The fish are not showing signs of ick yet. But i know it is very contagious to others in the tank.
Answers:
The key here for the present fish is what else may be in the tank. If you have inverts, you can't treat the tank with medications, otherwise you'll risk losing more than the fish.
I would assume that if you removed the one fish, you have another tank in which you're treating it? If it's larger enough, and others begin to show sings of ich, you may need to remove ALL the fish for treatment. Even though you can't treat the tank if you have inverts, they wouldn't be affected by ich, and the parasite will die on its own (after 4-6 weeks, during which the fish would need to stay in a separate container).
In the future, the best method of protection would be to quarantine any new fish for 2-3 weeks before you would add them to the main tank.
you need to treat the tank even though you removed the fish affected the particles from the ick will lay dormant in the tank,so it could affect your fish .
Get the food at the petstore that says it;s for curing Ick. It's a good preventative also...won't hurt a bit to treat the tank too
being its a reef tank its very hard to treat fro ick without removing the fish into a seperate tank with no corals or inverts. Keep an eye on the fish in the reef and at first signs of ick move them to a q tank. You can add a skunk stripe cleaner shrimp they will eat the ick parasite off the fish if the fish in the reef are infected. The fish with ick that was removed can be treated in a seperate tank with meds such as melachite green. Do not treat the reef tank with this for it could kill your corals. The best bet is add a cleaner shrimp that will eat the parasite off the hosts.
Im sorry i mixed your question up with the previuos post... if there are no corals or inverts you can treat the tank with melachite green to kill the ich parasite. i was thinking it was a 10 gallon reef sorry about that.
First you need to buy ick tabs they melt in the water giving the other fish the meds they might need the ward off the ick.
Give the sick fish his own tank put a tab in his tank also and drops help a lot to.watch your fish over the next few days to see if they look sick.
If they ave any lumps or there scales look like a pine cone the take them to a petstore.The petstore will know what other meds you can give them for a speedy recovery.
And if all goes well your fish should be ok in the next few days.
I hope this helps
Megan
Treat the tank as soon as possible. my mom killed a 8 yr old fish that way, thinking that removing the one would keep the others alive.
