Clownfish with ich in reef tank.

[Danghost22]

So I’ve had these clown fish for about a month and I recently saw that they are covered in ich and I don’t have a tank to treat them with medicine. So I’ve been feeding them their food with garlic and hoping for their immune system to fight it but I want to help them more but I don’t know what to do since I’m relatively new to this.

 

[Qasimja]

the only way to fully eradicate ich is to treat the fish in a qt and leave your main display fallow or empty without fish for 76 days you could setup a quick qt with a 10g tank they are pretty cheap

 

[Brittany8808]

I'm having the same problem but I don't know if mine Is ich or Not Cause mine is all sand and My wrasse likes to swim at the bottom stir the sand up and so does My anenome She is always flying sand and my clownfish swim around like crazy With Eachother could it be sand on my clownfish cause My wrasse doesn't have any?.

 

[Paul Sands]

You can do the tank transfer method to eradicate ich. Two small clowns can be accommodated in 5 gallon buckets with a heater and HOB filter. Since you are moving them to new buckets with brand new water every few days, ammonia usually isn’t an issue, but you should check daily.

 

[Danghost22]

So should I just set up a 5-10 gallon tank for the clowns for 76 days? And I’m terms of setting it’s up should I just grab a rock from the main tank and have that as the biological filtration?

 

[LAReefer4Life]

You’ll need to treat your fish with copper in the QT for a 30 day period. Copper must be maintained at therapeutic levels of .5ppm to eradicate the parasite. In addition your DT will need to remain fallow for 76 days minimum as stated prior.

Live rock will absorb the copper solution so it’s best to keep it bare bones and use PVC piping to create hiding places. You can use seeded sponge or the cement rings from your DT and place them in a HOB filter on your QT.

Things you’ll need are:
- seachem ammonia badge
- heater
- HOB filter
- 3 bottles of biospira nitrifying bacteria
- powerhead or airstone is a good idea but optional

 

[Danghost22]

I also have an eel can I leave him in the tank? But for sure going to set up a small QT

 

[LAReefer4Life]

Eels have thick skin and slime coat but they can still carry the parasite in their gills. However, copper treatment is NOT advised.

CP is the best treatment for an eel. See the thread below

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/chloroquine-phosphate.192309/