I bought 2 fish from PETCO and the next day one was dead and the other was on the way. Went back to the store and they said there was nothing they could do. Went to the tank were they were taking from and all the fish in the tanks had ich. So they sold me sick fish but their was nothing they can do so I have to take the loss. PLEASE PLEASE dont buy your fish from petco. Anyway here is my actual question now that all my other fish have ich I bought a product called Kick Ick because I was told that it was good for Ich and safe to use with live rock and inverts. Does anyone have any expirence with this product to give me some feedback. Or other sugestions for treating ich. I dont have a seperate tank so I can take the inverts out. Anything is helpful. Thanks
Ich treatment
- Thread starter jlr136
- Start date
Bifferwine
I am a girl
First some questions: What kind of fish were they? What other animals do you have in your tank (fish and inverts)? What are your water parameters? How long has your tank been running? How big is the tank? What kind of equipment do you have? Your answers will give us a better idea about what's going on.
Petco fish are notoriously unhealthy. Of all the fish I have bought from my local saltwater store, not one has ever died on me. Of the fish I bought from Petco (when I started stocking my tank), only one survived. A girl that used to work at Petco that now works at my LFS said it was not uncommon for less than 15% of their animals to arrive alive as the distributor they get their animals from was of very poor quality and that's why Petco can sell the animals at the price they do.
Petco fish are notoriously unhealthy. Of all the fish I have bought from my local saltwater store, not one has ever died on me. Of the fish I bought from Petco (when I started stocking my tank), only one survived. A girl that used to work at Petco that now works at my LFS said it was not uncommon for less than 15% of their animals to arrive alive as the distributor they get their animals from was of very poor quality and that's why Petco can sell the animals at the price they do.
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It was a Percula Clown fish and a butterfly fish. the water parameters are fine. The tank has been running for a month. It is a 95 gallon wave and I have a Cascade 1500 canister filter. I have 3 anemones, 2 snails, 1 starfish, 2 Damsels, 1 Yellow tang(small), 1 Hippo tang(small) and 1 Copperband Butterfly(small) and I have a seaclone protein skimmer and a couple of pounds of live rock.
Bifferwine
I am a girl
Fish can usually recover from ich by themselves. It is a natural thing and stress will bring it out in fish; however ich is believed to always be present in your tank. If it gets really bad, you can try medications, although in my opinion, most of them are not always effective, unfortunately. I think that several factors may have contributed to the stress and death of your fish:
You are stocking a new tank way too fast with too many animals. You should add one fish, wait a couple weeks to make sure it's healthy and that the tank can handle the added bioload, then add another.
What kinds of lights do you have? Anemones need at least 8 watts per gallon, or they will not survive. If your anemones are sick or dying because of insufficient lighting that can make your tank go downhill fast.
Butterfly fish are generally difficult to keep and do not live long if you cannot provide them with a well established mature tank to live in. Hippo tangs are also considered very difficult to keep as they are extremely susceptible to ich and seem to get sick if even slightly stressed. You have chosen some challenging fish to keep in a very new tank, so they probably will not do very well. The damsels and clowns are good, hardy fish and are not as susceptible to illness, and I'd say they have a very good shot of recovering from ich.
You can try treating the fish, but medication will surely be bad for the anemones and the inverts, who are very sensitive. A quarantine tank is always a good idea so that you can keep fish separate for a while before adding them to the main tank, and if one gets sick you can remove it and treat it separately without adding medicine to the whole tank.
I think that if you try to improve the conditions in the tank, you may have a shot at beating the ich. First, you want a lot more live rock. 2 lbs of live rock per gallon is generally recommended -- this aids in filtering the tank. Keep in mind, uncured rock will only worsen your water conditions and curing rock can take a long time! You have a pretty big tank and rock is very expensive, but more live rock will definitely improve your water conditions in the long run, not to mention provide a better habitat for the animals.
And the Sea Clone is the worst skimmer out there. If you are going to be keeping inverts (especially anemones) you will definitely need to upgrade.
I hope I can help, I'm sorry I don't have better news for you :cry: . The most important virtue to have in this hobby is patience and if you rush things, your tank will easily and very quickly crash. We've all made these mistakes and the best thing is we learn from them! So don't take it too hard, just take it more slow from now on and research the equipment and especially the animals before you buy them!
Be sure to keep us posted on how things go... I wish you the best!
You are stocking a new tank way too fast with too many animals. You should add one fish, wait a couple weeks to make sure it's healthy and that the tank can handle the added bioload, then add another.
