[Paul B]

I mentioned the depth of the water as one cause of possable stress. If the tank is 18" deep and we then put the fish in a tank 24" deep we increased the depth by 25%.
I don't know what the fish feels but I would imagine that deeper is better. But no matter what the tank depth is we can not match the sea. Fish are found at different depths because thats where they were programmed to live. If you do any diving or snorkling in the tropics if you look in very shallow rock overhangs and caves you may see a school of beautiful fish called "Copper Sweepers" I have never seen these fish in water deeper than a few feet and they are not real small, maybe 3".
(I don't know why I never saw them for sale) Anyway, they are in shallow water because they want to be there and I would imagine that if you released a school into deep water they would be severly stressed and head for shore.
Just about everything in a tank stresses fish and we can't do much for most of it. We can make up for some of it by keeping them well fed so they don't try to go on long treks looking for food and we should avoid bullies which is probably the most severe stress. I remember when I was in grammar school and I knew a bigger kid wanted to mess with me, I would walk to school a different way because he scared the hell out of me. I guess I was stressed.
Paul

[h20 freak]

It's true that the fact/theory "healthy fish are resistant to ich" seems odd, ich is a parasite,not a disease. If you compare it to us, no matter how healthy we are,our health can't stop us from getting stomach worms or mosquito bites.It's weird but it seems to be true.

[Sean]

Cryptocaryn or Ich attaches to the mucus of the fish so if there weak maybe the slime or mucus is weak allowing the parasite to more easily attach to the fish and munch on it's tissue. Thats how I've always thought of it. I would agree with Paul that healthy fish are less susceptible to Ich.

[Paul B]

Humans do not have body slime (most of us don't anyway) The slime is exuded by the fish for a few reasons. One is disease or paracite protection. In a clownfish it protects them from anemone stings. If we "slime" ourselves with insect repellent we are protected from mosqueto bites. Fish have just found a way to make the stuff themselves. I don't know how much research went into fish slime but I doubt there was much money involved in it.

[ari5736]

If one has ich in his tank, and the current inmates (fish) are resistant, won't almost all new fish that get introduced develop the ich due to a weakened immunity from transfer, hence preventing additions of new fish? In the alternative do you think it would it be safe to introduce new fish when all the current fish are not showing symptoms?

[Paul B]

Ari5736, new fish do not necessarily develop ich even if ich is in the tank. Ich has been in my reef for three decades and I have no problem adding new fish unless the new fish is already infected. I added two fish today. Of course this is not 100% true of all tanks. It depends on the conditiion of the new fish, the stress level in the tank, the amount of infection in the tank, the temperature and a variety of other things.
It is vastly better if there is no ich in our tanks in the first place. A stressed fish added to a tank with ich stands a very good chance to get the disease in which case you may have to remove the fish to cure. After it is cured, it "may" have a better chance to avoid the disease when it is added to your tank. I am in no way advising you to add a fish to a tank with ich, just giving my opinion on what may happen.
Unfortunately, many tanks, for one reason or another are infected with ich. The reason for this thread was to try to find out why some tanks crash from ich with massive die offs and in some tanks it is not a problem.
Have a great day.
Paul

[ari5736]

Thank you Paul; imo this is a very informative thread in that it describes the experiences of members who have dealt with ick.

[h20 freak]

Quote: Originally Posted by Paul B Another thing that causes stress is water depth. Very few adult fish live in water as shallow as our tanks. They have a built in sense that it is not safe there. In the sea there are birds and crabs that prey on shallow water fish. Fish know what depth water thay are in. Fish like Royal Grammas are deep water fish. I have seen many of them deeper than 120'. They live there because they were made to adjust to that water depth.

Wouldn't that make some damselfish best suited(if the category were to exist) for tank life seeing as they are collected from shallow tide pools with varying parameters.This is the environment our tanks resemble closest.

[Paul B]

H2o, That may be the reason damsels do very well and even breed in tanks.
Tangs, butterflies, moorish Idols and many other comparitively open water fish do not adjust as well. Even spiny box fish and porcupine fish do not stay in one place in the sea. Thats why we often see them swimming up and down the glass on one side of the tank.

[Earlie]

Quote: Originally Posted by h20 freak It's true that the fact/theory "healthy fish are resistant to ich" seems odd, ich is a parasite,not a disease. If you compare it to us, no matter how healthy we are,our health can't stop us from getting stomach worms or mosquito bites.It's weird but it seems to be true.

I find this statement to be very true. However when you do know that you have Ich in your tank but your fish are fine and so are all the lps and sps and everything how do you fully remove it from the tank or is it forever to be in the tank.

	SPS Small Polyped Scleractinians - Sometimes known as Small Polyped Stony corals. These are hard corals that have extremely small polyps. They are typically on the difficult side and require Metal Halide lighting or dense Power Compact or T5 arrays. These corals are prized for their rareness and ability to be easily fragged into multiple colonies.

	LPS Large Polyped Stony corals – In the aquarium hobby this is a common division of the species of stony corals based upon the visual assessment of the size of the polyps. Corals in this category were among the first stony corals to be kept successfully in captivity and include many very beautiful species. Commonly kept Genera include Euphyllia (hammer/frogspawn coral), Favia (brain coral), Plerogyra (bubble coral), Lobophyllia (meat/tooth coral), and Caulastrea (candycane coral). LPS corals also include the popular solitary non-colonial stony corals such as Fungia (plate coral), Cynarina (button coral), Trachyphyllia (open brain coral), and Herpolitha (tongue coral). Like their SPS counterparts, LPS corals require good water quality, intense lighting of the appropriate spectrum, adequate water movement and regular supplementation of calcium.