oh the ich......

[Darren&Candace]

i'm sure some of you out there have some great advice to give me on this one ...... we have a Desjardin sailfin tang and a regal tang ..... the regal has ich spots on it and the other doesn't. We were told once that as long as he keeps eating (which he does very well!!) that he will be fine and kinda grow through it .... I read somewhere too I think that moving him around to quarantine and medicate will just cause the same stress as when he just came in the tank in the first place and quite likely cause the same ich to get him again .... hmmmmm i'm not sure what the best action is on this as I really hate the idea of disrupting their happy little life together to quarantine him and then put him back in the tank and have him go through the same stress again. but then the next potential problem is adding more fish .... we are supposed to pick up our 2 little black ice clownfish ... whats going to happen then ... are they going to get it or kinda hit and miss?? ..... our sailfin was in the tank only a week before the regal tang and she has no spots at all - why would this be too? wouldn't every fish get it?? please advise :))

 

[Steveg229]

Now that ich is in your tank, it will always be there, unless you go fishless for 8-10 weeks. After having ich, some fish will develop some sort of immunity towards it and will either fight it off fast or will never show signs. A healthy, unstressed fish should not get ich. Keep a happy, healthy tank, and you should be good to go.

 

[Darren&Candace]

thanks steve, ...... but wont the stress of moving a new fish into the tank ensure that it rears its ugly head?? or it can still be hit and miss ??

 

[salt_for_brains]

A couple of quick things----once ich is in the tank it is there unless you run the tank fallow for a couple of months. So if you are not going to take that step then I wouldn't remove a fish and put it through quarantine and then re-introduce back into the display only to get ich again. Now, if the fish is healthy enough it will fight through the ich to the point where you don't see signs of it even though it is still present. Introducing the new clownfish will expose them to the ich but they are generally pretty hardy and you probably will never see any signs.

So you want to feed your fish quality foods to help build up their immune system and keep them as healthy as possible. Just keep in mind that anytime a fish gets stressed the visible signs can show back up on the fish.

 

[Aquarian]

Ok this has always confused me.

If I have a fish with ich and it dies, ich is in my tank. I run my tank for 8 weeks with no fish and the parasite dies off. I then introduce new fish and with a little luck and good husbandry I never see ich again.

But if I a fish with ich and it recovers and I continue to keep fish in my tank. Even with no outbreaks of ich for months, ich will still be living in my tank.

How can both situations be true?

 

[salt_for_brains]

In your first scenario you have to quarantine your fish with hypo or copper to ensure you are not introducing ich back into the display tank.

 

[Darren&Candace]

so upon a trip to the lfs we were suggested to use something called 'medic' from polyplab ... for some help with the ich ... their word & and polyplab website both say its 100% reef safe and no harm to inverts or clams .... anyone had any experience with this product?? does work a little or snake oil??
thanks

 

[Aquarian]

From what I've read the Reef safe meds for ich do little to nothing to help . That said I have no experience with ich in a reef tank. I've only had ich in two tanks both were fish only and more than a few years ago.:coffee:

 

[salt_for_brains]

+1
If I remember right the active ingredient in Medic is an anti-fungal.
There are only two proven methods of curing fish of ich ---- hypo salinity and copper but unfortunately neither can be done in the display tank.

 

[bwilhite]

I had some ich on a new fish, dog face puffer and I got some selcon vitamins and soaked food in it and also soaked some in garlic. fed healthy foods and within a week there was no signs of ich and never saw it again even adding new fish.

 

[emmett0122]

best thing is to get a qt tank setup if you can and qt all new fish my display tank has no fish in it right now as i have just lost 5 out of my 6 fish in my tank my last fish is in my new qt tank and im going to leave my display tank fishless so i can insure the ich has died off and any new fish i get from here on will get qted to make sure that i dont go thru this again. good luck and hope your fish get better

 

[Shep]

Ok this has always confused me.

If I have a fish with ich and it dies, ich is in my tank. I run my tank for 8 weeks with no fish and the parasite dies off. I then introduce new fish and with a little luck and good husbandry I never see ich again.

But if I a fish with ich and it recovers and I continue to keep fish in my tank. Even with no outbreaks of ich for months, ich will still be living in my tank.

How can both situations be true?

I am not positive but the fish can act as hosts to the parasite, meaning that they are carrying it around with them but it is kept in check by the fish's immune system. It can survive but not go viral on the other hand with no fish in the tank there is nothing to host the the parasite and it will die off. I have not studied ich or what can be a host carrier for it but a lot of other bacteria/viruses that I work with/study do this.

 

[bronson]

best thing is to get a qt tank setup if you can and qt all new fish my display tank has no fish in it right now as i have just lost 5 out of my 6 fish in my tank my last fish is in my new qt tank and im going to leave my display tank fishless so i can insure the ich has died off and any new fish i get from here on will get qted to make sure that i dont go thru this again. good luck and hope your fish get better

what fish have you lost? and wot from and sorry to hear that

 

[emmett0122]

i lost 2 snowflake clowns, 1 ocellaris clown, 1 yellow clown, and one flame angel. the tang and angle was ich and the 3 clowns were from fin rot and ich combined the only fish i have left is a pj cardinal witch never showed sings of either and is doing fine in my qt tank