just a fish question

[aanthony]

Ok, just out of curiosity, does anybody here have a succesful tank with ick. when i read the disease forums everybody says that the disease will for sure kill the fish etc, whereas any lfs i go to say that basically its a stage that the fish goes through, and that most have the immunity to pull through.
now i know goodwin has a really crazy tank with ick (the 600 gallon one), will anyone else admit they have a succesful tank with this disease
the reason i ask is because a few months back i realized there was ick on my flame angel, so i took down my whole tank, took out all the fish, and put them into qt, the flame angel died, and it stressed the hell out of my fish, plus i had to reaqua scape etc. and now my blue hippo has ick (i dont know how) im just wondering.

 

[alex4286]

I don't know if my tank has "ich" or how u can "test" for the disease but..when i got my 5 chromis from a LFS 1 started getting little white spots on its back fin and side about two weeks after purchase. I freaked out, thought the worst. then saw my cleaner shrimp a day later seriously CLEANING MY CHROMIS. they all swarmed down getting right next to the cleaner, standing still taking turns as the shrimp groomed their entire bodies. I thought it was the coolest thing! but hence the name.. "CLEANER SHRIMP". My tank is in my room & i get to observe my aquarium frequently. I've seen this act down now on a regular bases every 3-4 days. Anyways my point was that there are things you can get such as a cleaner or a cleaner wrasse & a few others that clean parasites off fish.

 

[texasmetal]

I had a small community fish tank, 75 gallon. All were doing well. Added a Coral Beauty without quarantining (Bad idea) and a few days later the Coral Beauty had signs of Ich.
2 weeks later, everyone was dead, except for my Six Line Wrasse who never got it, and is still going strong.
Most likely fish will die from ich if left untreated. Best way to battle it is quarantine each individual before they go into the tank for several weeks so Ich is never introduced into the tank. Hindsight is always 20/20. You might try adding a Neon Goby or two, or some Cleaner Shrimp, but that's not a guaranteed solution either.
Ich is NOT a stage fish go through. It is a parasite. The parasites life cycle will speed up if you raise the temperature of the tank, but it will stay in an fishless tank for 6-8 weeks after an infestation.

 

[texasmetal]

Originally Posted by Alex4286
I don't know if my tank has "ich" or how u can "test" for the disease but..when i got my 5 chromis from a LFS 1 started getting little white spots on its back fin and side about two weeks after purchase. I freaked out, thought the worst. then saw my cleaner shrimp a day later seriously CLEANING MY CHROMIS. they all swarmed down getting right next to the cleaner, standing still taking turns as the shrimp groomed their entire bodies. I thought it was the coolest thing! but hence the name.. "CLEANER SHRIMP". My tank is in my room & i get to observe my aquarium frequently. I've seen this act down now on a regular bases every 3-4 days. Anyways my point was that there are things you can get such as a cleaner or a cleaner wrasse & a few others that clean parasites off fish.
Yes, that sir was Ich.
But Cleaner Wrasses will die after all the Ich is gone as they live on parasites. They thrive in the ocean because there are hundreds and thousands and millions of fish going to cleaning stations where these cleaner fish hang out and serve the other fish as "doctors". In an aquarium, once the disease is knocked out, the cleaners food supply is gone.
Neon Gobies and Cleaner Shrimp are a better choice since they will also eat other stuff. But best solution is eliminating the risk in the first place.

 

[aanthony]

well i was just reading a thread on --, and it was about 6 pages of people with sucess stories, with things such as dosing with selcon and garlic, and cleaner shrimp, and uv's etc etc

 

[angelman]

Originally Posted by TexasMetal
Yes, that sir was Ich.
But Cleaner Wrasses will die after all the Ich is gone as they live on parasites.
Not totally true.
You are correct for the most part but not completely.
In the past 15 yrs, I have been able to maintain a cleaner wrasse in my tank at all times. Have only had around 5 or 6 in that number of years (definitely not more than that).
Mine have all gotten use to whatever I was feeding the tank. For the last 6 yrs or so, they eat Spectrum pellets.
These guys are tough to keep indeed but it can be successfully done if provided the right environment.
In my case, a fish only system, if I had ich I would just treat the whole tank and wipe it out completely (which I have not seen ever again in about 5 yrs as I don't buy new fish and if I do, QT only with copper and dips first).
Problem with a reef is that the ich may be cleaned off the fish by the cleaner but who cleans the cleaner? They too get ich. They too then die.
What I have found to help keep one alive is to buy large numbers. I have always picked up a dozen when I have lost my present one. They will have fun for a week or so and then start beating each other up. Eventually, a dominant one survives and he is with you for a long while.