What kinds of lights do you have? Anemones need at least 8 watts per gallon, or they will not survive. If your anemones are sick or dying because of insufficient lighting that can make your tank go downhill fast.
Butterfly fish are generally difficult to keep and do not live long if you cannot provide them with a well established mature tank to live in. Hippo tangs are also considered very difficult to keep as they are extremely susceptible to ich and seem to get sick if even slightly stressed. You have chosen some challenging fish to keep in a very new tank, so they probably will not do very well. The damsels and clowns are good, hardy fish and are not as susceptible to illness, and I'd say they have a very good shot of recovering from ich.
You can try treating the fish, but medication will surely be bad for the anemones and the inverts, who are very sensitive. A quarantine tank is always a good idea so that you can keep fish separate for a while before adding them to the main tank, and if one gets sick you can remove it and treat it separately without adding medicine to the whole tank.
I think that if you try to improve the conditions in the tank, you may have a shot at beating the ich. First, you want a lot more live rock. 2 lbs of live rock per gallon is generally recommended -- this aids in filtering the tank. Keep in mind, uncured rock will only worsen your water conditions and curing rock can take a long time! You have a pretty big tank and rock is very expensive, but more live rock will definitely improve your water conditions in the long run, not to mention provide a better habitat for the animals.
And the Sea Clone is the worst skimmer out there. If you are going to be keeping inverts (especially anemones) you will definitely need to upgrade.
I hope I can help, I'm sorry I don't have better news for you :cry: . The most important virtue to have in this hobby is patience and if you rush things, your tank will easily and very quickly crash. We've all made these mistakes and the best thing is we learn from them! So don't take it too hard, just take it more slow from now on and research the equipment and especially the animals before you buy them!
Be sure to keep us posted on how things go... I wish you the best!
bobby
I like to do bad things.
I have bought several fish from petco and havnt had a prob yet. When buying from a chain store you have to watch the fish carefully. All petco's are different most are bad but some are good. Your best bet for treating ick is to do it in a qt tank, you should have one of these set up and use it anytime you buy a fish. I cant say much though I dont have one yet. I dont know anthing about that medication, sorry. From reading your stats I think you added the anemones and copperband too soon, also you should upgrade the skimmer, I started out with that skimmer and it didnt take long to upgrade. The tang will get to big for your tank they reach a length of 14 inches and need a min tank size of 110 gal. Another thing you might want to add is more live rock.
bobby
I like to do bad things.
Do you have a sump? If you do a in sump model is your best bet.
bobby
I like to do bad things.
If you dont have a sump go with the aqua c remora or the coralife super skimmer 220.
Bifferwine
I am a girl
Aqua C Remora Pro
At this point do not add any more animals or corals to your your system. Your system is not matured enough to handle the bio load you currently have. You said your water parameters are fine. I would be curious for you to post your Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, calcium, Magnesium, Ph, alkalinity, dkh, Iodine, salinity, and temperature. Also what salt do you use. If you do not have a protein skimmer, what is your water top off and water change schedule and what kind of water do you use. With the above information you can then receive a lot more precise help here. Keep us posted on your progress and do not add any more animals until you can keep everything alive without any losses for at least 4 months. (Tip-patients is rewarding long term).thanks for the post. good luck.
Ironman
Reef enthusiast
everyone so far has givin pretty good advice so I dont want to repeat things. Here is some advice for your current situation:
First off are the infected fish still eating? If so try and find some poudered metronidazole from your local pet store, if you find the pills thats ok just crush them up into powder. thaw 2 cubes of brine shrimp or mysis shrimp in 1 ounce of tank water. add some metronidazole powder to the mixture and stur it till its mixed in (only use about a 1/2 the size of a tylenol amount of powder) it doesnt have to be precise just dont go overboard with it. Let that mixture soak for 15 minutes to let the medicine soak into the food. then feed the fish that mixture every day or other day till they are looking good again. One of the most important treatments for disease is good feeding, a well fed fish will usually survive anything. ive found that this treatment is a better solution as it doesnt add enough medication to the water to be a problem, but it adds more medication to the fish than adding it to the water would do. I dont recommend this treatment for nano cubes as the water quantiy is small enough that the metronidazole could be a problem, but for larger tanks its not a problem.
