Andre's Anti-ICH treatment (1 Viewer)

[PSXerholic]

Folks,

since it seems to be the season again, and I get more and more requests what I do against ICH, I wanted to share a few things to treat it.
I may need to consider this info in one of my next "Andre's Reef Guide" series

A few people who came over for Coral frag pick ups and have seen my Clowns and my Blue Tang white spotted and almost lose their eyeballs when they show up a week later for another frag pickup and all fish looks superior again, are keep asking me more recently how did I do that

Well, first and foremost I like to repeat that no tank can be free of ICH forever.
I personally do not even believe that there is any matured tank free of ICH.
The disease will break out when you stress your fish too much while playing with too many parameter at the same time and or start doing huge maintenance activities, like in my cases if it appears.

A good and healthy Reef tank will very unlikely have a real issue. Nevertheless, it can happen no matter what.
Just one pump stirring up your sand bed, and that's it ;-)
You may see sudden outbreak.

If you have your tank in good parameter and nothing real major going on, then the following method has been proven to be very very very successful.

What to do:
We just bump up the Immune System of your fish, and typically you see much better conditions the next day, and overall the fish are typically healthy as never before within 4-6 days.

You take Tetra marine Flake food.
3-4 times a day you take a bit and soak it in a good amount of SELCON which is just a Vitamin supplement for food.
You do this for a few days until fish looking good again and that's it.
Easy as that, sorry I can't write more about it even if I would, now I have to come up with something to fill this post so and it doesn't look that empty and many before couldn't and still do not believe it that it can be so easy to treat this ultimate fish disease that a whole industry filling their pockets with every day and now I don't know anything else I can say about it............

One thing maybe,
if there is a fish with real bad immune system and old, bad looking or whatever, he might die from the ICH because his illness lead to the ICH. Doesn't mean the ICH was the original disease responsible for the fishes death.

Keep that in mind, a single fish dying on ICH does not necessarily mean the entire tank will die on ICH ;-)

Some people take so many action when they see a single white spot, that the action that has been taken, makes things worse by stressing your fish population.


Partial Credit for this info above goes to DIESEL.
He also hooked me up to SELCON ;-)

Happy Reefing,

Andre

 

[Luman01]

lol my dad would be the one to freak out if one of our fish has a white spot. It gets real annoying sometimes he is sooo OCD about this hobby lol. Thank god he has barely any input in my 65.lol but I'm going to try that! Thank you Andre!!

 

[Reefahholic]

Andre, a tank can be ICH free and I know several people who have them.

It's just really hard to keep out especially if you're adding things all the time. Everything must be QT for the appropriate time and it will be extremely unlikely to get in.

However, none of us QT every single snail and coral frag including myself lately.

I do wanna note that it is indeed possible and many people have ICH free systems. U have to understand the life cycle to keep it out of the system.

I get tired of QTing everything and enjoy just dipping coral and putting them in the tank. This will haunt me later, but having to be so anal about everything (i've done it) almost makes the hobby a headache.

ICH management is fairly easy, but if you can, keep it out of the system. Definetely QT the fish and prevent Velvet, Brook, Flukes, and the real bad things for getting in.

The only two times i've had ICH have both been from buying turbo snails. To me it was more important (at those specific times) to reduce the chance of plague algae than to worry about ICH.

ICH is kinda like AEFW's. They are hard to keep out especially if you have a tank full of SPS and that's all you buy, but if you dip and QT, dip and QT...it's possible to keep them out.

 

[Luman01]

To add my 13 has never seen ick before. It been running for 6 month now. But there is only one fish that I've had for 9 months. But I want to add a clown need more life in there! But in my 65 I don't plan to have much fish just corals and inverts. Just a pair of clowns and 1 or 2 wrasses. That's about it.

 

[d2mini]

Yep, Ich can be introduced via snails, coral, rock, etc in the dormant egg stage. It can not "live" on anything but a fish.
If you have it, the only way to get rid of it (yes your tank can be ich free) is to go fallow (fishless) for 72 days or so.

That said, it's generally true that a healthy reef with fish with strong immune systems can remain healthy even with ich present.

Also, don't mistake ich for velvet. Velvet is a whole different ball game.

 

[RR-MAN]

I have been using selcon for more than a decade. I have had very few casualties in the past 15 yrs. but I do see more and more ich/velvet at LFS these days than before since the hobby has grown so much and they are moving more live stock.

