Clown fish with ich...garlic and vit C?

[lpn4]

Hi. I purchased 2 false percula clowns yesterday from my lfs. I woke up this morning to find 3 ich spots on 1, and 1 ich spot on the other. They would not eat marine flake food yesterday, but that did not worry me. The ph at my lfs was 1.019, and mine is 1.020. Is that too much of a jump for them? My temp is 79-80. Ammonia and Nitrate 0, and Nitrates 5. (that's my tap water for ya. I also purchased 2 pieces of live rock, which came from a tank with no fish or creatures in it. I soaked some pellet food in garlic, but they didn't want that. I gave them straight pellet food later, and they gobbled it, so that's a good sign. Anyway, the only other creatures in the tank are 3 hermit crabs..orange flame, or something. The lfs just called them "algae eaters." So, since I have a nicely cycled tank, and the fish I took out this tank yesterday, to donate to my lfs did not have ich, I am wondering if I really have an infestation, or if it is the fish. My lfs is closed today, so I could not return the fish. I may as well treat them. Any ideas on this garlic and vitamin c gig? I noticed that the pellets I am giving them have vitamin c...is that enough?

[lpn4]

Okay, I just have to add this...I just watched the submissive clown do his little "seizure" movement under the dominant clown. I am falling in love with them already, and do not want to return them!!! Soooo cool. Now, if I can just ward of this ich.

[Sniperhank]

Garlic and vitamin c? Well, there is no way that it will get rid of ich. Even the "reef safe" ich remover, which I am currently using, will not make the ich go away. Dipping them may help some with removing the ich, but unless you use one of the copper based medicines (which I can't do due to my LR, nem, and soft coral) you can't kill the ich, only have your fish build up an "immunity" to it. This will only last so long of them not getting ich, then after awhile they will get it again. Cylce just repeats itself.

[lpn4]

I did dip them this morning...works like a charm to rid the fish of ich. I just read that this morning about the garlic and vitamin c, but I couldn't figure out how to get them the vitamin c, if it would work.

[all4wheels2]

The dip is only removing the ich from the fish. But it's still in the tank. If you are putting the fish back in the same tank after dipping them, then you are not doing any good, just stressing them more.

[kurtyboh]

garlic does work to kill ich, you have to crush it and put the liquid in the tank. When garlic gets damaged it releases a toxin called allinelin or something like that, that chemical attacks parasites and bacteria. It worked wonders for killing the ich on my clown.

[kurtyboh]

for any garlic non-believers
Reefs.org: Where Reefkeeping Begins on the Internet - Garlic versus 'Marine Ich': Diallyl thiosulfinate activity against Cryptocaryon irritans infestations of marine fish

[ccCapt]

I'm not sure if it was mentioned in that article, but the allicin only remains active for a few hours, which means everytime you are going to use the garlic treatment, you must crush new cloves and use it then. You can't crush a bunch of cloves and store the "juice". The stuff you buy in stores, like Kent GarlicXtreme is useless in regards to active allicin.

[leftyfish]

I did the feed garlic wait and see method, lost 5 fish, took the last two out, did Hyposalinity in quarantine tank, left main tank empty, now have a strict 8+ week quarantine protocol. If you never rid the tank of ich, every new fish you put in is a ticking time bomb.

[austinsdad]

Yeah. Some of us learn the hard way that a QT tank is the way to go. I know I did.

[kurtyboh]

Both my cases of ich were in qt

[austinsdad]

That's good. Helps us make the point. You can treat or isolate there so that others don't die.

I'm not saying a QT will prevent it. Just makes life a lot easier.

[leftyfish]

Originally Posted by kurtyboh

Both my cases of ich were in qt

Aren't you currently going through ich right now? I am too, new fish got ich on day 21 in QT, almost 2 weeks now of copper, going well.

I have to say I read the article you posted and it didn't show how garlic works at all, just talked about methodology and everything said may, might, possibly. A well done research article would have facts and figures. It actually made a better case for why garlic alone won't work the way I read it at least.

To the op, definitely search ich on here and you will find some good links to copper, hyposalinity, and tank transfer methods, the only proven ways to eliminate ich.

[lpn4]

Originally Posted by leftyfish

Aren't you currently going through ich right now? I am too, new fish got ich on day 21 in QT, almost 2 weeks now of copper, going well.

I have to say I read the article you posted and it didn't show how garlic works at all, just talked about methodology and everything said may, might, possibly. A well done research article would have facts and figures. It actually made a better case for why garlic alone won't work the way I read it at least.

To the op, definitely search ich on here and you will find some good links to copper, hyposalinity, and tank transfer methods, the only proven ways to eliminate ich.

Thank you. I have switched to hyposalinity. The only thing I can figure I may have done wrong in transfer is that I used the lfs' water...instead of wasting it. Also, I did not feel I needed a QT tank, for there were no other fish in this tank, after that morning, I took out my puffer and gave it to my lfs. No other fish are sick, for my clowns are the only habitants.

[kurtyboh]

I was going through ich, whole story when i noticed a spot on my cown, thought need to do something quick but was on the way out the door, got back home to 40-50 spots, added 3 cloves of garlic every two hrs for 6 hrs. By that time there wsd not a single spot showing on fish.

As for the coral beauty, which recently perished most likely from ich, the spot wad quite large and i assumed it to be a cut as he always hid under rocks even if he didnt fit. I added a little bit of garlic, to help with the cut. Three days later, no more spots had shown up, i did about a %75 water change because the garlic water was starting to stink. That night when we came home there were well over a hundred spots. I did not have more garlic, so i started lowering salinity in qt as well as attempted a fw dip, which he didnt do so well in.

[ccCapt]

Am I folllowing you right in that you are throwing full cloves of garlic in the tank? If so, you are doing nothing more than polluting your water. The effectiveness of garlic is from the allicin in the "juice", which is extracted by crushing the cloves. It's must be consumed by the fish and that's done by soaking the food in the juice.

[kurtyboh]

The garlic is crushed then the juice is added, because my qt is bare bottom i throw the tiny pieces left over in as well. Allicin itself will attack bacteria and parasite whether or not its consumed. The research I have done about it has shown that when ingested it is less effective than a topical treatment.