expert ich advice

[rbu1]

Just wanted to put my opinion into this discussion. I have have been in the hobby for over 4 years. I have a 75 gallon reef set up and a 300 gallon FOWLR and softies in the basement. When I began the hobby I quarentined every fish that went into my 75 gallon tank. Man was that a pain in the butt. It is hard to maintain perfect water quality in a quaretine tank. The PH is the most difficult thing to maintain and also on of the most important. Now I swore I would never Quarentine again because the last time I did it I almost killed the fish because I could not keep the water quality up to par. Prior to the 300 gallon tank I had a 180 that I stocked from fellow hobiests. I felt that because I was getting the fish from a person that took care of them instead of a store I had a better chance of keeping an ick free tank.......WRONG!!!!! After putting in a couple yellow tangs and a hippo tang and sailfin tang I noticed they all had ick. Even my dog faced puffer was COVERED.....To much trouble to remove all those fish and put them in a QT. Most of the fish are at least 8 inches or more. So I added a couple cleaner gobies and a cleaner wrasse. I began to feed food soaked in vitamin c and garlic. While in the 180 the fish all cleared up and showed no signs of ick for at least 4 months. Now I decided to upgrade and went to a 300. I did the transfer to the new tank using all the rock I had in the 180 and some of the sand. Knock on wood all went well did not have a single casualty. Not even an ick outbreak. The 300 was up for about 2 weeks and I decided to try my luck with an achilees tang. Even though I swore I would never QT a fish I did with the Achilees. The person I got the achilees from had him for 2 weeks and had him in copper the entire time. I got the fish and put him in the QT. I had him in the QT for 2 weeks he was eating and did not have a single spec on him. I decided to move him to the 300. All went well with the move not a single fish bothered him. Not even my bully sailfin tang. He swims all over the tank and eats real good. But guess what........I noticed he has ick.......He is still eating and I am soaking some Purple seaweed in garlic and vitamin c. Hopefully he can fight it off just like the others did. OK so now for my opinion on ick. If you feed a well balanced vitamin enriched diet the fish will be healthy enough to not get ick. If you have a fish that is not eating and gets ick either remove the fish and treat it or let nature take its course. I have also recently started making my own fish food that the fish all seem to love. I hope with the good diet and vitamin soaked seaweed the achilees will pull thru. I don't think we will ever understand the science behind ick the only thing we can do is use nature against nature. OK I have said enough sorry.........

 

[al mc]

Rbu1...No problem putting your two cents in. You have been in the hobby longer than I so I value your expertise/opinion. I do believe the science behind Ich, while not crystal clear, is clear enough to state that you can help your fish fight off Ich or help them not contract the disease for periods of time with avoiding stress, good water quality and a healthy diet. This will not eliminate Ich. To eliminate Ich, any fish even exposed to Ich need to be treated with either hyposalinity or copper (my favorite is Cupramine). The tank(s) these fish came out of need to be kept fish free for at least 6 weeks and anything new (rock, inverts and fish) that will be introduced in the future need proper QT to prevent reintroduction of the disease. Proper QT for me is rock and inverts is 6 weeks in normal salinity water and for fish is either QT with copper or hyposalinity.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Al Mc
http:///forum/post/2483357
Rbu1...No problem putting your two cents in. You have been in the hobby longer than I so I value your expertise/opinion. I do believe the science behind Ich, while not crystal clear, is clear enough to state that you can help your fish fight off Ich or help them not contract the disease for periods of time with avoiding stress, good water quality and a healthy diet. This will not eliminate Ich. To eliminate Ich, any fish even exposed to Ich need to be treated with either hyposalinity or copper (my favorite is Cupramine). The tank(s) these fish came out of need to be kept fish free for at least 6 weeks and anything new (rock, inverts and fish) that will be introduced in the future need proper QT to prevent reintroduction of the disease. Proper QT for me is rock and inverts is 6 weeks in normal salinity water and for fish is either QT with copper or hyposalinity.
I agree with most of this. The inverts, rocks, and corals only need three weeks of qt though. RB, I am glad that your fish appear to be ich free, but you are putting a band aid on the problem. Ich is still in your tank.