If the fish arnt eating than odds are they are already gonners, ive never seen a fish servive once it stops eating. as for a quarantine, they are good for treating and watching newly purchased fish. but once a fish is put into a display aquarium and gets sick it is usually more stressful and detrimental to remove them to a new setting again.
as for KICK ICH - ive never used it cause I dont add tratment chemicals to my tank water. but I have had friends use it with success, i have also had friends that say it didnt help. So I cant tell you for sure.
the water parameters are important in the fishes stress level also. you should make sure your Ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, PH, Salinity, and temperature are all within acceptable ranges. You can raise the temperature alittle if you normally keep it low to help speed up the life cycle of ICH. I wouldnt raise it above 80 though.
hope this helps.
Bryan
First off are the infected fish still eating? If so try and find some poudered metronidazole from your local pet store, if you find the pills thats ok just crush them up into powder. thaw 2 cubes of brine shrimp or mysis shrimp in 1 ounce of tank water. add some metronidazole powder to the mixture and stur it till its mixed in (only use about a 1/2 the size of a tylenol amount of powder) it doesnt have to be precise just dont go overboard with it. Let that mixture soak for 15 minutes to let the medicine soak into the food. then feed the fish that mixture every day or other day till they are looking good again. One of the most important treatments for disease is good feeding, a well fed fish will usually survive anything. ive found that this treatment is a better solution as it doesnt add enough medication to the water to be a problem, but it adds more medication to the fish than adding it to the water would do. I dont recommend this treatment for nano cubes as the water quantiy is small enough that the metronidazole could be a problem, but for larger tanks its not a problem.
If the fish arnt eating than odds are they are already gonners, ive never seen a fish servive once it stops eating. as for a quarantine, they are good for treating and watching newly purchased fish. but once a fish is put into a display aquarium and gets sick it is usually more stressful and detrimental to remove them to a new setting again.
as for KICK ICH - ive never used it cause I dont add tratment chemicals to my tank water. but I have had friends use it with success, i have also had friends that say it didnt help. So I cant tell you for sure.
the water parameters are important in the fishes stress level also. you should make sure your Ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, PH, Salinity, and temperature are all within acceptable ranges. You can raise the temperature alittle if you normally keep it low to help speed up the life cycle of ICH. I wouldnt raise it above 80 though.
hope this helps.
Bryan
I hope you dont mind me jumping in here but I have a question. I have been following this post and treating my tang as advised with lots of food (brine or mysid shrimp soaked in garlic, and sea veggies on a clip) he seems to be better and eating very well but;
1. when do I know if he has kicked it or its just the cycle? He started out with just a few spots, got better, then got covered in them which lasted about 3-4 day on and off today he looks better once more.
2. Should I still try to get the Metronidozole ( pet stores didn't have it so I had to wait till today to call the vet)
3. Nitrates climbing due to heavy feeding (10) do a water change or will that just stress him all over again?
1. when do I know if he has kicked it or its just the cycle? He started out with just a few spots, got better, then got covered in them which lasted about 3-4 day on and off today he looks better once more.
2. Should I still try to get the Metronidozole ( pet stores didn't have it so I had to wait till today to call the vet)
3. Nitrates climbing due to heavy feeding (10) do a water change or will that just stress him all over again?
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Bifferwine
I am a girl
Can't help you with 1 or 2, but if it was me, I'd do a water change. I think high nitrates would be more stressful than a water change.
Ironman
Reef enthusiast
hello, 10 on the nitrates isnt a big deal, but a water change shouldnt hurt as long as you dont do a major change. you could wait alittle longer to do one but the higher the nitrates get the harder it is to bring them back down. if the fish seems to be responding to the heavy feeding keep it up. if your soaking the frozen foods in a cup and feeding it straight to the fish without straining the juices that the food was frozen in that can affect your phosphates and nitates alittle. the gell they freeze the food in can be nasty stuff. I personally dont strain mine but have heard of alot of people that have to, to keep the water cleaner. anyway as for the metronodazole it can be hard to find in some local pet stores. its even gotten hard to order. here is what I ordered last time. Metronidazole
its alot of it and youlll never use hardly any of it. but I havent really seen smaller doses of it yet. if you were local id give you some. good luck man
its alot of it and youlll never use hardly any of it. but I havent really seen smaller doses of it yet. if you were local id give you some. good luck man
Bifferwine
I am a girl
You might want to try soaking the food in garlic extract before you feed too.
Thanks to both of you. The tang seems to be doing ok. Still eating well but still breaking out with spots every other day then gone overnight. I did a water change. Got it back down below 5. And yes I rince the food and soak it in garlic extreme after rinsing for about 15min. There's a store about an hour away that carries something called Metro+ that is supposed to be Metronidazole. Any thoughts on this product. I thought I might try to get out there this weekend and pick up some of it and some selcon. ( Also recomended by someone for extra vitamins etc.)
