ICH

[Sea hare]

Did a rescaping and obviously stressed out my fish.. They have all developed ICH and some of the, are severe. While I will get all advise on ICH like hypo copper etc I have my own theory. I watch and wait. One indication is are they eating and are they active if answe is yes. I let them be. They cure themselves out. Have tried qt,copper,hypo Etc in the past only to see the fish SURELY die as they are massively stressed by the cure.

[blusafe]

Good protocol. If you have ich now with nothing new added, then your fish have been experiencing low-level infestation for some time. I would go with large water changes daily. If too much trouble, then at least 2-3 times a week to help keep the parasite population low and give your fish a chance to regain strength.

[markymarcus]

I guess that does make a lot of sense. Tell us how it pans out.

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[Sea hare]

Actually was not looking for advise but only sharing my experience. . ICH is a unique parasite. Water changes won't and don't help. Reason is they are always around in the sand and rocks. They just await a weak fish and then boom.. This is my first ICH infestation in singapore. Have been a reefer in Dubai where I had several rounds over a 6 year period. Trust me the first time I panicked and QTed the fish and treated them copper hypo and all. They survived maybe a week Max. The second time I just gave up as catching the fish was tough. Kept feeding a healthy mix of food with garlic. Voila in under a week they were great. To think of it they were infected some 4 more times. They survived each time with no issues. A cleaner shrimp also grew fat on the way and my take is ICH benefits my shrimp and does not harm my fish., yes May sound silly but true.

[Sea hare]

Reason I posting is that most of us try catching the fish QT and treatment. In fact have seen someone who actually tried scrapping the ICH if with a fresh water bath.. Poor fish. Died in a day. People need to understand that ICH is pretty common even in nature and the gush of cure themselves.

[Digiman]

Dear Sea Hare,

Your approach a well-known and common practice in many experienced hobbyists. The idea is simple, since we can't remove ich completely from our tank, then live in harmony with it by keeping its level low.

Only when ich reaches outbreak level it can wipe out the tank inhabitants. It is the same theory as in the wild. Ich is never observed on fishes in the wild simply because the ocean is so vast that the ich population will never be able to hit an outbreak level. So what we are doing is just to achieve the same state in our tank which is much harder. Given the small water volume, ich can multiply quickly and cause an outbreak.

Copper and hypo are two useful methods to kill free-swimming stage ich when an outbreak has occurred but they also stress the fish so much that unless they are administered early enough, the infected fishes will usually not pull through.

Prevention is better than cure and there are 3 things experienced reefers frequently do to keep the ich level contained:

1) Install a UV

2) Maintain good water quality through regular water changes and good husbandry

3) Avoid fishes that are easily susceptible to ich like Chaetodon and Acanthurus unless your tank is very stable

If your tank is stable and fishes in the prime of health, occasional "whitespots" appearing on one or two fishes is no cause of alarm as they subside quickly. That is living in harmony with ich. However to achieve that is exceptionally difficult in new hobbyists as they tend to buy and add fishes too quickly into their tank and that is when ich has a chance to become dominant and cause an outbreak.

So a final piece of advice for new hobbyists. A tank can take up to one year to become mature and stabilised. So always go slow and stock slowly with careful research done on the fishes you are going to buy.

[james72]

During freshwater days, we just dip a piece of garlic in the tank and the fishes white spots disappear after 1-2 weeks. Haven't tried this method with saltwater fishes. It cost almost nothing, maybe its worth a try Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[Sea hare]

Thanks digiman and James. My ICHs gone and trust me it was a pretty severe infestation. Under a week is not bad uh? Reason I posted is that copper and hypo actually don't help. Frankly what success have we had with these methods. Once again it is a game of chance and I rather chance them going thru ICH and recovering. I have a 200 gallon tank and with over 20 fishes. Each was infected and not a single one has ICH today. I feed them live feed, frozen misys brine etc and most importantly all dipped in garlic. Garlic helps a lot. This is just a jotting of my personal journey and obviously my views. I may be lucky and others may not

[Digiman]

During freshwater days, we just dip a piece of garlic in the tank and the fishes white spots disappear after 1-2 weeks. Haven't tried this method with saltwater fishes. It cost almost nothing, maybe its worth a try Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

Haha throw a raw garlic into the tank to remove ich?

No harm trying yes, but i can certainly say it is not going to work.

[james72]

Ya, thats how we do it n it works on freshwater tank. Reef tank I never try before honestly

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[Sea hare]

Garlic works trust me. All fish FULLY recovered now.

[markymarcus]

Can I just say I have come to fully agree with sea hare. I recently acquired a purple tang for my tank. Immediately upon reaching home, I put it through 1 hour of formalin bath, then hypo, another hour of formalin the next day and followed by 2 weeks of hypo again in a QT. Just when I was slowly adjusting it's salinity back to match my display tank's the tang started to get ich in the QT. I have come to terms with the fact that ich is just inevitable and we just have to keep our fishes' immunity high to keep this parasite at bay. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[I love angel]

Can I just say I have come to fully agree with sea hare. I recently acquired a purple tang for my tank. Immediately upon reaching home, I put it through 1 hour of formalin bath, then hypo, another hour of formalin the next day and followed by 2 weeks of hypo again in a QT. Just when I was slowly adjusting it's salinity back to match my display tank's the tang started to get ich in the QT. I have come to terms with the fact that ich is just inevitable and we just have to keep our fishes' immunity high to keep this parasite at bay. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

can you share a picture of your formalin medicine? Where do you get it? Thanks