Folks,

since it seems to be the season again, and I get more and more requests what I do against ICH, I wanted to share a few things to treat it.
I may need to consider this info in one of my next "Andre's Reef Guide" series

A few people who came over for Coral frag pick ups and have seen my Clowns and my Blue Tang white spotted and almost lose their eyeballs when they show up a week later for another frag pickup and all fish looks superior again, are keep asking me more recently how did I do that

Well, first and foremost I like to repeat that no tank can be free of ICH forever.
I personally do not even believe that there is any matured tank free of ICH.
The disease will break out when you stress your fish too much while playing with too many parameter at the same time and or start doing huge maintenance activities, like in my cases if it appears.

A good and healthy Reef tank will very unlikely have a real issue. Nevertheless, it can happen no matter what.
Just one pump stirring up your sand bed, and that's it ;-)
You may see sudden outbreak.

If you have your tank in good parameter and nothing real major going on, then the following method has been proven to be very very very successful.

What to do:
We just bump up the Immune System of your fish, and typically you see much better conditions the next day, and overall the fish are typically healthy as never before within 4-6 days.

You take Tetra marine Flake food.
3-4 times a day you take a bit and soak it in a good amount of SELCON which is just a Vitamin supplement for food.
You do this for a few days until fish looking good again and that's it.
Easy as that, sorry I can't write more about it even if I would, now I have to come up with something to fill this post so and it doesn't look that empty and many before couldn't and still do not believe it that it can be so easy to treat this ultimate fish disease that a whole industry filling their pockets with every day and now I don't know anything else I can say about it............

One thing maybe,
if there is a fish with real bad immune system and old, bad looking or whatever, he might die from the ICH because his illness lead to the ICH. Doesn't mean the ICH was the original disease responsible for the fishes death.

Keep that in mind, a single fish dying on ICH does not necessarily mean the entire tank will die on ICH ;-)

Some people take so many action when they see a single white spot, that the action that has been taken, makes things worse by stressing your fish population.


Partial Credit for this info above goes to DIESEL.
He also hooked me up to SELCON ;-)

Happy Reefing,

Andre

 

[Reefahholic]

Either way you slice it...it's hard to keep out because TIME is the enemy for most reefers. I'm impatient to say the least.

What if the fallow period was only 3 days instead of 76?

I think most folks would QT everything coming in. We'd all be ICH free.

 

[webster1234]

I think a good UV can also help keep ich to a manageable level. While it won't eliminate it, it can help control it.

 

[jqsquared]

Ich management is what i like to call it! I don't think ich-free systems exist, many claim it but i have doubts. Even with quarantine that many advocate. I for one believe that most QT setups aren't adequate to enable reduced stress through treatment. I think picking healthy eating specimens have your best luck at being able to resist. I run a modest if not undersized UV 40w EA on my 125 seems to help although when underfeeding sees Ich creep back up. Selcon works although I don't worry about it. Keep them fat and happy will help them and your coral!

 

[webster1234]

I have used Selcon for years too. In addition to keeping your fish healthy, I think it helps with the colors, and also helps with HLLE that tangs are notorious for. I feed NLS pellets and they do a good job of soaking up Selcon too. Only drawback is not all of my fish eat pellets.

 

[jqsquared]

I have used Selcon for years too. In addition to keeping your fish healthy, I think it helps with the colors, and also helps with HLLE that tangs are notorious for. I feed NLS pellets and they do a good job of soaking up Selcon too. Only drawback is not all of my fish eat pellets.

Good point. HLLE is far more Devastating with often permanent effects to the visual appearance not to mention what kind of inner body trauma due to stress and environment and mal nutrition etc.




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[FarmerTy]

Andre, a tank can be ICH free and I know several people who have them.

It's just really hard to keep out especially if you're adding things all the time. Everything must be QT for the appropriate time and it will be extremely unlikely to get in.

However, none of us QT every single snail and coral frag including myself lately.

I do wanna note that it is indeed possible and many people have ICH free systems. U have to understand the life cycle to keep it out of the system.

I get tired of QTing everything and enjoy just dipping coral and putting them in the tank. This will haunt me later, but having to be so anal about everything (i've done it) almost makes the hobby a headache.

ICH management is fairly easy, but if you can, keep it out of the system. Definetely QT the fish and prevent Velvet, Brook, Flukes, and the real bad things for getting in.

The only two times i've had ICH have both been from buying turbo snails. To me it was more important (at those specific times) to reduce the chance of plague algae than to worry about ICH.

ICH is kinda like AEFW's. They are hard to keep out especially if you have a tank full of SPS and that's all you buy, but if you dip and QT, dip and QT...it's possible to keep them out.

Great summary!