can ich cure itself

[divedeep1689]

Hey guys my regal tang caught ich after problems with my lighting system, there is no way i can ever catch him to quarantine him wat can i do to help him? Never had a ich prob before besides black ich on a yellow tang.

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

i bought my boxfish and it had ich... they are hard to treat since they have no scales and since he was strong and eating well i just left him. I fed his food mixed with that garlic liquid and the ich was completely gone by about two months. None of my other fish got it i was very lucky

edit* I also think it depends how bad the ich is

 

[divedeep1689]

alright cool well someone on atlanta reef is telling me just about the same thing they used a product called metro and focus tho.

 

[Zer0]

Not sure, but i don't think the ich parasite goes away by itself, as long as a fish host is present. You need to quarantine them and do hypo or copper or other medical treatments to successfully kill the ich parasite.

 

[thincat]

Are you sure you cant' catch him. If you can't then the best thing is to make sure your water is pristine and that you make sure it eats well. I would squeeze fresh garlic onto the food that you are feeding them now. I presoak Nori with garlic juice. The garlic won't get rid of the ich but it helps to boost the immune system of your fish. Your tank will always have the ich parasite and the only way to get rid of it is to remove all of your fish from your DT, treat them for ich and leave the DT fallow for a min. of 8 weeks.

 

[divedeep1689]

Alright i may be able remove them one day but no time soon, i do not have any place to store my corals to empty tank to catch fish, i dont have the materials to start a qt.

 

[divedeep1689]

Are you talking about garlic fresh from the fields cause i can get tons of that.

 

[Zer0]

lol fresh from the fields.

 

[thincat]

If the ich doen't kill your fish, your fish will build an immunity to it. The ich will still be in your tank and may affect new fish that you put in the tank. Keep an eye on the yellow tang as they are ich magnets also.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Something I've never understood:
If your fish have had ich in your DT, but they are all cured. How does the ich remain if it's not hosting your fish?

 

[thincat]

It is hosting in your fish it just does not show up in the #'s that can kill them.

 

[divedeep1689]

ich goes through life stages it falls from the fish into the sand bed were it lives and grows then offspring goes back to fish.

 

[thincat]

Are you talking about garlic fresh from the fields cause i can get tons of that.

Yes, the element that helps fight off the infection and boost appetite is called "Allicin" and since it deteriates rapidly it's best used fresh as a squeeze, but researchers are finding more and better things in garlic that are good, not only for the fish but for you too.

 

[thincat]

More on garlic:Garlic

 

[divedeep1689]

cool i will swing by my gf house tomorow and grab some from their back yard lol altho my tang is eating healvily on a mixture of flakes that already have garlic and mysis brine and cyclops frozen cubes which i mix together to feed my tank. so his appitie is still good

 

[thincat]

remember that the ich will in it's first stage fall off the fish in a few days so as to make it seem like the fish healed itself. If this is the case the cyst fall off into the substrate and reproduce themselves and reinfect the fish again but in a lot greater # and this will usually kill the fish. Sometimes we don't notice the ich until this second reinfestation and that is why a fish will die in a couple of days.

 

[cmor1701d]

The only way to rid a tank of ICH is to remove all fish from the tank for a minimum of 30 days or treat the tank with copper. Copper would mean you would be left with a FO tank as it will kill all inverts too.
Once the parasite is in the tank it will always be there and it will be in your fish. UNLESS you treat for it. Garlic does not kill the parasite. All it does is increase the appetite of the fish so they will eat. That will help them get stronger, maybe strong enough to survive. So now you are living with a ticking time bomb in your tank. Take a vacation or somehow let the water parameters get to be less than perfect and a full blown outbreak is waiting to occur.

When I had an outbreak in my 125 I bought a 30 gallon tank to treat all my fish in. I also bought a heater and powerfilter with a biowheel. I used HYPOSALINITY to treat. Capturing the fish was not easy. I had to remove most of the LR to do it. I put the LR in some plastic bins while I was catching the fish. I thought I had lost a bi-color blenny as I could not find it anywhere. When I started putting the LR back in the tank the blenny jumped out of a hole in a rock into the plastic bin. I scooped it up and put in the QT tank.

Yes, it's a lot of work. But, I have not had an outbreak since. I QT all new fish for 30 days before putting them in the DT to make sure I don't have to go through that again.

To summarize: There are two methods to rid a tank of ICH; 1. Remove and treat all fish outside of the tank for 30 days minimum (6-8 weeks recommended); 2. treat the tank with a copper based medication.

Garlic: What has been Studied Versus Whaat has been Claimed by Steven Pro

ICH articles
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2003/mini1.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2003/mini2.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2004/mini3.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2004/mini4.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2004/mini5.htm

 

[SnowZz]

+1 for TC, remember once the fish have it and its not present its still there