Can you ever get rid of ICH!

[kaseykagan]

OK, I have read that if you take your fish out of your main display tank and treat for ich for 30 days, you will be rid of ICH FOREVER! Did anyone ever do this and put the fish back in and end up with ICH again? The reason I ask is because my LFS said that it is impossible to get rid of ICH! He said that it is always LURKING in your tank and when the immune system of your fish gets weak they will break out in ICK! We are about to step up to a 155 gallon. Right now we have a 55gallon and every now and again our Regal Tang gets 1 or 2 spots, nothing serious. What we were wondering is, if we QT all our fish before transferring to the 155, for 30 days, would we be completely ICK free? :notsure:

 

[mavgi]

ick can come from some reason like Poor water quality Stress or you can bay fish that he already infect and you don't see it yet. becuase of that the best thing is to acclimate the new arrival in QT about 4 weeks.
if your fish infect so it's a good idea to make treatment to all of them becuase the parasite infect them .
there is no thing as you tihnk rid ich forever. if your water quality will not be good or you can have aggression in the tank fish can get stress high temperature or bad food can be option for ich.
when you treat your fish in the QT you need to leave your display tank without the fish about 30 day to get rid from the parasit that still exist in your display tank. of course you need to keep maintenance in your display tank.

 

[drea]

i'll have to get the post, but yes you can get rid of ick, it is not caused by poor water quality or stress... just read it, i'll get the link, has sources too

 

[tuchovgray]

You can try and drop your salinity to 1.009. Parasites cannot live in water with a low salinity. Do not raise or lower the level too quickly. Most LFS keep a low salinity in their tanks to avoid this problem.

 

[mavgi]

Originally Posted by drea
i'll have to get the post, but yes you can get rid of ick, it is not caused by poor water quality or stress... just read it, i'll get the link, has sources too

you can get rid from ich in a case of ich exist by treatment , but to "GET RD FROM ICH FOREVER" i never read or find any post like that i wish we could get rid forever.
and the reason of this was about white spot that they have already in the tank
i copy part from text about water quality :
Disease are mainly caused from stress or poor water quality. To keep your fish from getting diseases you must maintain healthy water conditions so that your fish do not stress out. The most common disease is Marine White Spot. Most diseases are already present in your water, but they only attack the weak fish that are under stress. To prevent these diseases you need to make sure you have the best of water quality

 

[kaseykagan]

Anyone else with input?

 

[beth]

Ich is a simple parasite, not the boogie man. LOL Yes it can be killed. Hyposalinity or copper will kill it very effectively. If treatment is correct, then fish and tank can be cleared of ich. It is not lurking in the tank, it is a fish disease/parasite that is totally depended upon FISH for its existence. Hobbyist introduce ich by not practicing appropriate quarantine procedures. If the hobbyist QTs their fish appropriately, treating ich as it arises in the QT, then a display need never ever have ich. And that's a fact you can bet on.

 

[mavgi]

Originally Posted by Beth
Ich is a simple parasite, not the boogie man. LOL Yes it can be killed. Hyposalinity or copper will kill it very effectively. If treatment is correct, then fish and tank can be cleared of ich. It is not lurking in the tank, it is a fish disease/parasite that is totally depended upon FISH for its existence. Hobbyist introduce ich by not practicing appropriate quarantine procedures. If the hobbyist QTs their fish appropriately, treating ich as it arises in the QT, then a display need never ever have ich. And that's a fact you can bet on.

beth i want to be sure :
my tank clean from ich.............. fish clean from ich.......... no new arrival to the tank....
by the time the water quality change to bad (like amonia , ph , nitrate , nitrite or increase of temperature....) there is no chance to see ich in the tank again..........??
it's a fact that i can bet on?
i ask this question not because i want to argue with you.... , i realy appreciate your experience and i can thank you for that becuase it's help me to save my fish in the past , but from all what i read i know that the first things when you see diseases in the tank (and i am not talk about aggression that can cost stress and then ich.....) the first things is to check the water parameter (i call it water quality)

 

[92protruck]

the answer to your question is NO. IMO. Simply QT'ing a fish for 30 days will not kill or prevent ich. A fish can have ich without any visible signs (at least to an amatuer hobbyist) for more than 30 days or even several months. The only way QT'ing a fish can come close to preventing ich is to perform hypo or copper in the QT. Even then, some strains of ich are immune and that combined with slight variations in salinity or copper levels can render even that ineffective. IMO, there is no 100% way to prevent ich if you have fish. You can increase your chances significantly by simply QT and increase a lot by using copper or hypo in the QT. This is only my opinion and I am well aware that it directly conflicts with the "experts" on this forum.

 

[jcrim]

Contrary to popular opinion, it is possible to treat your display tank with medications that will wipe out ick. There are medications that are truly effective without damaging corals or inverts. I have done this myself and seen it done on other tanks with a product called "Chem Marin's Stop Parasite". Of course, there is no way to guarantee that ick is wiped out FOREVER because most of us are constantly adding things to our tanks that could reintroduce the parasite.

