use ginger for ich

[dave171]

Have a sixline and cleaner shrimp. I don't know if you think im a noob but I'm not I know what I'm doing lol. Maybe because my experience I can handle ich in my reef better and my method is harder for a new hobbyists.and I also have yellow tang with no ich that's a vibrant yellow and fat so I think I'm doing something right hahah.not to mention my blue hippo is fat and great color.

 

[mnat]

Garlic does not cure ich and long term can harm your fish.

http://166.78.194.236/forums/showthread.php?t=2352039

 

[dave171]

But overall I know what I'm doing so no need to treat me like a newbie guys haha thanks for all the already known advice.

 

[4FordFamily]

Lol so you want me to get 10+fish out of a reef display and treat them. Then let my dt go fallow for 10 weeks while my fish live in a 10 gal qt. How about no , that's just plain dumb I think the natural way works best thats my opinion.

Buy a bigger qt tank. I am going to say to you what someone should have said to me early on when I said what you do and had your attitude about it - if you can't afford to properly take care of fish (proper qt procedures and medications) and don't have the patience to do it properly, you have no business keeping most marine fish and corals.

Before you get all upset, remember I too was that way. 12 years later and stubbornly acting as you do for most of that time killed hundreds of fish, caused me lots of stress and cost me lots of money I didn't need to spend. I'm not proud of it but I was just as stubborn.

If it's easy, it isn't worth anything. That applies to everything in life. Long term healthy fish without worry and trouble is worth it.

You shouldn't believe something just because you want to.

 

[CastAway]

What business does a terrestrial bulb or root have in the ocean?
Profitable quackery?

 

[NeuroticAquatics]

To the OP...the bottom line is that copper, hypo and tank transfer (obviously in QT) along with going fallow in your DT has been scientifically proven to work. Garlic might stimulate appetite, which certainly helps. Good water parameters and lack of stress helps too. Ginger, IMO, is questionable at best. Where is the research (not "it worked for me"). Do other spices work too?

There will always be people that believe that Ich disappears or is "cured" by all the snake oils out there. They will rally around the "it worked for me, therefore it is fact" concept and down the road when they lose fish, it will be due to something else because there is no way their "science" could be wrong. If you choose to go the magical route, just be aware that it's risky and you are relying on luck.

 

[787will]

Lol so you want me to get 10+fish out of a reef display and treat them. Then let my dt go fallow for 10 weeks while my fish live in a 10 gal qt. How about no , that's just plain dumb I think the natural way works best thats my opinion.

Yes that would be dumb, but what is cheaper in the long run, buying a slightly larger QT (40 breeder is ideal) from petco or craiglist and treating fish, or replacing the fish in the future because they have succumb to the 'natural way'? A good QT setup is an investment for the duration you keep fish, not just to fix a current ich issue.

BTW This is the best forum on the internet and has many many experienced hobbyists and experts that give advice and speak from experience. You will learn more from this forum than anywhere else. Keep an open mind.

 

[reeffirstaid]

If you are already advanced beyond the help this forum can provide, why did you come here asking questions? Clearly you have a handle on how to naturally cure ich. Why waste time pecking at a keyboard when you should be mincing ginger? Turning to a natural solution to ich in an un-natural situation is ill advised. If you research (which you must have) the topic, you will find QT, copper, freshwater dips, etc - are the only proven ways to alleviate ich - including running a tank without fish for an extended period of time. Again, it's highly probable you are misdiagnosing ich or have multiple parasites, newbie or not. Unless you are placing a skin scrape under a microscope and are able to identify parasites this way, you are making a guesstimate diagnosis. For this reason, it's best to use a treatment that can kill a wide array of parasites. At this point you do not have a sustainable aquarium system, and if left uncorrected you will continue to have problems. Perhaps you should patent your method.

 

[Humblefish]

Here's my 2 cents... those who feel strongly that ginger, garlic, etc. is a "cure" for ich should:

a) Setup a QT
b) Find a Powder Blue Tang with ich (Petco is an excellent source)
c) Treat that fish with your "cure"
d) Document your treatment protocol and track the fish's health post treatment
e) Publish your findings

That is how the "proven" treatments got to be "proven".

 

[hart24601]

As others have said I have never seen anything leading me to think garlic helps ich. There is plenty of research out there that fish do develop an immunity to ich though. I don't QT for ich, it popped up once and I just fed the tank well, ran diatom filter and it was very minor. I do treat in QT for flukes and look for other diseases though. Just not ich.

 

[Humblefish]

There is plenty of research out there that fish do develop an immunity to ich though.

