My nemo fish has ick:( please help
- Thread starter jaijai
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flynhawaiianz28
Community Member
Haven't used anything else but I would go with Cupramine by Seachem. I know that would require you to go out and buy something else but well worth the money. That stuff works wonders in my opinion as I just got done with 4 weeks of treatment and now onto 4 weeks of observation so I can meet the 8 week fallow period on my DT.
Chalice palace
Community Member
I don't use chemicals at all get some garlic drops from Lfs soak food in it and just keep the clown fat and happy and the ich will go away. I've ran an all tang tank with a few that got ich and that's all i did and it never came back. Ich is like a cold! with a good immune system it cannot live!
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
You know that isn't how parasites work, right?
ETORRES477
Active Member
I had Ich before, and the best advice I got was to just keep your water parameters pristine, keep up on your water changes, and make sure your feeding your fish well (Ive been feeding live black worms as the main diet). I was ready to tear my tank apart, put all the livestock in a QT treat with cupramine and leave my DT fallow for like 3 months. Thank god I was talked out of it, I followed the above advice and did not lose a single fish. They all made it through the issue fine. Just remember that if you use anything with copper in your DT you will kill your inverts, live rock, and will not be able to sustain a reef set-up for the foreseeable future.
PaulKreider
Valuable Member
A Copper based treatment will kill the Ich parasite, but these treatments are not reef safe and need to be done in a separate tank.
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
If you've 'had' it twice, then how has it worked 'everytime'?
tigerdragon
Valuable Member
you know if you are quarantining new fish the proper way and amount of time you will more than likely not get ich not saying it wont happen but your chances of not getting it greatly improve
Chalice palace
Community Member
Because it cured the fish from ich, Both times! It was over a 3 yr period and pretty sure the second case was due to poor water quality on my part which stressed the fish out and only the powder blue got it. I'm not interested in debating this with you! This member asked for advice and I simply gave him my experience, what have you done for him and his help he is needing, other then attempt to debate my advice! If you have better advice then give it to him!!! I offered a natural way to fight ich instead of unleashing chemicals in the tank which I've seen do more damage then good to other animals in the aquaria! I personally believe in recreating the ocean not a manufactured ocean, it's my opinion and it works for me doesn't make me wrong or right!
jedimasterben
Bubble coral sting good
It's not poor water quality or stress that 'causes' it - it is a parasitic attack on your fish. Doing nothing isn't a 'natural way to fight ich', it's just standing back and letting the parasite to continue proliferating until it deems conditions unfavorable and encysts, with some parasites still living and feeding from your fish, mostly in their gills.
I'm not here to debate, either. I'm merely stating facts about the parasite, Cryptocaryon irritans. Your fish don't 'just beat it' or 'get cured'. The parasite is either killed by your intervention (there are several means of eradication, though all but a couple are also deadly to the fish) or it continues to live out its life cycle and feed on your fish. The science is behind it and the parasite is very well-studied, there isn't much to debate. Copper, chloroquine/quinine, hyposalinity, and tank transfer (though the last two having mixed results). Everything else is either only successful in laboratory conditions or is snake oil.
Chalice palace
Community Member
So how did the ich disappear from my fish and tank if it will not go away untreated? I did nothing but feed garlic saturated food(nori, mysis, brine), and the ich went away fish are doing great to this day! Haven't had an outbreak in 1.5yrs and 3 yrs ago before that! I had a fellow reefer teach me this who has been in the hobby for 40+ yrs and he has the same results, so are we exceptions to the rule? Or maybe there might actually be something to this method!? I have an open mind, but when I see proof of a method working, over and over, to me, that stands out more then someone saying that won't work!
Msmith2813
Active Member
I had an ich outbreak in my tank when my brother crashed my tank while I was away for work for a week. 5/8 fish died while I was away. The other three that remained I fed heavily with garlic and vitamin c soaked food. The ich went away on those three fish and hasn't resurfaced in two years. I understand the above medication is the recommended way, but without doing anything to the tank how did my fish get better without the medication? Im not saying you're wrong, Im just wondering how.
Eienna
5000 Club Member
The fact of the matter is that the garlic does NOT kill ich. What you did was boost the fish's overall health and in doing so made them more able to develop a natural immunity to the parasite. If the infestation is already heavy, action to kill the parasites yourself must be taken, or the fish will not last long enough for its immune system to do the job.
Msmith2813
Active Member
Isnt that kind of semantics? Whether the garlic itself kills it or the garlic helps to kill it, the ich is gone. The garlic and vitamin c healed my three fish and they had full blown ich. Maybe I just got lucky (which im betting I did). I would say to use garlic and vitamin c in the food to help the fish not get it, use it when its barely noticeable, and if the fish gets full blown ich you may have to use a medication in a dedicated qt system.
Eienna
5000 Club Member
Semantics has nothing to do with it. I should have suggested a combination of good food and husbandry besides the meds. Actually, you pretty much restated what I said, lol. Helping the fish not get it is a good thing. Point is, the garlic is not going to kill the parasite, though it may help the fish develop its own immunity; sometimes helping the fish do this works, but in many cases it is already in too bad of shape to be able to do that in time. That's where the chemical meds come in. In my opinion, it's risky to wait and see whether it will fight it off itself, because by the time you realize it's not happening the fish may be too far gone.
