White spot

[jam5971]

This has probably been covered time and time again on here but here goes.

I appear to have an outbreak of White Spot or Ich which I believe came into my tank on a box fish. It looked fine at the store, but when I got him home I noticed some white blotches on his sides. Thought nothing of it and they almost disappeared over time, but now there is spots all over him and one of my angels appears to have some on his tail and just above his head.

One of the staff at my local store has suggested feeding Brineshrimp with garlic as its only on a couple of my fish. If it doesn't clear up then look at using a treatment of some kind.

I'm happy to give this a go, as although I'm doing fish only I'd rather avoid introducing chemicals in case at some stage I decide to go with corals and invertebrates.

So my query is has anyone else heard of feeding garlic to combat white spot? And if so did it work?

[emoji225]

 

[polancoeddie]

Brine shrimp with garlic will help your fish immune system to try to fight of the ich on its body but it won't fix the problem. Ich is still in your fish tank and will continue to reproduce and feed on your fishes. The only way to get rid of them is to set up a quarantine tank. And treat them with copper. On your display tank over the course of 4 to 6 week they will die off with nothing to feed on. I'm battling ich on my tank right now I am 3 weeks in.

 

[Mike J.]

Healthy fish can keep Ich at bay. But that doesn't mean that they aren't suffering from harboring the parasite in it's gills. Then when they get stressed it can kill them quickly. It's best to eliminate the parasite from your tank completely. Feeding garlic to your fish might get them to eat more, thus be healthier, but it is not a cure for ich.

 

[Humblefish]

When it comes to ich, you have two choices: manage the problem or go fallow, QT/treat. As mentioned above, managing the problem will most likely never completely eliminate ich from your tank. It will always be there to one degree or another... you are just helping your fish manage their symptoms. If you wish to try ich management, I found it basically comes down to keeping the overall number of parasites down, while simultaneously boosting the fishes’ immune systems to deal with the parasites that survive. The former can best be accomplished by utilizing a UV sterilizer or ozone, while it's a good idea to soak fish food in vitamin supplements such as Selcon, Zoecon and Vita-Chem to accomplish the latter. Herbal remedies, such as Herbtana, and also soaking food in garlic may help.

I employed ich management for almost 30 years, but nowadays I QT all my fish and practice strict ich eradication methods. You would have to QT ALL of your fish, and treat with copper, chloroquine phosphate or tank transfer method to accomplish this. I'm not a big fan of hyposalinity, as hypo resistant strains of ich have been proven to exist. You also would need to go fallow in your DT for 72 days to starve out any remaining ich in there.

Honestly, unless you are considering QT'ing all future fish purchases moving forward I would not even consider ich eradication. Ich is so rampant in our hobby that it will just come back on another fish you buy. The choice is yours to make. I will be more than happy to advise you either way. :wave:

 

[eatbreakfast]

The way garlic helps is that it causes the fish to develop a thicker slime coat. The slime coat is the first line of defense against parasites,so.it helps in that way. But as was stated before once in the tank it will stay in your tank unless chemically eradicated.

 

[jam5971]

Quarantine tanks and the like are great if you have the space and can afford to have a tank running empty in case it's needed. Unfortunately I don't have the space, nor do I really have the funds, so whatever I do to control/eradicate it will have to be done in the display tank!

 

[polancoeddie]

My quarantine tank did not cost me anything. I had a 10 gallon fish tank laying around your pet store should have some for around $15. A heater $10. And a small circulation pump around $10. I had a small freshwater tank before so I had all that laying around. You Don't Need To Buy Sand, Rocks, Or Anything

 

[polancoeddie]

You could place it inside your closet lol

 

[polancoeddie]

Better than having ich for the rest of your tanks life

 

[TarHeelReefer22]

Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp are great at removing the cysts formed from the parasite. I always recommend people to fix the source of stress before trying to treat with chemicals...Natural is better...Also running a UV sterilizer opposite of your light schedule for a limited time seems to clear up break outs pretty quick. Long term use of the UV is not recommended on a reef tank.