Is This True? Re: Ich

[euphoria]

I always thought that ich gets somehow born in your tank or brought in by other fish.
BUT, an LFS told me that ich is actually "always present in your tank. It's just like bacteria in the air. It's always there. It's just that some fish get stressed and get vulnerable and affected by the ich (just like humans get stressed out and get sick) and some survive and not let the ich get attached".
So is what this guy told me true? Is ich always in the tank as a free swimming disease and ends up on the fish when it's stressed out? Or is this guy talking whack?
:notsure:

 

[euphoria]

I asked him if I can go ahead and remove all my fish and let the tank sit empty while the ich dies off, and at the same time treat the fish w/ medication and copper in a separate tank, and he said it will be useless since ich is always in your tank and once you put the fish back they will get ich again.

 

[euphoria]

That's what I did the first time I got ich. I left the tank w/out fish for a month and then slowly started to add fish, but I have ich again. Actually only one of my fish seems to have spots on it and rubs itself on the sandbed. It's my yellow tang. SO I don't know if I should get him out ASAP or continue to treat w/ metro and garlic or what?
What would be your best advice in this case (having only one fish infected).
Also, is it possible for just one fish to get the disease and not survive? Or will the rest of them eventually get the disease too?
Thanks for your help

 

[euphoria]

It's a reef tank so I can't do any copper treatments I have a royal gramma, clown, yellow tang, lawnmower blenny, dwarf fuzzy lionfish, coral beauty angel, and a pink anthias.
Other than that I have a star, bunch of crabs, a few snails, and a feather duster.
I don't have a Q tank and what's stopping me from having one is just the hassle of having another tank and spending more $ on it and having to buy more filtration systems and setting up and having it go through an ammonia cycle, etc.... Plus it gets very hot in the summer in L.A. and my display tank has a chiller. I'd have to buy another chiller for the Q tank.
I just always took the chance and threw the fish in there straight from the LFS> I do trust the LFS cuz he's very clean, the tanks are always cared for and have copper in them. I think if there's any ich on the fish, it happens from bringing it home and putting in my tank and stressing it out during this process.
I'm on the verge of getting fed up, cuz I take such good care of the tank and my params are all perfect, yet I can't seem to avoid this damn disease.