Ich ??

[jwisson]

So some of my fish have ich and some do not. I am sure this has been covered many times but I will ask again.

What is the suggested direction I should take.

A: Try to catch all the fish put them in QT and hope they live for 8 Weeks in a small tank?

B: Leave the survivors that show no signs of ICH in the tank and don't add fish for 8 to 10 weeks?

C: Try some of that "Reef Safe" snake oils to kill it?

The other question that I have is: Is ICH in everybody's tank and something triggers it. Or did a "Dirty" Fish bring it in?

I have been told many different answers to that question but would like to hear it from the PRO's if you know what I mean.

 

[oh207]

Ans: A

My opinion.
Ich needs to be introduced. I disagree with others who state that it is always present. It needs a fish host to continue its life cycle. Therefore if you take precautions to QT everything properly, then it will not be present.
And once its in a tank, the tank needs to be fallow long enough to ensure it dies out. This could be as long as 3 months.

 

[ReefWreak]

A few days late, but hopefully helpful.

I strongly agree with oh207. It's really inconvenient to QT fishes, but its your choice on whether you value the fishes lives enough to go through the inconvenience. Not a judgement on my part, but it's up to you to weigh.

It might be worth googling "Tank Transfer Method" or "TTM" and getting rid of ich. It sounds like a pretty neat way of getting rid of ich from your fishes, as it breaks the lifecycle of the parasite without any chemicals or treatments other than just moving your fishes from bucket to bucket every 3 days. Relatively easy if you just want to really get rid of the parasite.

 

[jwisson]

Thanks for the input. I ordered a fish trap and will try to get everyone out and leave the tank with no fish for 2 months. The only question I have is what if I can't get everyone out. Will ich still live in a fish that is not showing signs of illness?

 

[ReefWreak]

Yes.

 

[jwisson]

Well this will be fun

 

[Karina01J]

I hope so.

 

[vio]

The Ans. is "A" .

 

[sealtea116]

I use kick ich twice now and work both times and you don't have to catch you treat the DT and there is no copper

 

[sealtea116]

It is a month process but it has worked wonders for me

 

[mrdobie]

In the future quarenteen every fish before you put in the ur display tank.
Home site is 20\20 so learn from the experiance. We have all been there at one
Time or another. So we all feel your pain.

 

[b-ridge]

So you mean to tell me if a person puts let's say a Achilles tang in qt for however many months/weeks it will never catch ich when you place it in your main tank if your main tank is supposovely ich free?

 

[marrone]

If the fish doesn't have ich, and you place it in a tank that is free of ich, how will it get ich?

 

[b-ridge]

There's a lot of debating going on whether stress can bring on ich and ich always present in a aquarium.

 

[marrone]

Ich is a parasite and if it's not present in the tank, then no amount of stress will bring it about. Now there are other diseases that bring about similar symptoms as ich. As for it always being present in an aquarium, there is no reason that you can't eliminate it from your tank. You would think a lot of tank bred fish, like Clowns, where the eggs are removed from the tank and raise in separate tanks, shouldn't have Ich, as they are never exposed to it.

 

[b-ridge]

Ok. Understandable.
Now I was reading on past posts about the Achilles. Many people said there Achilles would get ich outbreaks every now and again. Now I'm not absolutely positive there tanks were ich free but from some of the guys who posted I would think or tend to believe there tanks were ich free

 

[marrone]

The thing is if the only fish that comes down with ich is the Achilles, then maybe it wasn't Ich in the first place but something that some similar symptom. The same can be said with Hippo tangs, they always come down with what looks like Ich, but no other fish in the tank get is, so maybe it's not Ich in the first place.

 

[b-ridge]

Hmm. That makes sense. I've been through that before with a hippo tang in the past. He would get ich like spots but no one else would. Then they would just disappear as quick as it came

 

[mrdobie]

my reasoning for quarantining is multi faze.
1 observe fish.
2 medicate
3 let fish get use to new water and surrounding
4 make sure they are eating
5 help eliminating stress from being transported multiple times
stress free animals are less likely of getting sick
quarantining is not a cure all but it helps from bringing foreign items into main display.

 

[clasystems]

I have dealt with ich many times. In my current FOWLR system i have gotten 3 outbreaks and have never lost a fish from it. The problem with ich is that the tomonts can hang out on almost anything for a few weeks depending on temp. Does everyone QT their coral in fishless systems? Probably not. Do you increase chance of getting ich if you dont QT? Yes. In reef systems this becomes a bit of a dilemma everyone faces. I stopped using QT systems because it became to much of a pain. I have a couple of large acclimation boxes I use that I put new fish in after initial dips in FW and prazipro. Everytime I see ich is getting a hold on my tank I will slowly drop the salinity to about 1.009 for about a month then raise it up again. This always kills the parasite. I know several of my fish as very resistant to ich. My 15yo doctorfish has been exposed several times but has only gotten it once. My sabre squirrelfish has never gotten it. The point of my story is that everyone has their own situation. Unless you are extremely careful you will get ich into your system. Will it show? Maybe. Is it there already? Maybe. Can you wipe it out? Yes but once you do, dont put anything in the tank that has been in anyone elses tank including wet nets, rock, pumps etc. Tomonts can even hang out in macroalgae you might pickup from an unsuspecting aquarist.