Yellow Tang, Is this ICH? you tell me
- Thread starter chucke
- Start date
I'm here for the ich problem as well!
My tank has been infected over and over again with ich from the shop I have bought my fish at for years. Not sure why...when I buy them, they don't appear to have it and are very healthy, and my tank certainly doesn't have it, yet in 2-3 days after bringing them home, they get it! My guy says my water levels are fine. This tank has cycle for over 1.5 years, so its not new tank syndrome. And I had damsels in there for over 4 months with no problems.
I once had a yellow tang that got it, but it was hard to tell myself that it had it because the fish is yellow. When i took it back into the store for acting strange, they told me it had it....NO SURPRISE.
Right now I only have my dog face puffer...and honestly...it's a long story how I only ended up with 1 fish, but that's all I want right now. Ich was brought in by a new blue tang I bought a couple of weeks ago that the store took back and treated, but after i brought it back home, my damsels killed it. Ich is horrible, and I have lost $100's over it.
So here is what I'm doing so far based on the research I've done.
#1) Fresh water dips DAILY. I do it for about 7-8 minutes because the puffer can handle going that long. Make sure the temp and ph are the same as your tank. My ph is 8.3 with the buffer, so put the buffer in the freshwater. And make sure you dechlorinate the water. They say this kills the parasite on the fish directly. But you still have to treat the tank or as other people have said, you can remove all the fish after dipping them and leave the show tank empty until the ich runs its cycle. Quick Note: they say if the fish shows signs of stress during the dip...put it back in the s.w. tank immediately.
#2) Partial water changes and using Rid Ich DAILY. I have to use half the dose unfortunately because puffers are scaleless fish and it burns their skin. I have a 60 gal tank and I do 6 or sometimes 9 gal water changes. It gets costly because of the salt! But what choice do I have for not having an extra tank?
#3) I'm soaking the puffer's food which is thoroughly rinsed, frozen jumbo shrimp (from my grocery store) in finally chopped garlic for 20 minutes. I have read that garlic has an anti-parasite affect and a family member who used to breed dogs also told me that he fed garlic to the puppies to de-worm them.
I honestly can't tell you that any one remedy works, but I am determined to do all I can to save my little guy and I am doing it ALL! I do not want this **** disease to get the best of me again.
I can tell you that he has survived since the 3rd of July (12 days now) and other than hiding a lot, he is still eating and seems to be making it through.
Honestly, I feel myself that the fresh water dips are key to keeping the fish alive. The store I buy from does that, and I went to another store for their opinion and they do it as well. Both stores do it in combination with the ich medication. Research your fish types and find out what meds they can tolerate. Puffers can not have copper based meds and they require half the dose as regular fish.
I wish you the best of luck. I know how you feel, and it sucks.
Ich stinks :silly:
My tank has been infected over and over again with ich from the shop I have bought my fish at for years. Not sure why...when I buy them, they don't appear to have it and are very healthy, and my tank certainly doesn't have it, yet in 2-3 days after bringing them home, they get it! My guy says my water levels are fine. This tank has cycle for over 1.5 years, so its not new tank syndrome. And I had damsels in there for over 4 months with no problems.
I once had a yellow tang that got it, but it was hard to tell myself that it had it because the fish is yellow. When i took it back into the store for acting strange, they told me it had it....NO SURPRISE.
Right now I only have my dog face puffer...and honestly...it's a long story how I only ended up with 1 fish, but that's all I want right now. Ich was brought in by a new blue tang I bought a couple of weeks ago that the store took back and treated, but after i brought it back home, my damsels killed it. Ich is horrible, and I have lost $100's over it.
So here is what I'm doing so far based on the research I've done.
#1) Fresh water dips DAILY. I do it for about 7-8 minutes because the puffer can handle going that long. Make sure the temp and ph are the same as your tank. My ph is 8.3 with the buffer, so put the buffer in the freshwater. And make sure you dechlorinate the water. They say this kills the parasite on the fish directly. But you still have to treat the tank or as other people have said, you can remove all the fish after dipping them and leave the show tank empty until the ich runs its cycle. Quick Note: they say if the fish shows signs of stress during the dip...put it back in the s.w. tank immediately.
#2) Partial water changes and using Rid Ich DAILY. I have to use half the dose unfortunately because puffers are scaleless fish and it burns their skin. I have a 60 gal tank and I do 6 or sometimes 9 gal water changes. It gets costly because of the salt! But what choice do I have for not having an extra tank?
#3) I'm soaking the puffer's food which is thoroughly rinsed, frozen jumbo shrimp (from my grocery store) in finally chopped garlic for 20 minutes. I have read that garlic has an anti-parasite affect and a family member who used to breed dogs also told me that he fed garlic to the puppies to de-worm them.
I honestly can't tell you that any one remedy works, but I am determined to do all I can to save my little guy and I am doing it ALL! I do not want this **** disease to get the best of me again.
I can tell you that he has survived since the 3rd of July (12 days now) and other than hiding a lot, he is still eating and seems to be making it through.
Honestly, I feel myself that the fresh water dips are key to keeping the fish alive. The store I buy from does that, and I went to another store for their opinion and they do it as well. Both stores do it in combination with the ich medication. Research your fish types and find out what meds they can tolerate. Puffers can not have copper based meds and they require half the dose as regular fish.
I wish you the best of luck. I know how you feel, and it sucks.
Ich stinks :silly:
What do you feed them? Soak their food in garlic and try some reef safe medication to fight it...slowly raise the temperature in the tank as well because that speeds up the ich life cycle and increases metabolism/immunity in MY personal experience with ich. I think taking them out of the tank will stress them even more in the process of trying to catch them and make it worse. The above is what I did for my blue tang and I have 3 different tangs, one being a yellow all with no ich. So ya...there are other possibilities that may work that are not as drastic as not having your fish in your tank for a couple months...that would be lame!
