is garlic enough for me?

[jenwebber3]

hey kids, shame on me for being absent and only coming back when i have a problem, but time flies when the reef tank is happy!
two weeks ago i added a royal gramma, and he was one happy kid, eating everything like a Hoover. Still have an orangespot goby and a boring pajama cardinal. i noticed last night some white spots on gramma's head and edge of the tail. i know there are different kinds of white spots, so no clue how to tell the difference. i have a freshie tank that has gotten ick, and the spots are not that pronounced. they are just spots, not really raised or salty-looking.

anyway, i have some garlic extreme and started with that. how long do i dose before i give up on that and try something else? last night, dosed garlic and some marine stress coat. tonight, night 2, i added more garlic, also added to food, and put in some marine melafix because i like to panic. should i get a parasite med like no-ich? i don't want to wait until it's too late, this gramma and goby are awesome specimens and active and eat well, not to mention the expense.

on another note, my yellow leather coral all of sudden looks stony or hard. last night, he was in all his glory, unfurled and happy. does the garlic do this? is this something else? should i panic?

why, oh why, are we such suckers for these money pits?
thanks, guys! :iill

 

[jenwebber3]

p.s. water tests fine, nitrate is pretty minimal, did a water change yesterday morning. i have some diatomaceous algae, but gravel and rocks are clean of gunk. do i dare try a freshwater dip? that scares the heck out of me, and i don't really have a quarantine tank...thank again! i've attached a pic of my tankt he other day for kicks. i couldn't get a closeup of gus the gramma, will try tomorrow.

 

[AlexfromSATX]

I would just continue the garlic daily until you see improvement. Then when spots go away continue daily for about another week. I wouldn't. try a FW dip either, as they are very scary. As for the leather sometimes they do that, and it may be because of the garlic and stress coat, just make sure you blast it with a baster every so often if it is not in direct flow to get the slime coat off of it, so it does not suffocate itself.

 

[jenwebber3]

so glad you replied, i've been freakin! thanks as always alex! we'll see what happens!

 

[jenwebber3]

so wondering if i caught it early enough, i made a bunch of frozen food mush with the garlic and added Focus 5:1 and Metronidzole and within a couple days everything was fine. no more white spots! my leather coral bounced back without issue, the crabs and shrimp are fine, so no complaints! oddly enough, my boring pajama cardinal started eating more and being more active during treatment. must be the garlic.

 

[jenwebber3]

or not! spots are back and gramma is even more unhappy than before. Though according to seachem, i should medicate for a couple weeks to last out the life cycle of the parasite, ditto with garlic, so i hope they can last that long.

what i don't know is, should i do a water change at any point? skimmer is off. been treating for a week.

 

[Aquaphilic]

I thought ich are bactrial infection and not parasite? correct me if I am wrong, but in salt water aquarium there are two different pathogens that causes ich, and each require different treatment... but glad to know that garlic works on coral fish!! Since it's universal anti-bacterial lol.

In additional to medication, you can also feed them anti-parasitic pellets it always work better from the inside than from the outside

 

[jenwebber3]

that gramma is long gone, i woudn't swear by the garlic. i eventually went to no-ich, which helped, but i think i started that so far into the treatment it was too late. i've since gotten a new gramma, bigger and healthier, who's been fine for a month and now has spots. i'd swear they showed up after i cleaned the tank and stirred up the gravel trying to get rid of some bubble algae. so this time i'm going the no-ich route. we'll see...i may just scrap the whole works if i lose this fish and my snowflake polyps. :sad:

 

[AlexfromSATX]

i've since gotten a new gramma, bigger and healthier, who's been fine for a month and now has spots. i'd swear they showed up after i cleaned the tank and stirred up the gravel trying to get rid of some bubble algae. so this time i'm going the no-ich route. we'll see..

Could this possibly just be small particles of sand that got onto the fish from the cleaning? This happened to me once and I freaked out thinking I had ich, but turned out to be sand.