ick-fish-corals

[NaCl_H2O]

one of the local pet stores states they sell a medication thats reaf safe, would you trust this, what would you do

NO WAY!

Check your parameters, stress is the cause of the Ick. Did you add new fish lately, or anythng else that would add to the stress level in the tank?

The best cure is reduced stress and improved health. Are they all eating good? Might try some Brine/Mysis soaked in a little Garlic Extreme.

[NaCl_H2O]

Sounds like your sohol probably got everybodies nikers in a knot - stress levels were high during the "battle" and immune systems went down. Give it some time and try to keep from introducing any more stress for a week or two. Garlic Extreme soaked Mysis or even flakes really seems to help my tangs stay healthy.

[NaCl_H2O]

That's what I have always done, but it depends on how bad the Ich is? Is it a few spots per fish, or is it covering them and effecting their swimming, etc.? If it is bad, you may have no choice but to tear appart the tank, extract the fish, and try to medicate with copper in a QT tank.

A UV sterelizer might help keep the Ich population down, if you have one fire it up!

[alton]

I add Garlic straight to the tank, along with on the fish food. I think its something like 1 drop per ten gal. of water. It's printed on the label. When I add I new Fish now I automatically add extra Garlic to the water. I have tried all the snake oils, they have never helped me. There is more info on wetwebmedia.com and Reef Central.com on the so called reef safe ich removers.

[GaryP]

EXVISOR13,

Also keep an eye on your water temp. I have noticed that water temp, especially this time of year, has a tendency to cause ich outbreaks. Its just another source of stress. Not only is there an issue with the temp, but as temp. goes up, the amount of oxygen in the water goes down. There's not a lot of oxygen in salt water to start with. I think O2 saturation is about 7 ppm in SW and that is at at really cold temps. 4 ppm is about typically for where we run our temp. Even a small decrease can be a problem.

Tangs are really high metabolism fish. High metabolism means high oxygen consumption. I believe this is one reason why Tangs may be more suseptible to Ich. I'm not saying that temp is the only reason that Tangs have Ich outbreaks, but I will say that the only tank wide outbreak I ever had was the result of a temp. spike and it wasn't just tangs that had it. Temperature also has an impact on the Ich parasite's life cycle.

[GaryP]

OK, that's good. What was it during the outbreak though? Has it changed?

Chances are that the introduction of the new tang was the problem, but I just wanted to give you some other factors to consider.

[Thunderkat]

What was your acclimitazation process for the new fish and how long? Where did you buy the fish from?