Ich question

[arkreefer]

I am currently trying to setup a smaller reef tank. Every fish I have put in there dies of ich in about a week. Luckly for my wallet they have just been Green Chromis. I was just wandering if instead of all the labor intensive treatments. If I could just leave my tank alone for about a month, without fish. Would the ich eventually starve to death. If not a month how long would it take?

 

[geoj]

That could do it, but my gut feeling is the fish came with the ich
My Scopas Tang got it so I bought a Neon Goby and he cleaned the Tang Spot free!
or you might get a cleaner shrimp
I have not done well with aquarium treatments, Bio control is the way to go!
You cant see ich all the time, It starts as tiny adult that buries itself in the skin and then forms a cyst that you can see, a little white spot. They stay on the fish one or two days then releases new adults and the white spot falls away. If you got it you may see little holes in the skin.

 

[arkreefer]

Them coming with ich is a good possibility. But of course no pet store owner that I know will admit to selling fish with ich.I just wander how long it would take for the ich to starve. I have seen alot of info about all the other techniques for getting rid of ich. But never heard of anyone doing it this way.

 

[geoj]

The marine reef aquarium handbook says to "always give a two-week quarantine after all signs of the disease have gone."
This is the length of its live cycle of ich and if you quarantine the tank that long the ich should be gone.
I would go 4 weeks and test with cheep fish
or get neon goby for 9.99 at box store

 

[arkreefer]

Thanks

 

[thommyboy121]

well....i recently had gotten 8 green chromis a few months ago and within a month they were all dead.....i went to the lfs store....and the owner said that green chromis are really tough to start...although they are labeled "easy" fish...their species is touching from being moved....he said many fish from the philippenes are incorrectly caught and stesses out the fish...as opposed to the fish from Bali and other places.....back to the chromis.....if you look...when they die they usually have a red stripe on them...which is just part of nature.....and you can tell if they will die.....if they all stay in the same spot of the tank and don't move around......