Nooooooo I got ich

nitrosport

Reefing newb
I was just looking at my tank and I noticed that all of my angels have ich! My water is good, salinity is good, and the temperature is at 78. I also have a uv steralizer. What can I do tonight to keep my fish safe? I am going to the lfs tomorrow to get medicine but I'm worried about my fish right now. I doused their food with garlic and fed them. I heard that the garlic is good for them and prevents diseases. Is this true? I really don't want to lose any of my fish.
 
Last edited:
Feeding with garlic will help. If you medicate the fish, keep in mind that there are only two treatments for ich that are proven to be effective: hyposalinity and copper. In both cases, ALL the fish in the tank need to be quarantined and treated. You cannot just treat the fish that are showing symptoms, because as soon as you put those fish back in the tank again, they'll just get ich again from the fish that remained.

Reef-safe ich medications don't work very well, and have even been blamed for causing tank crashes before, so use one of those at your own risk.
 
I don't have a quarantine tank to move my fish into. Can I just treat my whole tank? I also don't have coral in my tank, could that medicine kill the bacteria on the live rock?
 
The medication will kill not only the bacteria on your live rock and live sand, but every invert in the tank. Irreparably. As in, you will never be able to have inverts ever again while that rock and sand is in the tank. No snails, crabs, shrimp, starfish, nothing except dead rock and fish will be living in the tank. Because the rock and sand absorb the medication and will slowly leach it out over time. Some people go so far as to say that the medication can even soak into the silicone seams of the tank, so the tank itself can never be used to keep any sort of invert in it, but I think that's not quite proven...

If you plan on only ever having a fish-only tank, then you can treat the whole thing. But if you ever try to keep inverts, corals or sell that rock to a fellow reefer, you won't be able to.
 
Copper is not safe at all. Copper is what will kill all the rock, sand and inverts in the tank. Hyposalinity will do the same. That's why I said your only option when you medicate is to remove all the fish and treat in a quarantine tank.
 
I'm gonna go see if I can convert my grandmothers 30 gallon to salt water. If that's the case, I maybe able to use it as a quarantine tank.
 
I have about 10 fish and 2 eels. I'm gonna go to walmart this afternoon and buy a tank. As far as the inverts are concerned, will they still carry ich and give it back to my fish when their back in the tank?
 
No. The inverts should be left in the tank. Ich will die in the tank without any fish hosts -- that's why you need to remove all the fish. Even if there is just one fish left in the tank, the ich will survive and re-infect any fish that you add back to the tank later on.
 
Just remember if you treat with copper, you can not have any sand or rock in the tank. They will both absorb the copper and prevent you from keeping the copper at a theraputic level. Plus, you would never be able to keep any inverts or corals in the future with that rock and sand.
 
In your quarantine tank Cut up some 1 1/2" and 2" pvc pipe (home depot sometimes will give it away as scap) These tubes make good hiding spots for the fish since they have no where else to hide in a quarantine. This will help reduce the stress slightly.

Most tanks have ich in them you just can't see it. Ich becomes visible when the fish is stressed. When stressed the parasite starts to leave it's host making the little white bump. I'm not sure what angels you have but some angels are deemed expert or difficult to care for. They have something stressing em out causing this outbreak. Fixing the ich is a great starting point but you also want to know why they are stressed.
 
So far so good. I did lose my rusty angel but my other fish seem better. I barely see any ick on them now. I will keep treating for the suggested period.
 
I barely see any ick on them now. I will keep treating for the suggested period.

What happens is the parasite will gourge itself and then they will fall off the fish making it seem like the parasite is gone when in reality they fall to the substrate and over two hundred little ones called tomites will come from each parasite. It will be back with a vengence if treatment is not induced.
 
Back
Top