some ick questions

[novak]

Every one says to qt all new fish to see if they have ick or any other illnesses. But from what I understand every fish has ick it just breaks out with stress. So is it the stress from a live fish store to your home tank that will bring out the ick? If you qt a fish and then transfer it to your main tank what is the difference? 2nd Question if you treat your fish in a hospital tank and then transfer it back to your main tank arn't you creating the stress situation all over again? 3rd Question if you have a big enough UV sterlizer wont it kill the ick when if falls of the fish during the 2nd stage of it's life cycle? Just trying to figure this out. Thanks Shane

 

[dynagirl]

Great questions....I have the same ones and will keep an eye out for the responses!

 

[27mtaylor]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but to my understanding to make certain that your fish don't have ich, you would have to QT them for 4-6 weeks (the lifecycle of ich) with out it showing up. Then bring them into your tank. Ich shouldn't be present then. When a fish gets stressed, there immune system drops and they become susceptable to ich. That is when it is most likely going to show up (if it is present in the tank). It is a parasite and needs a host (the fish) to continue its lifecycle. A UV filter will kill the ich while it is in its free floating form. It will also kill a lot of beneficial things in your tank. I ran one for a while, it made me feel a lot more secure about not getting ich especially when I lost all my fish to it earlier. Now I don't us it. I would rather run a QT tank rather than the UV sterolizer. Hope this helps.

 

[jzuse]

From my understanding while the fish is in the QT it is best to use hyposalinity. This ensures that the fish is ick free before you place them in the display tank. Also form what I have heard Ick needs a higher salinity level or what would be considered ideal in your tank, but what the fish stores don’t tell you is that they keep their salinity a lot lower than the ideal 1.025. This is what I was told at my local fish store. So in my opinion it may not be the transfer from store to home but the change in the salinity that causes the stress in the fish resulting in the outbreak of ick

 

[unleashed]

Originally Posted by Jzuse
From my understanding while the fish is in the QT it is best to use hyposalinity. This ensures that the fish is ick free before you place them in the display tank. Also form what I have heard Ick needs a higher salinity level or what would be considered ideal in your tank, but what the fish stores don’t tell you is that they keep their salinity a lot lower than the ideal 1.025. This is what I was told at my local fish store. So in my opinion it may not be the transfer from store to home but the change in the salinity that causes the stress in the fish resulting in the outbreak of ick
i fully dissagree with this logic of hyposalinity when quarentining a new fish.i dont always quarentine new fish it does fully depend on each fish i get size habits wild caught or captive raised from a previous tank ect.but to concider using hypo on an already stressed fish is just asking for an outbreak of something .hypo is stressful on all fish and not all fish can be hypo'd to begin with.if you have a fish that is separated from the main tank(reason for qt to begin with) if it developes of problem you don thave to stress it out by chasing it and removing it from the display or lose it in the rockwork just to find it later or never find it at all. most fish that are sold right apfter becomming captive show signs of illness because of the transition it has went through to get to your tank ,that it was normally imune to in its natural habitat.you quarentine these fish to ensure you dont spread it to other fish.so basicly why would you want to cause unsessary stress to your new commer and risk losing it .