Ich

[bcfiskins]

Any decent way to treat Ich without a quarantine tank? I have a new flame Angel that is finally starting to eat after 5 days and just noticed that he has several small white spots on his fins and body. Stupid question, but would a cleaner shrimp help?

 

[arch85]

There are two main theories from what I gather ...

1) Ich is always in the system -- if the water params are good and the fish are healthy, their immune system will fight it off.
2) Ich is the devil

Us personally, we don't know which one we believe in yet ... we recently ran our tank fallow for a while, and have been QTing our fish. But a couple of friends of mine, don't QT ANYTHING and their fish have been live and healthy for many many years.

The reason I bring that up, is to pretty much say that it's really up to you... if you plan on "actually" treating the fish, then you need to get him into a QT tank (unless you've no corals and inverts). If you just want to feed it till it comes back to health, then no need do anything; just keep feeding it a lot of food.

Cleaner shrimps might help in making the fish feel better, but it's not a "solution" to ich ... also I'm not sure if all cleaner shrimp clean :-/ ... our cleaner shrimp never go close to a fish ... #@!#$%#$

 

[Aquaph8]

Cleaner shrimp will not cure Ich. There is no reef safe treatment. QT is the way to go if you plan to treat. There are three proven methods to treat ich, Copper, Hyposalinity and tank transfer.

Here is a thread on Ich https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-discussion/56989-ich-discussion-treatment-options.html


Here is another on QT tanks https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-discussion/40458-quarantine-tanks.html

 

[bct15]

The best reef safe treatment is to feed the fish well and let it's immune system fight off the ich. This is the method I use and i have had 100% success using this method. I tried qt once and the stress from the qt actually killed the fish. I have never had a severe outbreak of ich but have seen mild cases on newly introduced fish, after quarantine from new arrival (imagine that), mainly on my powder blue tang and a coral beauty angel. After good feeding, the ich was gone within a week and a half (or less not exactly sure). None of the other fish ever demonstrated the least bit of signs of infection an everything is all good in my system. Cleaner shrimp are for cleaning wounds on fish, if you have more than one tang (or other fish that fight) you might what a cleaner shrimp otherwise you dont need it. I did add a little garlic to the food every other feeding to entice them to eat a little more, but other than increasing the appetite garlic soaks do nothing to help and can be problematic if overused. I also run a uv sterilizer for what it worth.