A three way fight against Cryptocaryon...

[mikeguerrero]

I've been having a major ich outbreak in my 72 gallon reef. Just last week I rushed my fish through some No-Ich medicine and I'm seeing the ich is still present.

In an attempt to do it right, I re-purchased the No-Ich medicine and dosed properly yesterday morning.

I will follow the med to the bone on this round, ensuring the med stays in my system the correct alloted time.

As an added bonus I purchased at the recommendation of my LFS, his best recipe for Garlic additive to the food.

I went with Garlic Elixir and man this stuff is really potent; the odd thing is my fish devoured it like you wouldn't believe.

I purchased some fresh formula two frozen food and allowed it to mix for 30 minutes before adding it to the tank.

In the meantime I placed my fingers tips in the tank to remove a lot of the elixir that was stuck on; they went nuts eating the elixir.

Just one application and I don't see my powder blue bouncing all over the tank in the night.

I also increased my temps to 83 degrees.

This is a three way fight, temps + no-ich + garlic = conquered ich....

We will see....

MG

 

[EDGRAY]

Good luck with that mike and sounds like you have same problem as me every month or so i get ick outbrake so last week i got my bloom and started with KICK ICK week later the thing stopped but some dots were still there so i did a garlic deep then i follow by mixing selcon & xtreme garlic with some flakes and frozen food 3 days later everyone looks super fat and no more signs of ick so far and no deaths at all but ill keep feeding like that one more week then just 2 days a week like aromano recomended.

Is really frustrating fighting it all the time haa mike.....but i think i discovered why i was getting the ick ..... i notice that sometimes after my water change some days later my ph drop from 8.2 to 7.8 causing stress and ick bloom so i was suspecting that was the water of my LFS so i decided to ge water from other LFS and 2-3 days later i tested my ph and never drop like before that alwas was dropping so my ph is stable again so there you go the water was the problem then that week jesse called me and told me that he visited the LFS were i used to get the water and told me that the RO that they used for mixing for satwater their ph was low and they affirmed that to him so i was fu...bas.. :Rant :Rant .... no wonder why i always had PH problem since the biggining but tank god i change my place were i get the water and also i tested bouth waters

Circle pet: PH 7.6-7.8 amonia 0.10 nitrate 0 nitrite 0 gravity .021-.022
Jeff's exotics: PH 8.0-8.2 amonia 0 nitrate 0 nitrite 0 gravity .022 - .023

What a difference haaa .... so there you go i found my ick battle of all the time ..... have you find yours mike.???

 

[mikeguerrero]

Eddy,

That is a big culprit to why you were getting ich.... Any chance their is a drop in PH, it will adversely affect the fish and stress will come their way... End result is a weakened immune and the ich invade since the slime coat is down...

But thanks to your husbandry your fish are making it....

 

[skipm]

I wish you the best of luck with this ich problem. I have heard good things about the garlic elixer in your pic. Keep us updated so if I ever have a problem I'll have a good starting point (hopefully fool proof cure) for treating it.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Let me introduce you reefers to my number one foe:

Mr. Cryptocaryon himself in the buff

I really, really hate this guy. He always finds a way to invite himself unannounced uninvited...

MG

 

[aromano]

The (NO-ICH + Garlic + Temp) combo is one powerful method to fight these uninvited little guys. The treatment will deficiently inhibit their reproduction cycle and within a couple of days everything should be under control again. I'm sure you'll get through this one just like before, but what a pain in ass ICH can be man. I HATE ICH!!!!

Let us know how everything is progressing.

 

[mikeguerrero]

Andre,

Thanks for expressing how much you hate ich, I needed to hear that. It's just that I rushed through the first time by doubling the dosage day and night and not allowing it to run each day; it's bio-degradable and should be rode each day 24 hours, this allows contact time with the ich to be at it's very best.

Well, since my new toy (Ozonizer + airdryer) arrived the weekend I was treating I hurried the meds so I could play; stupid me.

I figured since the ozone helps destroy floating parasites I would be helping, instead I created a mess in ich.

Ich comes in different rounds as they multiply their offspring will start their attack on the fish on a different day.

If you wipe out the free floating ich on one day, you have to wait until the cysts come off your fish and you attack that group.

I made the mistake of using all my meds on the free floating ich and when the cysts came off I relied only on ozone, mistake.

Ozone and shrimp and cleaner wrasse are excellent to control ich but not to attack it when it's already an epidemic.

Well, I can say I am on the second to last dosage of No-Ich and my fish look really healthy and the two tangs are receiving treatment from my blue cleaner wrasse.

Before they just ignored him since the epidemic was so great they were darting around in the night.

I also let the ich become an epidemic by mistake; I saw the first signs of it 1 month ago when I added the powder blue tang; I just thought, leave them alone and it will go away, since all were feeding like wild.

BIG MISTAKE, IF YOU EVER SEE ANY SIGNS OF ICH, PLEASE DON'T DO WHAT I DID, GO PURCHASE YOUR ICH MEDICINCE AND TREAT IMMEDIATELY, YOU WILL SAVE MONEY ON MEDS AND HEADACHES!!!!
MG

 

[dragon79]

if possible to others, pull your fish out and setup a QT tank for them to recover until the ich is completely erradicated from your display tank. Also the 3 methods are great, but their is an essential 4th....hyposalinity treatment....drop the salinity, in doing that, the ich parasite can't survive at a lower salinity level.

In Mike's case, I know it's harder since he's doing straight up treating display tank, so he can do the essential 3.

 

[rmanecke]

Three comments.

1. Good job MG and thanks Mike for sharing you triumphs and hassles with us. As a new reefer... I am following in the trail that you are blazing.

2. I am seriously considering a pinpoint pH monitor to make it easier to watch this as I futz around with water changes, calcium dosing strategies, etc...

3. Also, I read an artice about freshwater ich... the author moved all of his fish out of the main tank into a bare bottom QT with a good mechanical filter. When he saw the ich fall off the fish (attempting to move into reproductive, then free swimming cycle), he moved the fish into another QT. The empty tank would be cleaned with bleach, and the move was repeated every 12 hours until all of the parasites died by filter or bleach as they were "left behind" during the fish moves. If I remember correctly, he used no medications. I think the then treated the main tank, but kept the fish out of it until the free swimming parasites dies of starvation and from the meds.

Of course, the problem with this for us lies in trying to catch wrasses in a tank full of live rock and coral.

R