So the little buggers swimming around in the water would not be killed by the copper med in the hospital tank?lol
Just had to say that.LOL:hug:
If copper treatments worked that quickly, we would only have to dip the infected fish for a few minutes to cure them of ich, and we know that is not the case.
The suggestion of using untreated DT water to refill a QT tank when treating Ich past the first day of filling the QT tank is a poor idea as there can be ich parasites in the water. If the point of treatment is to kill those parasites, this is incredibly counterproductive.
How about on the 10th day? Just maybe the ich in the gills is now dead and gone and you fill the tank with DT water (which still has ich since it hasn't been treated) ..do you want to take the chance that the copper will kill any free swimming ich before those newly added parasites find a safer home imbedded in the fishes gills?
You'd be starting treatment again like it is the first day. Poor idea IMO.
To add to this, and I know ppl are going to say different. Ich is dormant in any tank, any cause of stress or annoyance to the fish and their imune system drops and become sick hence like out imune system. I will check if this is correct or not with a marine bio. But i do rember in my marine bio classes that this is proven. I know that alot of other agents live as well in our waters. Once you have treated the tank withthe uv take it off you will kill pods and then such.
I'd be one of those people Anthony
Ich is a parasite. It cannot be 'dormant'. It is only not trying to attach to a fish during a
very short period of time (hours, not days or weeks or months) while it is reproducing.
It must host another living creature, in this case a fish, and only a fish.
Do you get pneumonia or a cold every time you are stressed? Nor do fish get ich every time the are stressed. As Mike mentioned earlier, even healthy fish get Ich - but ONLY when the parasite is ALREADY present.
Can't agree with you on the UV light either. The ONLY things a UV light can kill are those that go through the hose and pass in front of the light (at the correct speed..but that is another discussion..lol). The great majority of your pods - and such- are hanging out in your rockwork or some varieties on your glass), not freely swimming around in you water column (where your fish would probably east them long before the UV hose could suck them in...). So the UV won't have much of an impact on them. It will, however, kill bacteria - both good & bad - that
is your water column.
That said, if you are lucky, you will mange to kill at least some of the Ich parasites in the DT by using this. Anything that helps at this time is an asset, though the fallow time of 6-8 weeks will wipe out any reminaing Ich parasites in the DT by itself.
If fish didn't get ich in nature it would never have made its way to our tanks.
Yep
In the wild fish are loaded with all kinds of parasites. Because they swim around some of the parasite mature and fall off and the fish doesn't get re-infected again or at least right away, unlike in our tanks where they just kept getting re-infected. Also there are cleaning stations, cleaner fish and shrimp, which help remove parasites.
So true.
Remember the size of the ocean (though fish inhabit only a very small percentage of that ocean in actuality
). The size alone is a deterrent to many fish getting ich as they may not come in contact with it easily.
Our tanks are basically a breeding ground for issues like Ich, hence the importantance of QT procedures for anything we add to the tank.
Wes said this very well I think...
If everything goes through a quarantine/treatment before it touches your system you can have an evironment where ich does not exist.
It's easier said than done. Everything wet must go through quarantine (fish, corals, rocks, etc. ) to ensure you do not introduce the parasite to your system.
