Ich?

Melonbob

Melonbob

Reef enthusiast
It seems as though my gramma, Tutone has developed a case of Ich. We dropped her Saturday, she hid out for a day, but has been fine since. She eats well, and is checking out her surroundings. But she has developed white spots on her body, tiny ones which I am assuming is ich. What causes it and how do I get rid of it? I am doing my tests tonight, and plan on a 5gal water change tomorrow, what else can I do to help her. And is she going to infect my clowns? Thanks!
 
Ick is caused by stress.All fish carry ick,but stress is what brings it out.

As for treating it.If you can catch the fish and move it to a hospital tank,you can treat it with copper based medications.
I personally would leave it alone as long as its eatting because trying to catch it would just stress it more.
 
By leaving it alone, you mean do nothing? Does this mean they can handle the parasite on their own? I mean he's eating, swimming around now and checking everything out now, but I've always heard these horror stories about ich wiping everything out in a tank. I've seen ich at my LFS, but only once on a hippo tang, and I heard they get it all the time
 
Melonbob said:
By leaving it alone, you mean do nothing? Does this mean they can handle the parasite on their own? I mean he's eating, swimming around now and checking everything out now, but I've always heard these horror stories about ich wiping everything out in a tank. I've seen ich at my LFS, but only once on a hippo tang, and I heard they get it all the time
Click to expand...

Yep,Just leave him be.
As long as he's eatting,he's alright.Just add some garlic to his food to strengthen his immune system and let him get over the stress of being in a strange tank.
 
Kent makes a garlic extract that you add to the fishes food.But I dont see why you couldnt get some raw garlic and crush it up then soak the food in the juice.
 
you can also try adding spirulina flakes, they also increase the immune system. Yes, just leave it alone. keep your hands out of your tank for a week and it will fight it off on its own....or die. Grammas are hardy suckers, tho. My guess is he will be just fine

-Doc
 
So ich isn't something that can be spread to the other fish. I mean, it was already there, it's just the others are strong enough to fight it off on their own?
 
It can spread, just like having a cold. if you cough onto another person long enough, AND they have a weak immune system (tired, stressed, AIDS) they will get sick. Same with fish. If you have a healthy system and a fish comes in that gets Ich, chances are it won't spread to the other fish. If your system is at the maximum bioload and you push it, BAM - lots of Ich and probably dead fish.

Just so you know, I equate Ich like the flu and Oodinium (velvet) to AIDS. The nice thing is, that once your fish gets it and survives, they seem to build up an immunity and don't get it again. My Regal Tang, who is an Ich magnet, got it when I put it in my 125, he survived and it went away. I moved him to my 90 (where he is king of all) and he got three spots for a day and haven't seen anything for 2 months. Go figure

-Doc
 
Doc is right -- it can easily spread if your other fish's immune systems are also compromised. Tangs are especially susceptible to ich, but when my trigger got ich, it did not spread to the three tangs, which to me, was an indication that the rest of my tank was really healthy.
 
ooooo, I love it when you tell people I am right. :mrgreen: makes me feel funny in places that I don't talk about

-Doc
 
Well, I take that to mean I have a healthy tank then, aside from all the ugly green and brown algae. I got home from work today and Tutone's spots were gone.....poof. One day. they were very small to begin with, but they have completely disappeared today. Shampoo and Conditioner are fine too. And my frogspawn is about TWICE the size it was at the lfs, alot brighter colours too, although thats probably more to do with my lighting. Anyways, today I am happy!
 
glad to hear it. Nothing is more frustrating that when all your hard work just ends up killing a tank. Keep working on that algae problem and post us some more pics

-Doc
 
I don't know what else to do for the algae, I've got a good 15 snails in there, 3 hermits, an emerald, and Uggo the Sea Hare. I am cleaning my glass every 3 days, and the rock has an ugly combination of brown yuck and flourescent green dust everywhere....grrrr. My phosphates have never been above 0, and I use only bottled distilled water recommended by my lfs. I switched to brine for food. I'm out of ideas
 
How long are you running your lights?
How often and how much water are you changing?

Get you some Marine S.A.T. its made be TLC aquatics.Get the brown bottle and start doseing it once a week untill your algae is gone.It probably wont take over 2 doses.
 

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