Just curious what every one else does. I have been having an issue, used remidies that have worked in previous experience to no avail. Fresh water dipped (5 sec), but still no change. Aside from white danglies the fish looks great. Eats well and stays active. I was hopeing to treat it with out removeing fish from enviroment for more than dipping... is there anything I can do (copper free)? Could it be somthing other than Ick (although it does present all the symtoms of dissapearing then reapearing in larger numbers)?

I picked up a Sailfin Tang a week ago and it started to have White spots all over the fins. I sort of freaked out and thought what could be done. Should I remove him from the tank and treat him with copper in a seprate tank? I decided to wait it out and thinking that it was caused by stress. After a few days the spots have reduced greatly and hopefully in the next few days they should be gone.

I think my cleaner shrimp also helped him out a little.

I would first watch the fish and make certain that it's now under stress. Any other fish bothering it? How's your water parameters? pH and such?

I believe all my levels are good. I check them regularly. zero nitrites, nitrates, and no ammonia. PH around 8.3-8.4. Salinity in right on the dot. Mine also had just 2 dots appear at first. ow they have spread and i am noticing more smaller ones. I really dont want to treat this guy with copper, in a seperate tank, but i guess thats best option if not gone by weekend. any one else tried anything else? what treatments have people had good luck with?

You have a pic of it? 

I have heard of a freshwater dip, but I have never tried that before because of the stress on the fish. Copper in a seperate tank is the best method but that will take many weeks and normally all your fish gets the treatment.

How's your temp in the tank?

well i have set up and cleaned a 10 gal to move my tang to. I am going to try quick cure. Have heard from another friend that it worked for them. It claims to work in 3 days or less and makes the water stained blue..? any one tried this? I keep my temp between 74 and 80, adv 76 for the most part.  But i know the source of the ick was from the supplier. So i am going to try and do this tomarrow. will take photos and let you know how it goes.

Castro:

well i have set up and cleaned a 10 gal to move my tang to. I am going to try quick cure. Have heard from another friend that it worked for them. It claims to work in 3 days or less and makes the water stained blue..? any one tried this? I keep my temp between 74 and 80, adv 76 for the most part.  But i know the source of the ick was from the supplier. So i am going to try and do this tomarrow. will take photos and let you know how it goes.

Good Luck!

Keep us posted on the progress.

So last night i cleaned and set-up my 10 gal this morning i spent over an hour trying to catch my white face (Mr. Majestic) and had to move my live rock all over to catch him. When i finally caught him i transferred him to a pitcher while i transfured the h20 from my 46 to my 10. then added my Real sea water to 46 gal. Everything seems ok, fish didnt seem over stressed but he is not happy to be in his new home. No place to hide, and alot smaller, but he looks ok for now. After giving him an hour or so i started treatment of the ick in the 10 gal. As I stated I am trying Quick Cure brand Ick removal for this attempt. One reason I chose this is when talking with my friend at our local aquarium center he said he had tried a dozen different cures and had very little success. He had no yet tried this, but I have heard good things from other people. This cure works (states that it works) for both freshwater and saltH2o. But i know that the two types of ick are not the same but often confused. It says 1 drop per gal per day, up to 3 days. I will let you know if anything changes at the end of day 1.

Keep us posted Castro. Hope it works out the best for you.

Well at the end of day two. Before I added a second dose, I ripped through my reef again and caught my goby. I decided to treat him as well rather than have the chance of another outbreak. I also added 10 lbs of rock to my tank and finally picked up my new Pink Skunk. I have had a hard time getting it (must be due tot he season) and I had my friend at the pet shop segregate and montor for a week. Everything looked good, so I acclimated and added him to the tank while all others are out being treated. Really excited about the new rock work, and hope to finish up the treatment in next few days. There are already nolonger any signs of ick on the tang. But I think I will treat the water a third time to be safe. Then add carbon filtering to remove the quick cure. Then wait and see what happeneds. I dont know what everyone else does when they have to treat one of the fish in a reef tank, cause that is one of the &^%*$ things to do. Let me know how you manage to catch them...

Today I added the final dose (third) of Quick cure. It appears as though the majority of ick has dissapeared off the white face tang. Although I can still see some, and I am debating where to go from here. Now I can add the charcoal filter and wait to see what happeneds with the fish or I can do a 25% water change and dose it again. I think I will just add the filter and see what happeneds. I assume that the filter will some how remove the chemicals that are related to the quick cure since it requires that that filter not be attached when useing. So i wonder if I can re-treat the water after some time passes, or if a water change is a must. probably safe rather than sorry, but I am really hoping that there will be no signs of ick and that I can reintroduce them to my main tank within a week. If thats the case then I will probably cycle the tank for some time and use it as a preventive measure and acclimate all fish to it before introducing them to my main tank. What does everyone else do before introducing new live stock to a reef tank, and what do they use for equipment?

I would wait until he fully has no sign of ick, don't rush it. It's the charcoal the removes the Quick Cure so what I have done in the past is to open the filter media and remove the charcoal and run the filter without the charcoal until the ick was gone.

I am posting a photo of what my white face looks like with ick. Mine does not look this bad but I wanted to show what it looks like. I do not know how to post a photo here so I will put it on the photo board, and if somone would be kind enough to post it here that would be great.

Well i think you are right, but the directions state that no more than 3 treatments with out 25% water change. SO this morning i add the charcoal filter. I plan on watching them, and in another couple days I will remove the charcoal and replace it with another custom cut sponge filter. When I added the charcoal filter back on the tank, i also decided to do another fresh water dip. Both fish seem ok now, but i am certain that between the tank move, quick cure and fresh water dipping that they have been through alot of stress. I hope they dont end up dieing right after the ick is cured.  I have also now cut back the light and am debating about slowly increasing the salinity.

Also has anyone tried garlic additives as a treatment against ick. from what i have read this may help boost the fish's immune system and help them fight off it natrualy. They have equated it to be similar in effect to human consumption of garlic and the protection it can offer against blood sucking vamipires (blook sucking insects). This I can vouch for, and is a common way of resisting moskitoes in the country. Now I guess a liquid garlic extract is supposed to be the best. you drip some in a feeding sample of live brine/mysis shrimp and wait like an hour. They are filter feeders and will eat up the garlic, and then when the fish eat these they also get the garlic. I am thinking about trying this like once a week in the future as a preventive measure, and it seems simple enough. There just doesnt seem to be enough hard evidence that this works (more than 50% and placeebos can work more than that!), so if anyone has any experience please let me know!!

sounds like your on the road to recovery hopefully.

I never heard of anyone using garlic for treatment. Thats good if it works but I really wonder if it would really help. Any studies on this? 

not only have I found several studies, but there are also some companies now offering this in the marine industry. I didnt bookmark anything but if you look, its pretty easy to find information on it. The only issue I have is that people have only been looking into it for the last couple of years, and there is no real long term hard evidence...yet. But I guess i will just have to do an experiment. When I finalize the quick cure remidy attempt, and my fish return to the main aquarium I am going to go to the LPS and find another tang (probably sailfin) that has come in the previous day. Then i am almost possitive to get one with ick, and I can use my 10 gal set-up to treat it...With garlic alone!! but first I have to find a good liquid extract... hmm... and the sailfin will have mto suffice on a diet of live brine shrimp for a period of time... Well we will see when this is over, and if anyone has done anything with garlic treatments then please let me know.