Can a fish cure ICH with its immune system ???

ivasawajin

Member
can a fish ( lets say a blue gippo tang ) get ich and then by reducing stress and eating things that boosts its immune system like garlic and some veggi stuff , can the ich be gone ???? i have a blue tang with ich , its a medium sized tang , can i somehow cured it without hypo or copper ??? i have UV and some great food with garlic and some seaweeds , can the tang NOT DIE from ich ???? or is it inevitable ?
 

meowzer

Moderator
You are not really curing it.....You are just making the fish healthier, therefore the fish is better able to fight it off. The ich will lay dormant in the tank, and from what I understand...the first sign of stress the ich will be right there
lots of people keep ich at bay with vitamins, garlic and low stress.....just know that it lurks in the aquarium
 

luvmyreef

Active Member
You have to treat the tang with copper or hyposalinity to cure ich. Look under the fish disease section and Beth (one of our moderators) has put some good info at the top concerning the treatment of ich. Meowzer, you are just too quick lol
 

ivasawajin

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by meowzer http:///forum/thread/383081/can-a-fish-cure-ich-with-its-immune-system#post_3347680
You are not really curing it.....You are just making the fish healthier, therefore the fish is better able to fight it off. The ich will lay dormant in the tank, and from what I understand...the first sign of stress the ich will be right there
lots of people keep ich at bay with vitamins, garlic and low stress.....just know that it lurks in the aquarium
thanks ....
 

flower

Well-Known Member

The problem is that your tank is infected. So unless you remove all fish for 6 to 8 weeks, you have no cure. Hippo tangs are so easily stressed; they seem to be ich magnets.
I had such a problem with ich and I didn’t have a QT big enough to house all my fish. I was going to give up and just let them die...my last ditch effort was to give them garlic to up the immune system and warm the tank to 82, the tang is less stressed in the warm water.
It worked; the fish were able to fight off the ich. I did not add any new fish for over a year for fear of it being stressed and allowing the ich to regroup, and by sheer numbers kill everything.. As time passed I had to move, my 90g and all had to come with me. Very stressful for my fish. To my amazement nothing came down with ich..it was gone.
I attribute that to the fact that the ich parasite needs a host to survive. With the fish fighting off the parasite they eventually died off. Now this is all assumption, nothing from books. It’s just the way it worked for me. I have not had an ich outbreak in ...2 years now. Nor have I added but one fish in all that time.
To duplicate what I did..up the temp to 82, feed fresh garlic juice on the food (makes the tank stink) do not add any more fish for a year. If you only have the one fish...move it to a hospital tank and do hypo and leave the tank empty for 8 weeks.
The truth is I could have avoided all that trouble, if I had quarantined my fish like I should. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Oh how true that is in this hobby.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by IvasawaJin http:///forum/thread/383081/can-a-fish-cure-ich-with-its-immune-system#post_3348195
i have 38 fishes and i dont have a Q tank and i cant get one . guess i have to wait .

Well I hope all the best for you. Be smart and don't bother with the ich meds, they don't work and make the coral and fish sick. I nearly lost my clowns to a secondary infection because the meds made them worse instead of better..OH and I almost for got...I also added two skunk cleaner shrimp
, they like to eat the parasite off of the fish and clean their gills, so they were part of my efforts, if you decide to do things like I did...
 