 

[ccampbell57]

Originally Posted by AAnthony
Ok, just out of curiosity, does anybody here have a succesful tank with ick. when i read the disease forums everybody says that the disease will for sure kill the fish etc, whereas any lfs i go to say that basically its a stage that the fish goes through, and that most have the immunity to pull through.
now i know goodwin has a really crazy tank with ick (the 600 gallon one), will anyone else admit they have a succesful tank with this disease
the reason i ask is because a few months back i realized there was ick on my flame angel, so i took down my whole tank, took out all the fish, and put them into qt, the flame angel died, and it stressed the hell out of my fish, plus i had to reaqua scape etc. and now my blue hippo has ick (i dont know how) im just wondering.
I have had 3 bouts of Ich in the last 4 years. It was due to my Tangs going nuts. No new fish, no new anything, just all of a sudden....BOOM!
I have been able to pull through it by QT my fish and treating them with copper. However, if you don't diagnose the disease fast enough and the fish are riddled with ich, they most likely will not make it. Perfect example was my powder blue tang (5"). He was so far gone, by the time I put copper in the tank his immunity was so bad that he didnt make it.

 

[dogstar]

Fish...just like people, have a immune system that will naturally fight off ick, IF the fish is healthy strong and not weak or stressed because stress can cause its immune system to get weak as well and not be able to fight it off......
Most all fish newlly aquired fish will be weak from the stress of collection, transport, tanktotank, water conditions, ect.....as said, this is why all new fish should be QTed to allow the fish to get healthy without getting picked on from established fish as well as if its sick, then it can be treated outside the main tank...
Many ( me included ) feel that ICK is allways present, small community liveing off the established fish, just not effecting them enough to get a hold and cause sickness or death because the fish are healthy....once stress or a new fish is introduced, this can cuase stress to all and if the new one is particulaly weak then it can allow the present ICK to grow stronger and not only effect it but all the fish...so...QT.

 

[angelman]

Originally Posted by Dogstar
Many ( me included ) feel that ICK is allways present, small community liveing off the established fish, just not effecting them enough to get a hold and cause sickness or death because the fish are healthy....once stress or a new fish is introduced, this can cuase stress to all and if the new one is particulaly weak then it can allow the present ICK to grow stronger and not only effect it but all the fish...so...QT.

I think if you are speaking in terms of a reef tank, then yes. Since you can't properly irradicate the ick without also killing off your reef inhabitants, ick is always present there in one form or another and strong fish fight it well through their slime coat. It cannot reproduce itself at alarming enough rate to affect all the inhabitants. When the slime coat breaks down, look out.
However, if in a fish only system, treated with copper for at least a month, no way ick will be in there unless it is introduced via your water source (some folks in our home state of Florida go to the ocean and rely on that) or it is introduced via new specimens that are not properly QT'd and infect all the tank's inhabitants. If proper levels of copper are maintained and if treated for sufficient time to allow the full cycle of the parasite to be completed, it cannot magically survive.

 

[petjunkie]

I cannot believe that ich is always present in our tanks, I have had my tanks running for over three years, gone through many fish, many disasters and stresses and never had ich. The problem with ich is some fish can fight it off and live with it, but it's going to be a constant stressor there and if anything else goes off in the tank, new fish, crash, whatever, every fish in there may get full blown ich and die from it. Basically it's a chance game if you know it's in the tank. Cleaner wrasses, shrimp, etc have NEVER been proven to eat ich, the wrasses in particular eat parasitic isopods that aren't overly common in our tanks. Plus ich lives under the skin so they couldn't possibly be "eating" it anyways, they are simply cleaning off dead skin.
As for how yours got ich again, how did you treat it the first time? Hypoing is effective for most ich if done correctly but that is pretty difficult to do for the length of time it takes, many times the salinity will rise long enough for them to adjust and survive. Hypo must be done with close attention paid the whole time. Copper works well but is harsh and many fish can't make it that long due to their sensitivity to it.