Help my fish have ich!!!

[patricia drake]

I bought a 72 gallon Saltwater tank, a little over a year ago, for my Salonthere is a Saltwater store right next to me, and I thought they could help me, to take care of it, but they were not helpful, they have a bunch of young kids that all tell you something different, so know we use another company, they clean our tank once a month since our last cleaning we have lost 4 fish, they told us it was there time, then the day after they cleaned it, another looked really funny, I described to them over the phone and they said it was ick, one of the guys next door mixed a few things together and said to put on flakes, Our Tang that was sick, would spit them out, and know he died, the remainig fish do not look sick we have 3 Pajama fish, a wrasp, and a couple others, can't remimber what they are. The guy said the ich medicine was mostly water and a rip off, I don't know what he gave us, but I am afraid it will not work, and we will lose more fish. I read somthing about taking the carbon out and turning filter off, and adding salt? I think the adding salt was for freashwater fish? The company that cleans our tank said our water test was fine, We had 2 5" tangs and 9 smaller fish about 2" long and not any coral to hide in, just lots of rocks We have 1 large banded shrimp and 4 smaller shrimp 0ne large starfish several baby starfish appeared when we bought more rocks, and we have hermet crabs and snails, Sorry, I am writting so much, I am trying to give an idea of my tank. Please help what do I do? Buy something that is actually for ick? Instead of using this homemade mixed stuff from the guy at the saltwater store? Please Help


Patricia

 

[zoalover34]

do you have a qt tank? if so then get the infected fish out of your main into there.. also you can try adding garlic to their food that's supposed to help with ick.. other than that i don't know anything else im pretty new to the SW world myself so im sure someone will jump in..

 

[Joe Fish]

Take the infected fish out and medicate. Your other fish might get ick as well. If possible I would treat all the fish for 6 to 8 weeks. There was a recent thread started about ick that you should check out.

 

[patricia drake]

Thanks for the advice, I don't think any of the remaining fish are infected with ick, but I will continue to treat and seperate if any one else gets it, hopefully now I will know what to look for and will seperate and treat the infected fish right away.

Thanks again
Patricia

 

[Joe Fish]

Luckily I haven't had any sick fish yet, but I read that with ick it can appear to go away, but come right back. I think it would be safe to medicate the fish and while the fish are out of the tank the ick should die out. I could be wrong can any one back me up on that? If ick doesn't have a host for a certain length of time do they die?

 

[demons9872]

the garlic does work my lfs used it on my porcipine puffer and its ony been 8 days and he is looking much better it cant hurt the fish its helps stregthen there immune system i actually use it 1-2 times a week just to be safe

 

[1979camaro]

the garlic does work my lfs used it on my porcipine puffer and its ony been 8 days and he is looking much better it cant hurt the fish its helps stregthen there immune system i actually use it 1-2 times a week just to be safe

interesting...you use garlic once or twice a week and yet your fish still get ich...so really, it isn't working...right?

the best solution is to QT all of your fish. ich has a free floating period in its life cycle and can live without a host for 4-6 weeks so even if your others are not showing signs, they need removed and treated and left out for at least 4-6 weeks to give the main tank time for the ich to die

 

[aresgod]

the garlic myth is just that, a myth. QT is the only proven method, how does the saying go, an ounce of prevention is worth....