ich, what to do?

I took some corals from my brothers tank last week, he called me this morning and said all his fish have ich. now that i look, i'm seeing what might be ich on my 2 dominoes and my puffer, all fish have been in tank for a while and are not stressed or ill and show no signs of ich except the spots, all very active and eat well. actually puffer looks like he might have a spot on his left eye.why would they get it and what's best treatment w/o using Cu? Think it'll just go away? i have no quarantine tank.

 

Raising the tank temperature by a couple degrees (up to 81, maybe 82 max) will speed up the ich life cycle w/o harming your livestock. I've tried Stop Ich, which looked like it was working at first, but then didn't fully work. I stopped dosing that after 4-5 weeks and throwing $35 down the drain.
The best thing to do is keep them eating healthy. Only if they stop eating, won't take food w/ garlic, and show the critical (life-threatening) symptoms of ich, would I pull them out and treat in a QT tank with copper. Ich will always be a problem in the tank, but the fish will usually survive and build an immunity to it as long as water parameters are good and they are eating and otherwise healthy. Also look for signs of secondary bacterial infections from the ich.
Not sure I'd trust a puffer with adding a skunk cleaner shrimp to the tank. Depending on the size of the puffer and the shrimp, the shrimp may become puffer food.

 

Had your brothers tank had a ich problem all along ? and if not what has he added new to his system since you took the corals ?

 

I would do as Bogie said. There are several other Ick medications designed to be used in a display tank, but from what i've read, the results are not always consistent. Soak food in some garlic product or extract to help immune system and just keep a careful eye on the fish. Good luck

 

The dominoes have more spots on them, but mostly on top of back and dorsal fin, the puffer has me a bit worried cause he has the spots on his pectoral fins which on puffers are right on the gills, also his eye has a spot in it and it looks like it might be getting a lil' cloudy or i'm just being over cautious. how would i mix the food w/ garlic? water params are good only problem area is nitrates which stay around 20ppm but it's always been like that, and i just did a 10gal water change yesterday, before i noticed, can't believe i didn't notice sooner, but then again i've been outta town since last fri. maybe it happened then?

 

supplements such as garlic extreme are liquid and you can just drip it onto flake food or nori, etc. Some people have even just used ground up garlic in a food processor and mixed it in with the food when they feed.

 

He just noticed today and has added nothing. i took his corals cause his water params were spiking.

 

If its ich it will pass all tanks have it at some point spring and fall seem to be the prime times for it. That being said its just stress the water is out of whack and y'all where in that tank removing corals and that just tweaked them.. It will pass I'd not get all in a alarm with it just do like Bogie mentioned raising the water temp will speed their life cycle up.. As for treatment ?? There is only one period in their life cycle that the spore can be killed off..

Ich is one of the most mis understood things in this hobby.. Your brothers system just confirms what I have always known about ich it comes it stays until it finds a tweaked host . You damsels will kick it off in no time.. Its just a major money maker for the aquarium chemical companies..

 

rite on tangster, i only lost fish to ich once...when i was a newbie. I was sold garbage equipment from my lfs and didnt have the knowledge needed to battle it.