What methods do you use to cure ich?????

[klownphish]

What are methods that you use to cure ich if there are inverts in the tank?
Appreciate anyone who responds!

[tjdarla]

I use a 10 gal tank from walmart and a trickle filter I take the saltwater from main tank to start up my hospital tank and run a heater with air stone and trickle filter treat with copper for 4 weeks and add fish to main tank . I do this for all my fish I get before adding to main tank.

[klownphish]

Thanks for the input.
My LFS told me to just do a fresh water dip with copper. It seems to have worked but netting the fish proved to be troublesome. I think I will have to set up a 10 gal. so I don't have to disrupt the tank like that again.

[Katspaw]

Low lights, garlic and running carbon. Ich is present in all tanks, and fish normally fight it off, but when they become stressed, they can't and ich is able to get hold. Make the environment less stressful by lowering the lights and then fight the ich with garlic in a reef tank. You can use copper in a hospital tank. But I beliebe moving a fish to a different tank can increase stress.

Tracey

[klownphish]

Thanks Tracey,
That sounds much less stressful than dipping, for the fish and me as well. What is the dosage and frequency?

[Katspaw]

try using garlic soaked foods when you feed, or you can buy garlic additives by Kent at your LFS. Just follow the directions. I also run carbon. Just use a new panty hose or knee hi and put you charcoal in to it, then place it in the sump were the water has to pass through it. Replace the charcoal everyday til you get rid of the ick, conitinue feeding garlic for a week or two after the ick has cleared up. then run carbon once more after that or weekly to polish the water

Tracey

[topQuark]

I would carefully transfer the clown into a small hospital tank (5-10 gallon) and treat with copper immediately. Be sure that the hospital tank has good circulation, and that the tank is equipped with it's own heater. I would recommend Cupramine, as I have personally witnessed remarkable success with this product. DO NOT use anything with Malachite Green which is "reef safe". Copper is the most effective treatment for Ich, and I have had success with nothing else.

I would hold off on the fresh water dip until it comes to the point that you are convinced that your clownfish will be dead by the next morning (like if the fish is sitting on the bottom of the tank barely moving and gasping for air because the Ich has started to disolve the lining of the gills).
WHEN and IF you decide to carry out a fresh water dip, get some baking soda and a FRESH WATER PH KIT which has a range up to about 9.0 (a marine PH test kit will not necessarily read the PH properly in fresh water). Buffer the fresh water with the baking soda until it matches the pH of the main/hospital tank, and dump the water into a small plastic bag. Float this plastic bag in the hospital/main tank for about 10 minutes so that the temperature will match. When you do the freshwater dip, slowly lower the fish into the fresh water with a net and carefully monitor your fish's reaction to the dip. Keep your fish in the net so that you can quickly pull him out when he has been in the fresh water long enough.

It is also very important to try and understand why your fish came down with Ich to begin with. Did the temperature fluctuate wildly? Are there agressive tankmates? Overcrowding? If you don't rectify the cause of the problem, then your fish might catch Ich again when you move it back into the main tank.

Also, if the clown is the only fish in your main tank, I would let it go fish-free for about four to six weeks so that the Ich population really dies off.

Good Luck.