Marine Ich

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

I'm familiar with the many ways to cure a tank of this parasite, but I'm curious if anyone here has done it, and if so what method you used and why. Please be sure to include if the tank was a FOWLR or Reef tank since not all methods are suitable for both.

[cocoa_pleco]

my yellow tang got it when i bought him. the tank was a reef (my 55g, still have it)

i hadnt had a reef in a long time when i fired my 55g up so i didnt know that ich doesnt need to be as seriously treated as in FW. i did a 2 minute FW dunk with my tang in a pail, and he was EXTREMELY good with it, he swam around like normal. the parasites fell off in 30 seconds and i removed him and put him back in the reef, it never came back and i still have the tang

just to make me feel better i threw boiling water in the bucket with the parasites after the treatment was done

[coachfraley]

I did a lot of research, and I found that a good amount of aquarists don't even treat the marine version of ich. The consensus seemed to be that a good diet and great water quality would make the fish healthy enough to fight off the parasites on their own.

Of course this theory relies on the assumption that your fish was introduced with ich, and that you have good water quality in your tank.

I really don't know what the TRUE consensus is on this topic, so I will be interested to see what our other members have to say.

BTW, Cocoa's method is VERY popular...and actually works in concert with the "leave it be" treatment. In essence, all you are doing with the dip is removing the parasites on the fish to relieve stress. There will still be ich floating around in the tank.

I think the only real way to get ich out of a reef tank, is to keep it fish free for 3-4 weeks.

[cocoa_pleco]

yeah, i was a beginner and stressing losing the tang so i did the drip thing, reality is it doesnt need to be treated unless its serious. when i treated him in the FW i was scared he would be thrashing and flipping out but he just swam around like in SW

however, about half a year ago, a members 3 stripe damsel got ich and died from it

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

OK, now that is really really cool. I just found something that works wonders on Marine Ich. New Life Spectrum Thera +A formula. I started feeding my fish that yesterday afternoon and they have gotten 5 feedings of it and my fish have no more white spots on them. Very very cool.

[unleashed]

What you are probably seeing is part of the normal life cycle of the parasite.

Life cycle in a nutshell:

The white spots drop off the fish and turn into a lot more little parasites.

These swim around to find a host and burry themselves into the hosts flesh. After several hours, the parasites each form their own white spot which in turn, drops off and the cycle continues.


NLS is very good food and IMO, helps with a fishes immune system. However, you will not see results in less than a week.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

I'm aware of the life cycle of Ich. :) I've written articles on it. LOL The food is in combo with some other things I've done.

[cocoa_pleco]

i also tried minced garlic with my tang, it worked pretty good too

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

It seems that whatever is in the food has gotten into the system of the fish and the tomites don't like it, they all dropped off and no new ones attached.

[cocoa_pleco]

yeah, i believe NLS has garlic so its a good mix

some people say that garlic doesnt work, truth is it does. parasites cant stand it. it worked at first with my tang but it came back so i did the FW dip