# Ich disease



## alexafg (Oct 31, 2011)

Hi everyone 
recently my fish got ICH and a royal dotty died 1st, and green manderian died 2nd and now my yellow tang died today  . i dont want my clown fishes die so i need helpppp.
the tank is around 3 months old.
i have frog spawn, elephant ear and a torch and fire shrimp 
i bought ICH-X medication and it says REEF SAFE

sorry if i annoyed some members


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

Well I am treating my reef with Ich-X right now. It won't hurt your coral but it probably 100% for your fish either. A 105g is linked to the 75g.

It all started on December 27 after adding a powder blue which got picked on and stressed out.

I started treating with Ich-X last Friday I think. I thought it is going well until I lost the powder blue yesterday. Fish in the 75g does not seem to be doing well but those in the 105g seem to be doing fine. Let's see how things go in the next couple days.

Does not mean to scare you but with the death you you are reporting, my hope would not be high - depending on the health condition of the clowns. If all you have left are the clown, I would try to take them out and treat them in a smaller quarantine tank with more effective treatment than Ich-X - a stressful process by itself.

Good luck to you and me


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## alexafg (Oct 31, 2011)

i have only a 3gallon and its plastic tank and i put water in there on sunday till now i hope it cycled by now.
im gonna add put the fish in there and add ich-X so b4 i did this i would like to hear more from those who experienced .


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

alexafg said:


> i have only a 3gallon and its plastic tank and i put water in there on sunday till now i hope it cycled by now.
> im gonna add put the fish in there and add ich-X so b4 i did this i would like to hear more from those who experienced .












You only need to paste this part:
http://i41.tinypic.com/2w6ru5z.jpg


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## Chewie (Jul 21, 2010)

*take things slow*

I would like to start by saying that in this hobby you have to take things very slow..and do ALOT of research and reading to learn as much as you can about animals ( and corals) needs and requirement BEFORE you just put them in a tank. I see that your tank is only 3 months old and you had a mandarin goby. A tank should be 6-9 months old minimum before adding one of these ( as well as most corals need an established tank) as they eat pods (codeopods and amphiopods) and it takes that long for a tank to be able to produce a steady supply of them for your mandarin to eat, if not it may slowly starve to death.

As for the ich there are a few methods that may work.(see links for the ways) The best bet is to quarantin the clowns in a seperate aquarium and medicate. I suggest getting a bigger tank to use as a hospital/quarantine tank as you need to keep it out of the main tank for a few months ( yes it takes that long for the complete ich cycle to clear). You should also get in the habbit of quarantining all new fish for a few weeks before adding to main tank. This gives the fish a chance to recover from the stressful time it had ( being caught in wild, holding tanks, travel to local fish store ect..and allows it to be able to eat without any interferance from other fish and gives you a chance to monitor the health and medicate as needed. 
I had an outbreak myself after not quarantining a tang, luckily it survived and no other fish contracted the parisite. I added a UV sterilizer to my tank after to help keep any parisites in check. I hope these links will help. Do not forget research, research, research.....and you will enjoy this hobby much more. Good luck.
Marine Ich
Marine Ich/Cryptocaryon irritans - A Discussion of this Parasite and the Treatment Options Available, Part I by Steven Pro - Reefkeeping.com


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## George (Apr 21, 2010)

ich-x and any other products that claim to be reef safe won't do much to ich because if the products can kill ich then it can kill your inverts in your reef too.
choose one of the following 3 methods to cure ich: copper, hypo-salinity and tank transfer in a quarantine tank. At the mean time leave the main tank fish-less for 4+ weeks (better 8+ weeks).
For OP, since you only have some clown fish left, your best option is tank transfer method. You don't really need fish tanks to do that (if you have spare fish tanks that's great). Just get 2x5 gallon salt buckets, 2 heaters and 2 powerheads(or air pumps). Prepare saltwater in those 2 buckets with the same temp and salinity. put the fish in one bucket, leave them there for 4 days and transfer them to the second bucket after 4 days. Discard water in the first bucket, rinse heater and power-head in fresh water, and prepare some saltwater in it with the same temp and salinity. Repeat the transfer step 4 times and you will have a healthy fish. Clown fish are tough fish therefore they can take the stress of moving. Feed lightly while in quarantine since you don't have any filter in those buckets.
Good luck.


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## tang daddy (Apr 21, 2010)

I suggest taking out some seeded water from your reef and starting another tank to quarantine the clown. You can add abit of cupramine or other copper products and also add an airstone and heater. When using copper medication I would suggest using half the recommended dose because prolonged use of copper at high concentration can burn the gills and eyes of the fish also inducing more stress and cause weakness and suffering. To paint a better picture Just think of it as youre in an acid bath!

Personally I would think putting a fish in a fresh batch of saltwater is not going to do any good and will stress out the fish more. Also not meditating the fish to help get rid of the ich is not going to make the ich disappear.

Lastly there are other natural methods of ridding ich. Get fresh garlic and squeeze the juices out and soak the food aswell as adding the juice directly into the tank. That will help the fishes immune system at the same time the enzymes in garlic kill ich. I hope the fish pulls through!

I have introduced fish before that were stressed to the new home and transfer, although my other fish didn't get ich. All fish carry ich and when they are extremely stressed will show signs of ich. Usually healthy fish are able to fight it off but sometimes due to poor conditions they suffocate from the ich.

Good luck, and please in future don't put tangs in small tanks.


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## George (Apr 21, 2010)

We need a refresh course on life cycle of marine ich. The following picture illustrates that. It's a little bit outdated because new information from the last few years suggests that some strains of ich can be in tomont stage for up to 72 days. 
Copper and hypo can't do anything with ich in tomont stage because they are well protected during those stages.
Ich will eventually fall off from fish (after 3-7 days). The fall off will go through 2 more stages (and a few days) before they can infect fish again. Tank transfer method target the period between fall off trophont and tomite stages. And since not all ich falls off at the same time, that's why we need to do at least 4 tank transfers to get rid of ich on a fish. 
Like I said, clowns are tough fish. They can tolerate fresh salt water and all the transfers. I won't necessary recommend that to others if it's an angel fish or a butterfly (But I will do, and did, that personally).


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## alexafg (Oct 31, 2011)

thanks for the help everyone but my all poor fish died


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## zhasan (Oct 28, 2010)

alexafg said:


> thanks for the help everyone but my all poor fish died


Oh man, sorry to hear that. I guess its a lesson for all of us!

I lost over 20 fish too to ich couple of months back. I leaned a big lesson from that.

I've implemented a quarantine tank since then and will be doing the same for my upcoming Saltwater tank.


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