Ich Attack?

[Doc]

Has anyone ever used Ich Attack? I found it at my LFS, which is something that i have not seen before. It said reef safe on the bottle. I am interested in your opinions about the product, or am I the continued guinea pig here?

My emperors are not eating much, if at all, so the garlic is not really working. It seems as if they are stressed. Ich is one thing, but Oodinium is quite another. My Regal blue tang has picked up Ich as well and now I am pretty much pissed off.

I am not interested in losing my fish (again) and so I have taken the steps to use a chemical agent to "nuke" the Ich. My LFS has testimonials of other users, but he has no experience with the product. I figure, what good is garlic if the fish don't eat. If they don't eat cuz they are stressed, they will die and I will get amazingly pissed off. Hence, Ick Attack.

I looked for cleaner wrasses and cleaner gobies. I found one tiny cleaner goby, but it had Ich, sooooo, that was about useless. I did purchase a few more cleaner shrimp, and provided they survive the adjustment, followed quickly by the addition of an Ich treatment, I hope they will provide assistance to getting rid of it. I even bought a jar of spirulina flakes to help. I will continue to use garlic in my feedings til the bottle is gone.

Let me know what ya'll think (Yote, did I spell "ya'll" right?). Thanks in advance.

-Dr Marco :sfish:

 

[Piggy]

Man is ick going around. I have a fish that I got about 2 weeks ago in my QT tank and this morning I noticed a few white spots on him. So that is the stuff I got. I had no other choice. Gave first treatment today so won't know a whole lot until tomarrow if it works. All I can so is thank goodness I put him in a QT tank.

 

[HAWKS12thMAN]

Doc having two emporiors in one tank is a huge stressor..... With that being said I dont think even copper will fix your problem. I feel your going to have to let the stress coat of the fish fight it off them self.
I recently purchased a yellowed eye tang. the tank it was in at my LFS was treated with copper and the fish had been in there for 1 1/2 months before I bought it. Im a firm beliver in Q tanking fish but since My new tank had only been setup for a month and a half (all my live rock and sand came out of my other tanks that had been set up for over a year) I aclamated the fish and put her right in..... There is no stress in the tank for her but, she has ich now. I have decided a 12 gallon Q tank is to much stress for a tang, so I have elected to just ride it out. I am feeding garlic with my mysis but she doesnt eat mysis or seaweed. She did at my LFS when i bought her now all she does is eat diamonts off the sand. I was going to get a cleaner shrimp but since my funds are really low now im going to have to wait. If anybody has a segestion hit me up!

 

[hibye]

i gave my fish formula one marine pellets and they lost there ich plus you can get a uv plus cleaner shrimp and gobies

 

[yote]

Doc,
The spelling is Y'all.

Doc and Hawk
The way I got it figured,Any ick treatment that is considered reef safe if probably so weak that its not going to do anything but waste eat up your money.
The only effective ick treatment are NOT reef safe.You've either got to load up on copper,or drop the salinity so low the inverts couldnt survive.
The ick parasite is an invert,so thats why hypo-salinity and copper are so effective.
Hate it that y'all are having trouble with it.

 

[joeman]

I have had two noticeable outbreaks of Ich: once when I added my 'Hippo' Tang and then again following a Nitrate spike I didn't catch in time.. I rode both out with water changes and patience. Could have been that I was lucky, but I just did not want to add anything to the water. It took a few days to clear up in both cases, but it did...

I think this is where having a UV sterilizer pays off, as it helps to cull the Ich population during the 3rd phase of their life cycle.

I understand your anxienty though - because if patience doesn't work, then you feel you didn't do anything.... I just don't like adding chemicals & taking the fish out into a QT tank (then putting them back in) would just add more stress - so I would grit my teeth, continue to maintain high quality conditions and ride it out.

 

[Doc]

Yote, thanks for the redneck education lesson, I will make sure "y'all" is correctly spelled from now on.

I do have a UV - hell, I have some of the best filtration I have seen (not to brag). I hear you Hawk, my two emperors were both in copper for two weeks and were eating as well when I purchased them. As they got Ich, they just stopped eating - so garlic seems to be useless at this time. I agree with patience, something this hobby has taught me. I can see the stress currently in the coloration of my emperors and I fear Oodinium more than Ich. It would be one thing to lose one emperor, but another to lose my whole tank.

I figure I have already started the ICH ATTACK treatment, and I am stuck. I will do a 40% water change after the treatment is done and cross my fingers. I hate when my fish don't eat. I am an emotional eater and when they don't eat, I know something is wrong. *sniff*, I just want them to be happy, in my tank, in my family, hell, I wish I could cuddle with them at night and sing them songs about mating rituals of those one-legged marsupials Biff has been teaching us about.

-Dr Marco :sfish:

 

[kevinsimons]

Hang in there Doc - "Obi Wan has taught you well - patience young skywalker" (my god did I really quote that? what a geek)....

Here's a link to a complete diversion - interesting stuff that was recently discovered about Morray Eels... has nothing to do with your current problem, which might be a good thing:

Researcher finds secret to eel's eating technique: Extra set of jaws

 

[DesoShade]

I'm a beginner so I don't really know what I'm talking about half the time, but I read somewhere that medications can cause more harm than good. That you should only medicate as a last resort, and when you do, you should quarantine the ill fish in a hospital tank. Something like that. what do you think? Are those medications bad news? And taking the fish out of the original tank and into a q tank sounds kinda bad, too. With the drastic change in water conditions.

 

[hibye]

pellts work great have garlic and vitimins in em

 

[Bifferwine]

I swear, HiBye works for the pellet food company... They sure get enough free advertising from him around here!

 

[hibye]

lol lol

 

[winyfrog]

I was thinking the same thing Biff! LOL

I had a very bad ick out break in my 850 about 3 months ago, luckily my fish were eating still so my garlic helped. One thing that I did for probably about 3 weeks I kept them in the dark, (your corals will be okay) try to keep stress levels as low as possible, nothing new, don't move things around etc... I ended up losing 2 of my tangs :( and almost lost my purple tang which disapeared for 2 months and just popped out one day and was fine.?

as far as ick treatments go if its reef safe it isn't going to kill ick.

My thoughts are with you, trying new things is always a risky thing.
Good luck

 

[hibye]

what tangs died if it was a sailfin ill cry purples and sailfins are my favorite tangs

 

[Doc]

well, I got one of the emperors to eat some krill soaked in garlic. I will wait it out and hope one of them makes it.

-Dr Marco :sfish:

 

[Piggy]

1st treatment seemed to work. Fewer spots, Fish is now at least picking at food. I also noticed some white film with white spots on it in the water. I netted it out. Have no idea what it is. I changed half the water and put in second treatment. Now for the question. Will any of the stuff you use in your QT tank infect your MT? For example the net. Also how long do you need to wait before you can put the fish in your MT?

 

[hibye]

i say ywo months uless you star over killing your rock

 

[Doc]

day three. My Regal blue is clean of Ich and my emperors look a bit better. No visual signs of distress from the corals like when I have used melafix in the past. One emperor seems to have a better appetite and even nipped at bits of frozen cube food soaked in garlic. The other one seems totally oblivious to food. I am worried about that one. Both are swimming happily despite the Ich.

-Dr Marco :sfish:

 

[MikMcgyver]

Hope all come out well Doc...

 

[hibye]

its not impossible.i saved my tank from diseis 2 out 3 times