mr. limpid

Active Member
here's one I read on another site, throwing it out there. After 11 months if the original fish survive and nothing new is added to the tank the strain of ick will not reproduce and it will die off on its own.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by florida joe http:///forum/thread/383081/can-a-fish-cure-ich-with-its-immune-system#post_3348267
Quote:
The ich will lay dormant in the tank,
I Hate to stoop to symbolism but
But i still love you
Hey Joe how are you feeling? Dormant for how long??? Also if it can remain dormant for years, letting the tank sit for 8 weeks and no fish would not do away with it either. LOL...
I still love you too.
My tang once got ich if it were stressed even a tiny bit, even water changes or moving a coral. I moved the tank. Super stress test to say the least...Broke it down, put the fish in tubs..rocks and sand all removed and reset at the new house. I have been here two years and no ich.
It has to be gone or everything I had would have had a break out of it.
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Quote:
here's one I read on another site, throwing it out there. After 11 months if the original fish survive and nothing new is added to the tank the strain of ick will not reproduce and it will die off on its own.
Before i give you my 2 cents tell me why you think this can be true
Quote:
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
I don't believe there is any evidence that shows that the ich in any stage can go dormant at the temps we keep our tanks at. If it could that would defeat the purpose of most of the medication processes we use for them.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
RE: Post #9 My.02
I'm not in agreement that fish once exposed grow immune to a strain of ich...like you do with a cold??? Because ich is a parasite and it does not mutate like a cold germ does, we keep getting colds because while we are immune to one type of germ it changes and becomes another strain.
So the dilemma is whether the parasite dies off if it can't infect a fish and keep its life cycle going...This is what I believe, That we can keep our fish so healthy the parasite dies off. Or Leave the tank empty for 8 weeks and without a host the parasite dies off.
Joe I think is implying that I still have ich in the tank, but just dormant...I don't agree with Joe because if the ich parasite has the ability to be dormant that long than leaving the tank empty for 8 weeks would do no good and we know that it does work to leave the tank empty.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
RE: Post #9 My.02
I'm not in agreement that fish once exposed grow immune to a strain of ich...like you do with a cold??? Because ich is a parasite and it does not mutate like a cold germ does, we keep getting colds because while we are immune to one type of germ it changes and becomes another strain.
So the dilemma is whether the parasite dies off if it can't infect a fish and keep its life cycle going...This is what I believe, That we can keep our fish so healthy the parasite dies off. Or Leave the tank empty for 8 weeks and without a host the parasite dies off.
Joe I think is implying that I still have ich in the tank, but just dormant...I don't agree with Joe because if the ich parasite has the ability to be dormant that long than leaving the tank empty for 8 weeks would do no good and we know that it does work to leave the tank empty.
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Ok my 2 cents
First we must be sure that what we are seeing is in fact ick. There are many parasites that appear as white spots when they infect a fish. And I am sure many of then have much longer live cycles then ick.
Now in Flowers case I give you this scenario. She had ick present in her tank but her fish were in good health and the ick parasite was not readily visible but they were in sufficient numbers to continue their live cycle. Her fish now becomes stressed its immune and or slime coat is compromised. Now the opportunistic ick are allowed to fully infect the fish. She sees this and removes it. One of two things can happen. When she removes the fish she does not transfer the ick parasites into their new holding area or she allows the fish to gain strength and rebuild its immune system so when he returns it to her DT then may once again fight the majority of ick so as not to be evident
Flower I most definitely DO NOT THINK ick can have a dormant stage. Hence my banging my head reference to the post by Lois
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:Originally Posted by florida joe http:///forum/thread/383081/can-a-fish-cure-ich-with-its-immune-system#post_3348379
Ok my 2 cents
First we must be sure that what we are seeing is in fact ick. There are many parasites that appear as white spots when they infect a fish. And I am sure many of then have much longer live cycles then ick.
Now in Flowers case I give you this scenario. She had ick present in her tank but her fish were in good health and the ick parasite was not readily visible but they were in sufficient numbers to continue their live cycle. Her fish now becomes stressed its immune and or slime coat is compromised. Now the opportunistic ick are allowed to fully infect the fish. She sees this and removes it. One of two things can happen. When she removes the fish she does not transfer the ick parasites into their new holding area or she allows the fish to gain strength and rebuild its immune system so when he returns it to her DT then may once again fight the majority of ick so as not to be evident
Flower I most definitely DO NOT THINK ick can have a dormant stage. Hence my banging my head reference to the post by Lois
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Well it won't let me post so I will try this...
Ahh My bad, I misunderstood you. I'm really good for that, I'm sorry. hey...does that mean you don't love me?? You meant Lois??? I'm so hurt...LOL
I didn't remove my fish. I had no QT large enough for all my fish, so removing one would do me no good since the tank is infected. ??The Ick/ich ?? started on my Hippo Tang and spread to my other fish. They had spots, scratched themselves on the rocks and zipped around the tank like something was chasing them. The spots get less and in a few days maybe a week they are back even worse.
If my fish did not have ich/ick...what else could it be?
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Flower of course I love you it’s just that you are not insecure like Lois who need to be constantly told.
You fish may very well have had ick and now are in a state of health that allows them to fight off most of the ick in the free swimming stage
 
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