 

[rbu1]

Thats OK if you want to call it a bandaid. If my fish are kept fat and healthy they do not get ick. If it stays that way for a long enough period the ick has no host and therefor will not survive. Just like having a fishless tank.

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by rbu1
http:///forum/post/2484052
Thats OK if you want to call it a bandaid. If my fish are kept fat and healthy they do not get ick. If it stays that way for a long enough period the ick has no host and therefor will not survive. Just like having a fishless tank.
True, but...
Ich typically attaches under the operculum in the gills of the fish. So your fish could very well have low grade infections and you won't know it. Many fish keep eating while infested with ich. So a healthy appearing fish may actually be hosting the parasite.
Scientific research has actually done a pretty thorough job of documenting the life cycle of the Ich parasite.
Using "nature against nature" doesn't really translate very well into our tanks. Our tanks are typically overstocked, and allow for a great concentration of parasites. In addition, in the wild sick fish are often predated upon, removing the diease or parasite. Furthermore, many types of cleaning fish will starve in our tanks from lack of natural foods.

 

[eaglephot]

I have a question because I am a little freaked out. I just bought a YB blue tang from the eye it and buy it section at SWF.com. Journey, you brought up a good point on my thread about that fish. Seeing that blue tangs are ich magnets, there is a good chance I just introduced ich to my tank as I don't QT. If I do end up getting an outbreak, what they heck do I do? I have a reef with a lot of LR. I feed everyday with vit c and garlic. I have large fish and don't have a tank to fit them all if I get ich. I really hope I don't have to deal with keeping a QT and all of the levels up to par. What will be my options if Ich does break out. Do you think if it was going to break out, it would have already? From now on, I am going to have to QT new fish.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Eaglephot
http:///forum/post/2503188
I have a question because I am a little freaked out. I just bought a YB blue tang from the eye it and buy it section at SWF.com. Journey, you brought up a good point on my thread about that fish. Seeing that blue tangs are ich magnets, there is a good chance I just introduced ich to my tank as I don't QT. If I do end up getting an outbreak, what they heck do I do? I have a reef with a lot of LR. I feed everyday with vit c and garlic. I have large fish and don't have a tank to fit them all if I get ich. I really hope I don't have to deal with keeping a QT and all of the levels up to par. What will be my options if Ich does break out. Do you think if it was going to break out, it would have already? From now on, I am going to have to QT new fish.
Adding a tang to a reef without quarantine is extremely risky. How long has it been in there? If ich does break out, you can attempt to hold it off with vitamins and reef safe medication. Sooner or later a fish will have a compromised immune system and get infected. When that happens there will be a population spike of parasites in the tank. The only way to get rid of it is to remove your fish to a quarantine tank and leave the display fish less. This usually involves tearing down at least part of the reef to catch the fish. I sincerely hope that the fish was clear of parasites.

 

[eaglephot]

I do too. However, most of the fish I have are net trained. They eat out of the net. Catching them wouldn't be much of a problem which is a good thing. How long would I have to leave them out of the tank for?

 

[tinmanny]

I was told by a marine biologist that Ick is usualy a result of a fish being sick stressed or eratic temp changes which causes stress and when you have it the tank has to be fishless for 6 weks so the parasite will completely die off any shorter time may let a small amount survive and also all reef items can cary ick for a short term ie rock snales crabs plants if brought from a tank that has the parasite they will reinfest they just cannot survive without a host for long term ie. host fish with scales only mandrens do not get affected by it because no scales
also all my fish get the copper treatment for a week because it kills ick in less than a day but to assure all is dead a week is sufficient and as all have said it is most important to feed a top notch diet to bring the fish in to your tank and keep a healthy community