ich help

I have a sudden outbreak. I mean very sudden. Tang and flame angel. What do I do??? Never had to deal with this stuff before. Idk if I could catch the fish without doin a tear down. Im ready to sell everything!!

 

Calm down amigo. I've seen garlic work it's magic like nothing I've ever seen before. To this day I add a few drops of Garlic Extreme from Kent onto the food everyday and haven't seen a spec of that nasty critter.

 

By the way if you tear it down I call dibs on that skimmer! LOL

 

Lol. Ive never had any kind of problems. I fed the fish they looked great. Then took a shower and looked at tank. Fish were covered in it! That fast. They're all swimming around and eating normal. Id qt them fish but thats just wasting my time aint it? Id have to take all the fish out.

 

your fun is just started good luck

 

That sucks worse than this cold weather! hope everything works out for ya.

 

Take a look in the Reefer's Q & A section. There is a link in the header next to forums. I posted an answer there with a link to additional information. Long and short of it is you have to make a choice now based on how you want to move forward with this parasite. There is no easy quick fix for this you either live with it or you try to erradicate it, then keep it out of the system. Good Luck.

 

Do you have sand in your tank? That is fast acting ich. Never seen advancement that quick. Sounds more like you have fish that sand on them. This happened to me and scared the crap out of me because it was quick like you described. Can you for sure say its ich? If your not sure ether way do the garlic food. If there eating get some minced garlic and pore juice on some dry food they really like. It would even work with brine shrimp. If they are eating this will help a lot.

 

What ever you do don't panic. Remember the more stress you put them thru the worse it will be.

 

I'd say if it happened that quick I'd look at alternative culprits. Not rulling out ich, just would look closely at it first before jumping to conclusions and treatments. That doesn't follow a very characteristic ich outbreak, not even for a fast one.

make sure it's ich, don't panic- stressing the fish out more just quicken's the whole infestation and results in the loss of your fish faster, where is your salt level at? recent maintenance on the tank? (by you or some critter). WHERE and how much...on the fish is this ich? This is important for the speed at which you treat them, eyes and gills heavily coated quick action, while finnage and body less invasive action.

 

+1

 

Thanks for the responses. Im baffled. Im always looking at my fish and this was very quick. So far its my wrasse, yellow tang, and flame angel. It looks like ich and is all over their bodies and fins. So far I havent done anything yet and I might not. So far no ones acting sick. Everyones eating and swimming like normal. I just fed some of the diy club food since it has the garlic. Doesnt help that my wife accidentally took my car keys lol. The yellow tangs the worst now as far as looks go. The other two almost looked alittle cleared up...idk

 

I really dont want to tear down my tank and qt all the fish for who knows how long. So my first option is to try and keep them well fed and use garlic? First time dealing with this stuff. Any thoughts on adding a uv sterilizer?

 

My foxface got it after I put him in the tank, he's kinda a sketchie little bugger and was way stressed he is just now starting to relax in the tank and not be so stressed and has finally been able to fight it off by himself and looknig good. But he has always eatin llike a horse.

 

UV Sterilizer will only minimize outbreaks. Not every organism will pass through the sterilizer and Crypto is only in the free floating form of its life cycle for a short time. What changed in your tank? Did you add a new fish or coral. What stressed them out? If you don't QT you will always have it present and that is a choice you have to make for yourself and live with it. I went the extreme route and left my tank fallow for 3 months but I had just started over so I only had to QT 6 fish. But that was what I wanted for me. No right or wrong way, you just have to decide what you want for yourself.

 

you would have to put a good size uv on there for it to do any real damage against ich... 36-40w with low flow. Personally I think if you just lower your salt a bit and keep feeding normal as well as doing the garlic you'll probably eliminate a large threat of it being 'endangering' their lives. I like to let it work it'self out, most the time it'll be fine.

post some pictures.

 

+1

 

Sorry for bein slow. Yea I added the tang and flame a few months ago. Musta been it. I guess ill keep an eye on things and see how the next few days go. Not sure how to post pics from my phone and I cant get the laptop to turn on. Just been an all around crappy day.

 

I've had a good experience with Garlic. but also there are more signs to ich than just the white spots. I know there's not a really good vet and looking online makes you paranoid at times (even more so when stressed) but feed heavy, and feed with garlic and see how they are. It's still a good sign that they are active and eating.

 

Im tryin to look at that as the upside. Seems like spots are still there but not as noticeable on the wrasse and angel but tang hasnt changed much yet. But still all eating like hogs and movin around like nothings bothering them. I really dont have another tank to treat the fish. Probly have 10 fish so id need a decent size to use for a hospital.