There is some evidence to suggest that in rare cases certain fish can develop immunity to both ich & velvet. However, this immunity is temporary - 6 months max. And during this time they still are carriers and can infect other fish. Their bodies are just "immune" from developing symptoms. It's akin to someone with HSV-1, but they can go an extended period with no cold sores being present.

 

[hart24601]

FWIW here are some studies I was talking about. There are quite a bit more out there too. I do think the 1st study looked 6 months out and it was still good without re-exposure but I don't think they determined that was the max. Granted none of these are tangs, but there doesn't seem to be any reason that similar mechanisms wouldn't occur in most fish. The authors don't make it sound like the response is specific to groupers.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1050464885700435
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0044848606004364
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1050464812004780
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1050464806000817

I would never claim to know more than humblefish on fish health issues, I just don't worry about ich anymore. Never had any issues with it, fish seem to get over it just fine for me if it even shows up. Not seen it in a year plus.

 

[Humblefish]

Thanks for the links. Some I believe I've read, but probably not all.

Just to clarify, are you saying that you are seeing the physical symptoms of trophonts come & go on your fish? Or not at all?

 

[hart24601]

I do not see trophonts at all. I did see them about a year ago for 2 weeks or so, but it was only on a couple fish (2 tangs) and lasted about two weeks with decreasing severity. At no point did the fish act abnormally or have more than a dozen spots, give or take so the outbreak was minor.

 

[4FordFamily]

I agree it is possible to manage ich. However, expert level or difficult fish (and even others) can easily succumb to ich if added to your display tank later because your tank still harbors the parasite. I've seen it many times. The science and logic behind it is that the parasites live in the gills just out of sight.

I will tell you though Acanthurus tangs cannot be kept in tanks managing Ich like that. Although I have heard that Sohal are tough and some have had success. I did keep an Achilles for about a year in a tank managed with ich but he always showed small signs and it got progressively worse before very quickly taking over. I'm not proud of it. I've also kept a Caribbean blue tang in a tank managing ich for about 6 months. The reality though is that none of these experiences are success. Many Fish should live around a decade in our tanks with proper husbandry.

I've tried dozens of powder blues and Achilles and no matter how much i fed, the water quality, the stability of the tank, the quality of food and vitamins added, constant grazing on nori, they eventually succumbed.

 

[hart24601]

I don't have any experience with fish that are considered prone to ich or that are delicate. Although I am not sure if there is ich still present if you have managed an outbreak and not added fish for months and not seen trophonts in that time either. Seems that the life cycle is broken until you add a new fish that might have ich. But anyway I wasn't looking to argue or debate. Just share my experience and my reasoning behind it. I personally feel that everyone should follow humblefish's advise.

 

[Humblefish]

@hart24601
It's also possible trophonts are just coming & going from inside their gills, out of sight (path of least resistance). I once had a predator tank where I didn't QT any of the fish before adding them. I believe it was setup for 3 years, and I never once saw any evidence of ich. Added a Powder Blue Tang (which I did QT & prophylactically treat beforehand), and within a month you would have thought it was snowing in there. Every fish had trophonts.

 

[hart24601]

It's very possible that is happening, or not, can't really say. It's also possible that I have introduced ich on coral or clam too, I don't put the water in my tank they are shipped with, but it's possible ich is still on a frag or inside a clam that recently came from a infested system or even with some shrimp I bought. It's also possible that there are strains of ich that have developed various resistances that have not currently been identified by research yet. It's also possible to make a small mistake during treatment or QT that you never know about but allows ich to live but remain undetected a very long time.

But so far it's not been a issue for me. Flukes have though.

 

[Humblefish]

But so far it's not been a issue for me. Flukes have though.

Just a FYI; Some flukes are resistant to praziquantel. For these you have to use an alternative treatment such as formalin or Hyposalinity.

 

[reeffirstaid]

It's been accepted for some time, or as long as I can remember, that marine fish can garnish a temporary immunity to ich. It's not unlike people getting the flu, then being immune to it for a period of time. I would assume a crypto vaccine in fish would work the same as vaccines in humans. Fish get the vaccine, and for a while they are immune - but eventually they will need re-vaccinated. As I mentioned before, often aquarists assume they are dealing with crypto (ich) and it's another parasite. Often I talk to people who claim to have gotten the flu vaccine and still get the flu - when in reality it's more probable they had bronchitis or a sinus infection. Even if we had an ich vaccine, proven to work, that could be bought and easily administered to fish - I can't imagine it would take the place of a good QT measure.