a place to hide. From there it's just a simple net grab. Just chasing the fish around the tank with a net can take hours and you might hit your corals. I know from personal experience :( Plan ahead and block the fish in one place without an escape.
 

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Maybe i was lucky. But i took over two tangs and they developed ich after some time. Only the two tangs had visual signs. Since i don't have a qt i just increased feeding. Bought a 25w uv sterilizer. And after two weeks all visual signs were gone. I still believe that a tang with ich which has to be cought, qtd, and treated by heavy stuff will most likely also not benefit future health of the fish...
 

Kryptonian

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I did a bit of research on products like this a few weeks ago while in my dilemma.

My take on things like Kordon Ich Attack or Ruby Reef Kick Ich Pro is that the "Best Case Scenario" is that they save your fish and buy you a couple weeks time to get a qt cycled. These are not necessarily toxic to ich and will not eradicate it from your system. If you see reviews saying "It worked! OMG this is amazing!", that person is lucky enough to be in a good stage of ich management because the product cleared visible signs of ich from the fish and things look healthy.

The reality is that many of those products say things like 5% Napthoquinone and 95% some other unnamed stuff that's herbal, natural, and won't hurt your tank. They aren't open with (ineffective) ingredients because ich is a major problem in the US aquarium market and they're selling tons of their products without needing to disclose. If a compound is strong enough to kill the ich parasite, it's going to affect corals, I don't think there's any way around that.
 
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Kryptonian

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Maybe i was lucky. But i took over two tangs and they developed ich after some time. Only the two tangs had visual signs. Since i don't have a qt i just increased feeding. Bought a 25w uv sterilizer. And after two weeks all visual signs were gone. I still believe that a tang with ich which has to be cought, qtd, and treated by heavy stuff will most likely also not benefit future health of the fish...
Ich management is definitely an option as a fish with a very healthy immune system can often overcome and resist ich. Once signs are prevalent and the fish has an outbreak, I think that's the turning point where management is no longer an option. Stress is normally the trigger than causes a fish to have an outbreak.

Imo, it's hard to argue that catching a fish, treating it properly, eradicating ich from the home tank, and then returning the fish to that home has no benefit to the future health of that fish.
 

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