By SumpDiver (DFWMAS)

This post started out as a PM to one of our members who is dealing with that insidious little parasitic issue we’ve all come to know and hate, Cryptocaryon irritans. As hobbyists we all HAVE or WILL have to deal with this nasty little bug sooner or later; and I can assure you, as it has been said before, it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN it will show up in your tank. I decided to post here rather than send a private message. In a PM only two people benefit where as posting a thread many can gain and add information here over time. So this is my two cents on the subject of living with, dealing with, and finally the elimination this scourge once and for all. The once and for all part is still a work in progress in my case, but I feel I’m off to a good start thanks to the help and insight I’ve gained from members of this community, as well as RC and WWM. I'm not going into step by step techniques on Hypo Salinity or Copper treatments here, so much has been written on this already, but rather just touch base on a few inexpensive ways to get started, and to emphasize how important it is not to fall into the trap of complacency.

First off let me say, I am not an expert, nor do I pretend to be. I have been at this all consuming hobby off and on for almost 20 years, yet I consider myself a novice, but learning constantly. In fact, as I said to Marc in a PM, I honestly feel I have learned more in just this last year as a member of DFWMAS than 17 years of stumbling through the hobby on my own in the Florida Keys. The art of keeping Marine Aquaria has indeed come a long way, and this forum and society is a vast goldmine of information for the hobbyist. I’m proud to be a member here. Let me say, that for any of you who are reading this thread without the little fishy over your name you are most welcome to the free info, but you need to put a membership card on your "Things to Buy List" right after your QT tank. For less than the price of a cheap power head, you can support this community for a year. It will be the best fifteen bucks you will ever spend.

The member I began writing this to had mentioned in a thread that they
did not have the time or the resources to treat for ich at the moment. I understand this completely. As our better halves often remind us, sometimes trivial things in life, like paying the rent and going to work, must override this hobby. However, in the long run, it will end up costing you much more to let an infestation of ich go untreated than to bite the bullet and do something about it, and it is very easy to become complacent to this problem due to the very nature of the Crypt life cycle itself, which is often misunderstood. In fact I believe this “on-off cycle” may have evolved genetically to be misleading for the very survival of the parasite. However, in the case you simply do not have the time or resources for the hospitalization of your livestock at the present, there are a few steps you can take to at least Buy some Time for your wet friends and your pocketbook. Here are a few things you can do until you can get yourself equipped for the big battle that lies ahead.


1: Feed The Host Garlic:

There has been a lot of speculation lately as to whether or not garlic actually helps. In my honest opinion as well as the opinion of most I’ve discussed this with, It Does Help Maybe it's not a cure, but it is most definitely a step in the right direction. One of the most important things you can do is to feed and keep feeding with garlic and vitamins supplements. Use products like Garlic Extreme and Zoë by Kent or Selcon. However, if you can’t obtain these products right away, the second best thing is to crush fresh garlic cloves yourself. Don’t use the minced garlic or garlic extract, or garlic powder, because most of these products have preservatives in them. If you can’t get Kent, use fresh. Get one of those little garlic mashers at Wal-Mart’s for a couple of bucks and lace anything and everything you feed heavily with garlic. If your tank does not smell of garlic, you are not using enough. Remember, what smells yucky to us is most often irresistible to you fish. You know how your stomach will sometimes growl when you smell fresh garlic. Even if you don’t like garlic, the odor of this spice will kick in your hunger hormones. It appears to do the same for your fish. The stronger the smell the better. In fact I honestly believe that other than enticing your fish to eat by stimulating their appetite, along with helping to build a stronger immune system, just the smell of the spice alone actually seems to repel this parasite. I’ve actually seen parasites fall off fish when feeding with heavily garlic soaked foods. Some foods soak up the mixture better than others, dry foods soak best, but make literal nutrient soup of your tank water. Forget Brine Shrimp, unless it’s absolutely the only way to get a sick fish to eat. Brine has the nutritional value of candy; it’s mostly water. Put a cube of frozen Mysis in a cup, add a baster full of tank water to thaw it out, then pour off the water. Put a pinch of good flake (Formula 1 and/or 2) then add your garlic and Zoë/Selcon to this and let it set a while. You can also add a pinch of Blood Worms to the mix. Umm Tasty. The soaked flake will stick the Blood Worms to the mush like sprinkles on an ice cream cone. Few fish can resist this. You have to "Trick" your fish into ingesting the medicine. Do what ever you have to get as much garlic into and onto them as possible.

2: Fishing Without a Hook (A good feeding method)
Now, take a strip of squid or shrimp and clip it in a lettuce clip with a string attached. This way you can lower the garlic/Zoë soaked food down to the fish and still to be able to retrieve the uneaten portion. After a while when the fish loses interest pull it up, re soak it in the mixture for a while then lower it again. The fresh smell of the garlic will get the fish’s attention and he will nibble on it some more. This method of feeding, I call “Fishing” is an excellent way to feed. Train your fish to accept food this way and it will help keep nitrates down, especially when you’re working with a small bare bottom hospital tank with little or no bio-filter.

3: Complacency
Due to the disappearing, and reappearing nature of this malady, we tend to let in go. Then to add insult to injury each time a fish survives a bout of ich, he gets a little tougher, and becomes more immune or to the casual eye, less affected by the bug. Trust me, it’s not over till the fat lady sings. If you suspect you have ich, or have EVER had ich in your display, You Still Have It. You need to get every living thing that has gills OUT. Get them into hypo, and let the display sit fallow. Starve those little cooties out. Wall-marts have ten gallon tanks for ten bucks. You can get a cheap sponge filter for about $20. Add a power head and a small heater, beg borrow or BUY a trap and refractometer, and you are ready to go.

In Conclusion:
If we all put our heads together we can have a better understanding of this problem. We have a pretty big (collective head) in this community, and a lot of hands, and we are constantly learning as a whole in the hobby. Every time you discover something that seems to help. Post It. Even when you discover something that does NOT work Post It! especially if it kills a fish. Post it here or on your own thread but get it out there so we can all stay abreast of anything new or discovered. In this way we can all do our part to completely wipe this little nuisance out of the hobby in our lifetime, or at least control it better.