Question for Beth on ICH.

[scoobydoo]

Ich
I was at my LFS last night talking to the owner. We were having a discussion on the pros and cons of hypo and garlic feeding. During the course of the discussion he said fish produce ich themselves like acne when they are stressed or unhappy with something. So even if you QT for 4-5 weeks and do hypo, once you add the fish to the tank, if it is stressed or other fish are picking on it, it will automatically produce more ich. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[elfdoctors]

What your LFS owner said is true for FRESHWATER ich.
Saltwater ich is a completely different illness. It has to be introduced into your tank.
I have been amazed by how many LFS owners do not know the difference. This is because many of them got into the hobby from the freshwater route and only branched out into saltwater after this hobby got more popular.

 

[beth]

Ich is a parasite, not a reaction to stress [like hives or something]. Ich are to fish what fleas are to dogs. When a dog gets fleas, its not because it is stressed or sick or anything else; its because the dog came in contract with the parasite and the parasite starts to live, breed and feed off of the dog. Similarly, this happens to fish.
In the wild, fish commonly come into contact with ich. Due to the lifecycle of the parasite [which is explained in detail in the FAQ Thread] fish escape ich even if they get it because they can literally swim away from it! In the fish tank, "swimming away" is impossible.
Invite the guy at the LFS to visit SWF.com.

 

[scoobydoo]

Beth, thanks for the reply. I told the LFS about this site. He's been here but he frequents another site that pushes garlic feeding. Says hypo stresses the fish more. No sense arguing with him. I'll continue to research on here. So far the advice I've gotten from here has been working. I guess the only saying "if its not broken, don't fix it" fits.

 

[beth]

I imagine a LFS owner would have a hard time trying to hypo infested tanks, thus the liking of garlic, prophylactic treatments with copper or formalin. Garlic feedings are actually a good idea, but likely he is using a commercial preparation which I don't really feel is very good, nor is it as effective as fresh garlic.
If done appropriately, fish are not stressed by hypo. You might ask him if he has every tried hypo or seen it even? :thinking:

 

[scoobydoo]

All of his tanks are connected together so if one tank has ich, they all have ich. His theory is that all of the fish should have ich then and not a select few. An example he uses is 2 fish in the same tank. One has ich and the other doesn't because the one that doesn't is picking on the fish that does, hence stressing him out where its producing ich. Of course, most of his fish are only there for a short time and don't show signs of ich until after someone has bought them. When I buy fish, it usually takes about a week before the ich shows. I made the mistake of not QTing fish with my first tank but set up my new tank 4 months ago and doing hypo works.

 

[scoobydoo]

Just an update. My foxface and purple firefish were added to the display tank last Friday night. If the LFS information was correct that stress will make fish produce ich, my foxface should have ich by now. It was picked on for the first 2 days by my sailfin tang. The foxface does not have ich and everyone is now getting along fine.

 

[beth]

If he kept all of his fish for one year and never sold any of them, then most all of his fish would all have ich and die.
Why do some dogs get full of flees and others don't. Perhaps some do attrack parasites more than others, but the bottom line is, if you put a dog in a room full of flees, then it will get ich. Some with fish. Some fish will simply have better luck battling the problem.