 

[beth]

Personally, I use a magnifying glass and look over my fish in QT very thoroughly several times a day with the light on. Now many hobbyists who practice QTing, and even disease experts will purport that you can use a rubber-maid for a QT. I find this to be a handicap because you can not observe the fish.
It is physically impossible, imo, for ich to be dormant and "hide". Ich has 3 life stages, which are described in the FAQ Thread, and can be seen on fish during the infestation stage. Now, it could be that the hobbyist doesn't notice it, or doesn't know what to look for, but it can be seen with the

[hr]
eye. Even if ich is missed during the initial infestation stage, by the time it reaches plague proportions its impossible to miss. Ich is a simple fish parasite. It doesn't hide, it doesn't lurk in the tank, it is not caused by stress, it is not always in the water. Its just a fish parasite. In the absence of fish, you will never see ich. If fish are appropriately QT-ed, you will never see ich.
I don't use hyposalinity prophetically. Though, there is nothing wrong with doing so.
jcrim, please provide us with your personal exp to validate your claims about Stop Parasite.

 

[jcrim]

Originally Posted by Beth
jcrim, please provide us with your personal exp to validate your claims about Stop Parasite.
Sure... my purple tang was infected and I tried this product on my display. I have some star polyps and mushrooms in the tank as well as a conch. This is a 5 day treatment. Carbon must be removed prior to use. By the fifth day, the ich was almost but not completely gone. The ich was completely gone within a couple days after my last treatment. I have not had any problems since (but I also got a sterilizer after this problem).
My brother in law also used this product on his 65 gallon reef. It worked well and didn't harm anything. I know most ich medications are either not reef safe or are ineffective... this one worked.

 

[beth]

Well, the reef meds can work....but they are just as likely not to work. To me, those odds aren't good enough.

 

[drea]

i been using the hypo method for a while now... i have a glass hydrometer and it reads 1.010.... there is a feeder shrimp in there and he is still alive, but no visible ich... i'm gonna go down to 1.008-09 today and try to leave it like that for 6 weeks..
should the shrimp die at this level? is this a good way of knowing if i'm at hypo levels?

 

[mavgi]

Invertebrates, cannot tolerate low salinity and shrimps can die.
stay in 1.009 it's ok. and don't forget to check your ph level .

 

[nazz13]

I have used a product called ruby reef there are 2 kinds 1-KICK ITCH for regular ich and 2-the other is for odinium both work really well and are reef safe.

 

[beth]

mav, you are saying your tang gets one or two spots. That means you still have ich. Give specifics about how you treated the ick to begin with.

 

[mavgi]

Originally Posted by Beth
mav, you are saying your tang gets one or two spots. That means you still have ich. Give specifics about how you treated the ick to begin with.
i did not say that , i don't have ick or any disease in my tank (thanks god).

the member "kaseykagan" that was the first post said that.
he ask if he can get rid from ich forever ....... i said as i think can't get rid from ich forever (yes if you do the correct treatment you can get rid from ich) but if in the future the qality of the water like temp, or other test are getting bad even if you don't add any new arrival to your tank there is option to get ich or other disease....
i know that if you treat your tank and fish good you can enjoy from healthy fish but if you don't do so fish can get sick and becuase of that i said in my post you can't get rid from ich forever.....
i read a lot of post here (my favorite site) and other site to... about ppl get disease in tank without to add any new fish into the tank and i was surprise when you said that you can get rid from ich forever maybe i am wrong but as a sample : if the temp in the tank over 86 there is option that the fish can get stress and then get ich (even if before your fish was healthy) becuase of that and this was the reason that i said you can not get rid from ich forever ............
thanks
michael

 

[beth]

Originally Posted by kaseykagan
Right now we have a 55gallon and every now and again our Regal Tang gets 1 or 2 spots, nothing serious. What we were wondering is, if we QT all our fish before transferring to the 155, for 30 days, would we be completely ICK free? :notsure:

:thinking:

 

[mavgi]

Originally Posted by Beth
:thinking:
here is the original post you can in the capital letter (you will be rid of ICH FOREVER!)
Can you ever get rid of ICH!

[hr]
OK, I have read that if you take your fish out of your main display tank and treat for ich for 30 days, you will be rid of ICH FOREVER! Did anyone ever do this and put the fish back in and end up with ICH again? The reason I ask is because my LFS said that it is impossible to get rid of ICH! He said that it is always LURKING in your tank and when the immune system of your fish gets weak they will break out in ICK! We are about to step up to a 155 gallon. Right now we have a 55gallon and every now and again our Regal Tang gets 1 or 2 spots, nothing serious. What we were wondering is, if we QT all our fish before transferring to the 155, for 30 days, would we be completely ICK free?