# Ich won't go away



## Mike

Hi everyone, 

This is the beginning of my third week with ich in the tank. I waited a week before beginning treatment with "Ich Attack" and have been treating the tank for two weeks already. For the past few days I upped the dosage from the recommended one teaspoon per 10 gallons to about two teaspoons per 10 gallons, as the instructions said the dosage could be increased.

Anyhow, I seem to be noticing more and more ich instead of less and less. I went to my LFS yesterday who said the only thing I could do was continue to treat the tank. They did suggest raising the temperature and I have raised it from 75-77 to around 82 degrees.

I read something in another topic about cleaner fish such as the cleaner wrasse coming into play somehow. Would adding this fish to the tank help eliminate or prevent ich? Do they eat the ich off of other fish or something? Who eats the ich off them? I suppose maybe you have to buy them in pairs so they can take care of each other 

Can anyone recommend what I should do? I don't have a quarantine tank. I've already been adding garlic extract to their food for months now as a preventative measure. I thought it directly boosted their immune systems and didn't realize it was only supposed to help encourage them to eat which in turn is supposed to boost their immune systems. I raised the temperature today and have been treating with Ich Attack for over two weeks to no avail. 

Thanks,
Mike 
:BIGsad:


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## usmc121581

You can add a cleaner wrasse, cleaner shrimp, or a blood shrimp. Will all do the job but is no guarantee that they will do the job. To fight it you have to undrstand ick, you metioned your treating the tank, the only time you can kill ick is in the baby stage when its free floating, when its on the fish its covered in a cyst that protects the parasite from everything except the metioned inverts who pick it off. Its good that your adding garlic to there food that will help them fight off the parasite, and attract them to the food to stay strong . I would also recommend buying a UV sterilizer so when this happens it will be easier to treat. What a UV sterilizer does is burn the parasite to where it cant reproduce. For now Keep making sure the fish eat, Try not to let the fish stop eating, once the fish stops eating its doomed. You can try and buy a cleaner wrasse, I had one that would pick the ick off the fish, I have a cleaner shrimp that wont clean a fish to save its life. So go with a wrasse, if you can buy a UV sterilizer to help to. When It comes to Ick in a saltwater system its hard to treat it because the best way to do it is copper and copper is bad for saltwater. When I get ick in mine I never treat w/ anything I turn my UV sterilizer on and keep the fish eating. SGood luck with it and keep us posted.


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## caferacermike

My most natural methods are heavy feedings and high temps. 82F is not high enough. 86F is the target temp for speeding up the cycle and killing them off.

It is difficult to adivse to many treatments as we do not have a background to your tank. Better answers will come if you tell us the inhabitants and the focus of this tank. I would hate to recommend raising the temp that high and then you tell me your corals bleached.

My favorite methods are raise the temp, very frequent (daily) water changes, and lots of small feedings. Feeding all day long keeps the metabolism and the immune system strong to fight the parasite. By water changes I mean only about 2-5% daily. Just little frequent ones to keep the params in order so that no secondary infections occur.


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## Derek-M

I don't know how things are going with you at the moment as this thread is a few days old now,but one other thing you haven't mentioned is the salinity... A good way to rid spot is to drop the salinity slowly over a few days down to 1.018 as the salt water spot cannot tolerate freshwater... Keep an eye on the fish and if they are starting to show signs of stress slowly bring it up again....The garlic extreme works very well at a higher dose but I don't have the dose rates at the moment as I am at home.. I will confirm when back at work



The dose rate for kent garlic extreme when treating whitespot
Is 8 drops per 50 uk galls every other day. And 2 drops added to the food daily.


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