Using herbtana to treat ich

[gbroadbridge]

The big problem I see with UV in threads like this is new hobbiest don’t want to spend the 200-500 hundred dollars for a proper UV for just a chance it might help.

That green machine on Amazon is a waste of time for ich.

It's not might help, it is proven in use in aquaculture.

It is expensive (I have a $700 UV on a 90 g system) , and I run ozone.

If it fits your budget, it works well with no more than an observation period for new fish.

 

[Sharkbait19]

the problem is is that ich can enter a tank via inverts and corals. so its not just quarantining the fish to not have ich enter a system. so now if you think about it you start to add up money for corals ( light, or lights ) tank, filter, heater, salt, water, this all adds up super quick. Not to mention the time that goes into this. so the money argument i would disagree with and you add time to it now.

You’re not wrong that it comes on coral and inverts - but that likelihood is far lower than coming on fish. In an ideal setup you would have a way to qt inverts but not all of us have that. Coral can be dipped to reduce chances of infection. I don’t have a coral qt and no problems on that end - many others can say the same.

 

[mindme]

My 180g has ich, my 29g does not.

I QT'd every single fish that went into my 180g tank, and went fallow. Main cause was velvet, but the treatment is still the same. I treated for everything. Had some losses in QT as well as it's not easy to do.

Still somehow ich managed to find it's way in my tank. I haven't tried herbtana specifically, but I've tried others. None of them work. The only reason they are on the market at all and the only reason some people claim it works is because they do not understand the life cycle.

I mean by the time the white dots appear, it's pretty much over in terms of what you'll see. So they "fall off" naturally, people say oh well I just dosed this product last week, that much be the reason why they "fell off". And then due to the longer life cycle of the ich, a month later they think they are cured. But that's not the case.

Also, the white spots are a result of the fishes immune system, it is not the actual parasite. The parasite is burrowed in the fishes skin and the white spots are pus pockets. The parasite itself "falls off" for the next part of the life cycle, then the fish heals up. Fish heal really quick, so it's like they disappeared.

Things like cleaner shrimp and cleaner wrasse can help a little, but only if the fish will let them. Not all of them do. My diamond goby loves to get cleaned by the cleaner shrimp, he'll open his gills real wide while the shrimp goes to town. Other fish will immediately run away.

Another factor is the thickness of the fishes slime coat or something. Some fish rarely show symptoms, while others have multiple dots. I've never once seen my Naso tang scratch or have a dot on him. Meanwhile, my blue tang will have multiple dots sometimes. My mimic tang I will see scratching from time to time, yet I never see dots. Same for my cleaner wrasse, I'll see him scratch, but never dots.

Some people attribute this to immune systems, but I'm not sure I buy that. Because I've had these fish for about a year and a half and their immune systems are apparently exactly the same. I'm not sure my blue tang is every going to develop an immune system that deals with these things better. I hope he does, but I think it's just that his slime coat is really thin while the naso's is not.

My cardinals I've never seen scratch or have a dot on them. Same for the watchman goby. Velvet was another story, it got everything previously.

So ich management for me. I'd love to get it out of the tank, but it's not realistic as I could never catch my fish. And since I did it before and got ich anyway, It makes me less likely to tear things down. UV light + healthy/happy unstressed fish is how I deal with it.

 

[Tamberav]

It's not might help, it is proven in use in aquaculture.

It is expensive (I have a $700 UV on a 90 g system) , and I run ozone.

If it fits your budget, it works well with no more than an observation period for new fish.

I say might because putting a UV on a reef tank does not magically cure disease. There have been posters who run UV still having disease issues.

I can’t in good faith promise they won’t have any disease if they go drop 500 dollars.

Not even all disease have to leave the fish to reproduce. Velvet as an example.

I think they are fine to use for sure but like I said… cost prohibitive to those entering this hobby.

 

[Wick]

My 180g has ich, my 29g does not.

I QT'd every single fish that went into my 180g tank, and went fallow. Main cause was velvet, but the treatment is still the same. I treated for everything. Had some losses in QT as well as it's not easy to do.

Still somehow ich managed to find it's way in my tank. I haven't tried herbtana specifically, but I've tried others. None of them work. The only reason they are on the market at all and the only reason some people claim it works is because they do not understand the life cycle.

I mean by the time the white dots appear, it's pretty much over in terms of what you'll see. So they "fall off" naturally, people say oh well I just dosed this product last week, that much be the reason why they "fell off". And then due to the longer life cycle of the ich, a month later they think they are cured. But that's not the case.

Also, the white spots are a result of the fishes immune system, it is not the actual parasite. The parasite is burrowed in the fishes skin and the white spots are pus pockets. The parasite itself "falls off" for the next part of the life cycle, then the fish heals up. Fish heal really quick, so it's like they disappeared.

Things like cleaner shrimp and cleaner wrasse can help a little, but only if the fish will let them. Not all of them do. My diamond goby loves to get cleaned by the cleaner shrimp, he'll open his gills real wide while the shrimp goes to town. Other fish will immediately run away.

