Garlic for Ick?????? (1 Viewer)

[doubletap4311]

It happened. My blue tang I've had for 3-4 months has a few white, crystal spots on his side. I started soaking my fish food with garlic extreme today. Will this take care of the Ick??? I have also started to lower my salinity from 1.022 to 1.020. Any suggestions??

 

[Guest]

Garlic will not cure ick as far as i know it only will help build their immune system. I would catch the fish and put it in a hospital tank to treat the ick.

 

[crvz]

Dropping salinity to that level won't really help... you'd have to go to 1.009 or so, and I wouldnt recommend at this stage. If it's just noticed, provide a healthy diet and good water parameters and it should clear up.

 

[AquaNerd]

here's what i'd do (depending on how bad the ich is):

-setup a quarantine tank
-drop the salinity to 1.010 or less
-increase the temperature to 81 +/- degrees F
-remove carbon and other filtration media
-add some type of ich medication (carbon will make the medication ineffective)
-carefully watch your other fish as they are also susceptible to ich

ohh, and do acclimate the fish to the salinity/temp. take your time and be careful with it. the last thing the fish needs is more stress.

 

[AquaNerd]

if the ich isn't that bad...just feed with a good diet and maybe increase the temp a little bit. might be a good time to also check a few of the water parameters...ammonia and nitrite.

 

[doubletap4311]

water is perfect except nitrate which is 15-20. I cannot get it any lower. He is eating very well. I run a Uv light. The other fish look okay right now. It would be a disaster to get him out with 175 lbs of live rock. He's got about 4-6 tiny spots on his side

 

[jdeveaux]

My puffer gets some white spots on his tail once in a while for no apparent reason and they've always gone away. I usually do a large water change out of my normal rotation for a little extra insurance.

 

[Raymond]

um.. this is wat i do when i have that problem.....bump up the temp to 83-84, turn off the light for a couple of days, dip the food i feed it in garlic, lower salinity, and worst cases i would do freshwater dip.

 

[Guest]

Ick

I second Raymond, ick love water at lower temps around 76 and below.
but of course with all others suggestions, depending on how bad it is
and will kill a fish, but a few spots, feed um some soak sea weed in
garlic, sliced up and soaked with water from tank, and I've even poured
a little into the tank. This is garlic cloves bought from the store.
This has worked for me every time.

 

[Capt_Swank]

ICH - not good

I have tried the garlic method. It did not work.

If I were you....
1. I would set up a quarantine tank and put ALL your fish in it.
2. Lower the salt level to 1.009 in the quarantine tank.
3. Raise the temp in the display tank to 84 degrees.
4. Raise the temp in the quarantine tank to 80-81 degrees.
5. Leave the all the fish out of display tank (in quarantine) for AT LEAST 4 weeks, better to do 5 weeks.

Do normal water changes in the display tank during this time.

Change the heck outta the water in the quarantine tank (if you have time). I would do about a 20% change each week or so.

You need to break the life cycle of the ICH. The above will do it. Some fish may be a little better handling ICH. Problem is if you do not eradicate it now it will likely get worse.

I am in week number 3 of the above process and it seems to be working very well. The ICH that was on my fish is now all gone. I need two more weeks for my display tank to clear. Any new fish coming in will always go into a quarantine tank before entering any of my display tanks.

Good Luck!

 

[cstewart79]

I find that garlic is a great way of avoiding ick and perhaps boosting their health fights it off.

 

[doubletap4311]

I'm still feeding with garlic. I did a fresh water dip today and it appears to have really hurt the ick/spots on the fish. They were almost no signs of ick after the dip. We will see....

 

[Guest]

Keeping a scarlet cleaner shrimp helps also. My fish get a spot or two once in awhile and it sure seems like these shrimps really help.

 

[doubletap4311]

Well, he still has 2 spots on him. I did pick up some cleaner shrimp today. It seems better