Another factor is the thickness of the fishes slime coat or something. Some fish rarely show symptoms, while others have multiple dots. I've never once seen my Naso tang scratch or have a dot on him. Meanwhile, my blue tang will have multiple dots sometimes. My mimic tang I will see scratching from time to time, yet I never see dots. Same for my cleaner wrasse, I'll see him scratch, but never dots.

Some people attribute this to immune systems, but I'm not sure I buy that. Because I've had these fish for about a year and a half and their immune systems are apparently exactly the same. I'm not sure my blue tang is every going to develop an immune system that deals with these things better. I hope he does, but I think it's just that his slime coat is really thin while the naso's is not.

My cardinals I've never seen scratch or have a dot on them. Same for the watchman goby. Velvet was another story, it got everything previously.

So ich management for me. I'd love to get it out of the tank, but it's not realistic as I could never catch my fish. And since I did it before and got ich anyway, It makes me less likely to tear things down. UV light + healthy/happy unstressed fish is how I deal with it.

Everything right here is spot on.

 

[Ellissp]

For many people, myself included there just isn't space to setup a hospital/QT tank for that length of time.

Yeah this is it lol

 

[Ellissp]

I have used Herbtana (may have been Kordans herb version) in both my salt and freshwater tanks for visible ich (clowns in salt and rams in fresh). I had corals in the salt that closed up when added and the fresh water tank is heavily planted. Within a week both tanks had fish without visible signs of ich and the plants and corals were unscathed. Ich has not returned in either.
I understand that this treatment is considered ineffective by most experience SW hobbyist. I don’t know if it had any effect. I was new to SW when this occurred and didn’t want to kill corals so I tried it. All I can do is report what happened. Two of the fish in the SW are still in tank a year later and doing well as are most of the corals.

Awesome thank you! I’ve been using for 3 days now and everything seems just as healthy so I see no harm ‍

 

[Ellissp]

My 180g has ich, my 29g does not.

I QT'd every single fish that went into my 180g tank, and went fallow. Main cause was velvet, but the treatment is still the same. I treated for everything. Had some losses in QT as well as it's not easy to do.

Still somehow ich managed to find it's way in my tank. I haven't tried herbtana specifically, but I've tried others. None of them work. The only reason they are on the market at all and the only reason some people claim it works is because they do not understand the life cycle.

I mean by the time the white dots appear, it's pretty much over in terms of what you'll see. So they "fall off" naturally, people say oh well I just dosed this product last week, that much be the reason why they "fell off". And then due to the longer life cycle of the ich, a month later they think they are cured. But that's not the case.

Also, the white spots are a result of the fishes immune system, it is not the actual parasite. The parasite is burrowed in the fishes skin and the white spots are pus pockets. The parasite itself "falls off" for the next part of the life cycle, then the fish heals up. Fish heal really quick, so it's like they disappeared.

Things like cleaner shrimp and cleaner wrasse can help a little, but only if the fish will let them. Not all of them do. My diamond goby loves to get cleaned by the cleaner shrimp, he'll open his gills real wide while the shrimp goes to town. Other fish will immediately run away.

Another factor is the thickness of the fishes slime coat or something. Some fish rarely show symptoms, while others have multiple dots. I've never once seen my Naso tang scratch or have a dot on him. Meanwhile, my blue tang will have multiple dots sometimes. My mimic tang I will see scratching from time to time, yet I never see dots. Same for my cleaner wrasse, I'll see him scratch, but never dots.

Some people attribute this to immune systems, but I'm not sure I buy that. Because I've had these fish for about a year and a half and their immune systems are apparently exactly the same. I'm not sure my blue tang is every going to develop an immune system that deals with these things better. I hope he does, but I think it's just that his slime coat is really thin while the naso's is not.

My cardinals I've never seen scratch or have a dot on them. Same for the watchman goby. Velvet was another story, it got everything previously.

So ich management for me. I'd love to get it out of the tank, but it's not realistic as I could never catch my fish. And since I did it before and got ich anyway, It makes me less likely to tear things down. UV light + healthy/happy unstressed fish is how I deal with it.

Awesome thank you for sharing your experience. My hope with herbtana now since it hasn’t been hurting anything is that it’ll help manage the ich until I can figure something out later. My fish have been healthy with the ich so far but things might change fast who knows, especially since it’s a 6 gallon. I could honestly probably tear down my tank, catch my fish and put ‘em in a cheap tank with a foam filter, hiding holes, quick start cycle, and heater easier since it’s so small but I literally just got every coral perfectly glued in each spot and imo it’s more of a coral tank lol. I honestly might get bored one day and go that route just because it’s another thing to do, especially if my fish start looking worse, but for now I’m just gonna do herbtana, keep stress (parameter swings, hands in tank, etc…) minimal, and feed healthy foods.

 

[Pale Morning1]

Please keep the updates coming. Thanks